Which is the more expensive neighbour?
- With less than two weeks to go until the most anticipated museum opening of the 21st century, Propertyfinder Group looked at real estate trends and what’s to come on Saadiyat Island, home of the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
- Based on median price per square foot on rent prices in September 2017, an apartment on Saadiyat Island was 16% more expensive than one on Palm Jumeirah, and 11% cheaper than an apartment in Downtown Dubai.
ABU DHABI, 29th October – Living adjacent to the Louvre Abu Dhabi will cost you, but maybe not as much as you think. The island already plays hosts to professors and students at NYU-Abu Dhabi, visiting sea turtles and dolphins off its turquoise coastline, and PGA-ranked golfers at Saadiyat Beach Club.
But Egyptian relics, Rembrandts, and Van Goghs are a different story. The island is certainly not Paris, but with its new museum, the island takes a big leap forward to becoming the cultural hub its developer, TDIC, envisions.
Propertyfinder Group, the region’s top real estate portal, analysed its search and price data through the first half of 2017, to see what it costs to call the Louvre Abu Dhabi a neighbour.
The nearest communities to the Louvre Abu Dhabi – which include the Residences at St. Regis Saadiyat, Saadiyat Beach Residences, and Saadiyat Beach Villas, fetch the highest property prices in the capital. But ten more minutes in the car, and there are bargains to be had nearby.
In the first half of 2017, Saadiyat Island apartments saw a 6.1% decline and were unseated as Abu Dhabi’s most expensive to buy. Renting is a different story. The island community bucked the trend of declining prices, and apartments on Saadiyat are Abu Dhabi’s most expensive, with a 3.9% increase, asking AED 106 per square foot per annum.
Saadiyat Island is Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC)’s flagship project. Development on the 27-square kilometre island, which lies 500 metres off Abu Dhabi’s coast.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi is part of TDIC’s US$27 billion tourist and cultural development for Saadiyat Island, a complex which is planned to include three other museums, including a Guggenheim Museum, and the Zayed National Museum.
Still, rents continue to decline in Abu Dhabi overall, where a reduction in government spending in direct correlation to sluggish oil prices has reduced employment and demand for housing in the capital.
Perhaps a world-class museum on a stunning coastline will entice new residents, and spur an Abu Dhabi Renaissance. “If you build it,” as they say…
