Aldar posts loss as slow sales bite market
Abu Dhabi?s biggest property developer, Aldar, posted a $214.9 million loss for the first half of this year as slow property sales continued to blight the market.
Abu Dhabi’s biggest property developer, Aldar, posted a $214.9 million loss for the first half of this year as slow property sales continued to blight the market.
Aldar Properties chairman Ahmed al Sayegh said that “with the ongoing impact of the difficult global economic situation, this has been a very challenging first half of the year for the entire sector”.
The result is a sign of issues “catching up” with Abu Dhabi developers since the onset of the financial crisis at the end of 2008, analysts say.
Sorouh, the capital’s second-largest developer by market value, reported a 79% decline in second-quarter profit last month as land sales dried up, reported The National.
Property prices in Abu Dhabi have fallen 30% from their peak in the middle of 2008, according to figures published by the consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle in February, while demand is still low despite a housing shortage in the capital. Deutsche Bank predicts prices could fall a further 10% by the end of the year as demand remains sluggish.
Based on calculations from Aldar’s half-yearly results and a AED 314.2m loss in the first quarter, the company’s losses in the second quarter reached AED 475.3m, more than double the amount forecasted by analysts.
