Phase 1 of Residential City, the mid-cost housing component of Dubai World Central (DWC) - the 140 square kilometre urban aviation community under construction in Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates – has been sold out.

Over 200 plots spread over 160 hectares were bought in an exclusive ‘by invitation’ land sales event held at the Grand Hyatt hotel with corporate buyers forming the bulk of the investors.

“A large percentage of the investors were corporate houses aiming to provide their employees subsidised housing,” said Khalid bin Harib, CEO, Real Estate, DWC. “The rest were individuals and real estate developers.

“Mid-cost housing which has such high demand will find tenants and buyers who will eventually work or live within or around Dubai World Central thus contributing to the economic health of the city when DWC’s overall phase 1 development reaches its peak in 2009.”

First residents are expected to live in Residential City before June 2009 – a move perfectly timed to coincide with full-fledged operations at the world’s largest airport, Dubai World Central International Airport (JXB), construction of which is currently well underway.

Nearly 15% of Phase 1 has been reserved for Dubai World Central’s future use.

“Around 50,000 people will live in Phase 1 which will have all commercial and residential amenities besides architectural landscaping and green spaces,” said Maisoon Thani, General Manager, Real Estate - DWC Residential City.

“We also received massive interest from Phase 1 investors for the next four phases of the city, an indication of property developers’ increasing interest to provide mid-cost housing in Dubai. The masterplan for Phase 2 is currently being finalised and we hope to announce the final plan before end-2007.”

Grading of DWC Residential City’s phase 1 has started and the investors are expected to commence construction by December 2007 after approvals of construction designs in strict adherence to DWC regulations and Dubai Municipality guidelines.