Hydra offers to pay mortgage interest on delayed homes

By Alex Delmar-Morgan
  • Sunday, 4 October 2009 2:10 PM
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Developer Hydra Properties said on Sunday it would pay mortgage interest for its customers on projects that were delayed by more than six months. It said the move was aimed at the "timely completion of Hydra Village", its flagship $545m development, due for completion in 2011.  

The property company said it would pay the interest on behalf of customers to lender Reem Finance, with whom Hydra also announced on Sunday it was teaming up with to extend Sharia compliant mortgage provision on Hydra Village. Bin Sulayem, CEO of Hydra Properties, said: “Mortgage finance is becoming more and more common in the UAE, where the majority of properties are still bought for cash. We know it is one way people can leverage their economic purchasing power and buying a property in Abu Dhabi with a mortgage is now often less expensive than renting.” The move by the Abu Dhabi-based developer is the latest olive branch to disgruntled investors.

Hydra Village investors are locked into a long-running dispute with the developer over imposed price hikes on properties, construction delays and masterplan changes.

In June Hydra said it would scrap late payment charges on its developments and said investors who have made  down payments on units worth half the value of the property would not have to pay further installments until early 2010.

Homebuyers have formed a 300 strong action group called the Hydra Properties Investor Group Committee.

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Posted by: Ralph Monday, 5 October 2009 11:15 AM[UAE] - UAE

Patrick, I am an investor in Jumeirah Park and have recently asked Nakheel to have some of the interest I paid to the bank (ADCB at 8%, what a joke) returned due to their delay (12 months already confirmed I guess at least another 6-9 months more), costing me about 200.000 AED in extra mortgage payments....Reply was " As per you request on a compensation, Nakheel has not declared any compensation due to a revision in the completion date or any other form of compensation at this juncture. Anticipated completion dates are subject to revision due to unforeseen circumstances beyond Nakheel control." Hence, the customer pays the bill as always in Dubai Monty, I wish you all the best for the court case, please keep us informed.

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Posted by: eKim selra Monday, 5 October 2009 9:23 AM[UAE] - UAE

Thank god the finance is thro ADCB and not NBD. I have my loan with NBD who have misrepresented interest rates to me and in doing so have over charged me by Dhs 21000 over a period of 6 months. Moreover they have made some mistakes in my account and whilst they have reversed the entries, they refuse to backdate, again in doing so earn extra interest.

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Posted by: Patrick Monday, 5 October 2009 6:53 AM[UAE]

What about Nakheel? Already late by 10 months in delivering Jumeirah Village villas!!! Every month Customer Services will inform you of a handover which will then change when you reach that date and prompt them for a confirmation!!! Lame excuse from Custoemr Service: they follow management instruction! Will these villas be ever delivered? Such a disregard to the buyers!

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Posted by: Monty Smith Sunday, 4 October 2009 10:23 PM[UAE] - UAE

I am with ADCB and am paying through the nose for the rubbish they call Hydra Village! now this stunt! more lies and utter rubbish!!!! Will they pay my interest! no! however after I have been to the courts in AD the we will see! and thats just about to happen!

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Posted by: deyaarpark-loser Sunday, 4 October 2009 3:44 PM[UAE] - UAE

not to worry...most flagship projects delayed over two years and investors expected to accept it and feel sorry for them...nobody felt sorry for the investors when they were paying the cash at such inflated rates...! thsi is not called business, this is called investor compassion...deyaar park is a another PR stunt where investors required to be silent for project delays...unknown certainity. So investors have no requirement to be paranoid...be compassionate please..the dvelopers are facing difficulties earning interest on the millions collected from co-operative investors!!

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