Dubai's Damac Properties eyes London developments

Damac Properties Dubai Co. PJSC, the company building Donald Trump-branded homes and a golf course in Dubai, said it may expand developments in London as the weak British currency attracts buyers. “With the pound continuing where it is, we think there are more opportunities in London because the overseas buyers will be more interested,’’ Damac Chairman Hussain Sajwani said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday. “We launched a tower a year ago in London and we are doing well.’’ Last year, Damac started selling a 50-story tower in the UK capital’s Nine Elms district with Italian fashion house Gianni Versace SpA providing the interior design. The tower, Aykon London One, will include 360 apartments. The pound has fallen 17 per cent against the US dollar, to which Dubai’s dirham is pegged, since the UK voted to leave the European Union. Damac, which is already developing residential towers in Saudi Arabia and Qatar is also looking to build more in those markets, Sajwani said. Prices in Dubai dropped about five per cent last year amid increasing supply and low demand. A strengthening dollar has eroded Dubai’s attraction as a tourist destination for visitors from Russia, the UK and Europe. “We expect the coming two years will remain the same,’’ Sajwani said. “I don’t see a big jump up or down in Dubai prices.’’ This year, Damac is expected to open one of two Trump-branded golf courses it’s building at the Akoya project in Dubai. The project will include a second course as well as more than 100 mansions. (Alaa Shahine and Zainab Fattah/Bloomberg)