Mubadala reports 15% increase in office leasing on Al Maryah Island

Abu Dhabi: Mubadala Real Estate and Infrastructure announced a 15 per cent growth in occupancy across its four office tower buildings on Abu Dhabi’s Al Maryah Island, with positive numbers also coming out of its hospitality and residential sectors.

“Al Maryah Island is comprised of various sectors [for Mubadala], we have office space, retail, residency and we have hospitality. From the office side over the past 18 months we have leased close to 30,000 square metres of new office space; we have over 65 companies established with the Abu Dhabi Global Square Market,” said Ali Eid Al Muhairi, executive director of Mubadala Real Estate and Infrastructure, during a media briefing at the group’s headquarters in Abu Dhabi.

“The total occupancy across the four towers is close to 75 per cent, three of them are 80 per cent [full] and the fourth one is close to 60 [per cent], so we have an average of 75 [per cent] across all four,” he added.

“We started slow in the leasing, there was a slow uptake because people had yet to understand what is the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) [and] what are the laws of the ADGM. [In] 2019 things became much clearer … Let’s [also] not forget the package that the government of Abu Dhabi announced about the Dh50 billion [stimulus] … That attracted a lot of people to come to ADGM,” he said, highlighting how businesses were looking to locate to the area because of business incentives put in place by the government.

Commenting on the group’s hospitality sector, with its investments in Four Seasons Hotel and Rosewood Hotel, Al Muhairi said the group’s room revenue was up by 20 per cent. “Four Seasons Abu Dhabi … were able to sell close to 8,000 room nights, and our room revenue has grown by 80 per cent [as a result] … [At] Four Season [occupancy] is close to 80 per cent. “On the Rosewood Hotel, the occupancy is close to 70 per cent; if you compare it to other players in the market we’re happy with the performances of both of our hospitality assets,” he added.

“Both hotels have a residential component on top of that in terms of service apartments. In total, you have 251 branded residences between the two, [and] those have an occupancy of 90 per cent; that occupancy never really came down below 90 [per cent] since opening,” he said.

Commenting on Mubadala’s land plots, Al Muhairi said that head of terms have been signed for seven plots of land, with two of those entering contractual agreements.

“Since April until now we have signed head of terms for seven plots on the island of which I would say six are residential and one school plot.

“Two of those [signings] have actually went hard contractual to a developer called Webridge, they have signed the contract for two plots and I believe that they’re already marketing their project which is called Al Maryah Vista,” he added.

Al Muhairi said his outlook for Al Maryah Island was positive for 2020 based on the group’s success this year.

“When I look at 2019, when I see a big jump on the uptake of the office space, terms of plot sales throughout the year and high occupancy rates on the residential [side] these to me are good indications that the market is in a good shape at least for the island itself.”