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Emaar's Dh158b island projects get Pakistan approval

DUBAI — Emaar Properties PJSC, the Dubai-based real estate company, received Pakistan government's approval to develop two island projects near Karachi that will require investments worth Dh158 billion ($43 billion).

The approval for the project from Pakistan government was announced by Ashfaque Hasan Khan, Pakistan government's economic adviser at a Press conference yesterday in Islamabad.

Emaar, with 85 per cent equity in the project, will build homes and apartments at Bundal and Buddo Islands over the next 13 years. Pakistan's Port Qasim Authority will hold 15 per cent stake and will provide land for the project, Khan said after a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee, the country's top-decision making body on economic issues.

The approval for the project was given by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz yesterday. Khan said approval in principal for the project had been given after all formalities were completed. Legal documents would be completed within three months.

Emaar plans to build thousands of homes, schools, shopping malls and hospitals stretching from Morocco to India. The ecompany is aiming to tap real estate demand in Pakistan, a $129 billion economy forecast to expand 7 per cent this fiscal year. “The new project will build new cities” Khan said.

Emaar Pakistan, the country-arm of global real estate major Emaar Properties, has recently announced a bouquet of innovative projects in Pakistan. Mohammed Al Falasi, Managing Director, Emaar Pakistan, said in a recent Press statement that the challenge faced by Emaar in Pakistan was to create a new niche in the marketplace and revitalise interest on home-property in the minds of the upwardly mobile Pakistanis living in the country and abroad. To date, Emaar Pakistan has announced three mixed-use projects of development value Dh8.8 billion ($2.4 billion) in Islamabad and Karachi — the Highlands and Canyon Views; and Crescent Bay — and also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Pakistan’s Port Qasim Authority to develop a mixed-use land project in Karachi. Earlier this year, Mohamed Ali Alabbar, Chairman, Emaar Properties, said Pakistan represented a vital link in Emaar’s global and regional plans. “These current projects are only a small and initial part of our commitment to providing world-class living and infrastructure in Pakistan,” Alabbar said. Pakistan will play an important role in the development of Emaar’s reputation in Asia, and remains one of our most significant commitments outside the UAE.”

Emaar’s developments in Pakistan are in line with the global real estate major’s Vision 2010 of becoming one of the world’s most valuable companies through strategic expansion and diversification in key markets and sectors.

Having consolidated its home-turf, the UAE, with a track record of handing over 14,000 homes in Dubai, Emaar has embarked on prestigious developments in countries further afield as Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and India.

Emaar has strengthened its international presence recently with the acquisition of John Laing Homes, the second largest privately held homebuilder in the US; and Hamptons International, a premier UK realtor. The company is also opening a full-fledged representative office in China.