UAE's Capital District to plug supply gap

Abu Dhabi's planned Capital District will alleviate the swelling emirate's housing shortage and skyrocketing rental costs with the proposed development set to house between 250,000 and 300,000 residents, according to the urban planning council's general manager.

Abu Dhabi Capital District seeks to consolidate the scattering of federal government buildings into a single development and will add much-needed supply to the current shortfall in the real estate market, Falah Al Ahbabi, general manager of Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council, told ArabianBusiness.com on Wednesday.

"Abu Dhabi's population is expected to grow to 3 million by 2030, so the development's capacity to house between 250,000 and 300,000 people and will certainly bring relief to the market," Al Ahbabi revealed on the sidelines of the CityScape 2008 conference.

"As you can see, Abu Dhabi is saturated beyond capacity right now," said Al Ahbabi, adding that the 5,000 hectares of planned development in the Capital District will go a long way to alleviating that shortfall.

Al Ahbabi said he expects soaring rent prices in the emirate to cool in the coming four to five years as planned developments, some twenty of which the Urban Planning Council oversees, reach the market.

The Capital District will house the nation's federal buildings as well as a range of other integrated living facilities such as hospitals and universities and will function in a similar way to Washington D.C., the capital city of the U.S.

"Our aim is to consolidate the government's office buildings into a single area which will function as both a capital district for the entire nation and also as a venue to celebrate events and exchange ideas," Al Ahbabi said.

The district will also focus heavily on environmental sustainability through the integration of renewable and alternative energies, he said.

Though the district is still in the planning stage, Al Ahbabi said he expects infrastructure development to begin late in 2008 and said construction contracts would be awarded thereafter.

Approximately 95% of the development will be undertaken by private companies, Al Ahbabi said, although he did not specify which firms will be involved.

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