In the UAE – there are not many private developers like Damac. The developer is known for a few Dubai Marina properties, like The Waves and Marina Terrace – both delivered with gigantic delays and lots of quality issues. (Click here for references from 2006)

The latest problems for DAMAC were of course the Jebel Ali Palm Springs project – that was sold to investors quite a few years back. But until now – not a single hole has been dug. And then 2 month ago, DAMAC canceled the project, blaming Nakheel (The Master Developer). Compensation was offered to the buyers - their money back + 6% interest pr. year since the sale.

The problem was though – that a lot of the property has already changed hands at premium prices. Premiums up to 100%. So if you had bought a Palm Springs property from Damac at €100.000 – you would get maybe 5-6 years interest of 6% - so you would get €133.000 back. But what if you had bought in 2nd hand market? For a premium of 100%? Then your investment would have been €200.000 – but DAMAC would only give you €133.000 back. A net loss of €77.000.

Of course the Dubai Government would not let that happen. That would crash the Dubai off-plan market overnight. So after some finger slapping, Damac finally agreed to finish the Palm Springs property. (You can check a lists of the events here)

Ocean Heights
Another problem property for Damac is Ocean Heights – or as it was used to be called “Damac Heights” in Dubai Marina. It started out as a 43 floor building scheduled for completion by the end of 2007. Then it was delayed until June 2008.

Then it was changed to a 50 floor building, making room for more sales of flats before the Dubai Escrow agreements went into place. Then suddenly it changed again to a 83 story building, and people who had sea-view before – got Marina or road view. Then it was delayed until the end of 2009 – and now completion is not listed until end of 2010. So in total now 4 years delay.

So what has Damac delivered?
Damac was founded in 2003. Since 2003 Damac has delivered only a handful of properties. These are Marina Terrace, Palm Terrace and the Waves. Damac lists. Damac lists Jumeirah Beach Residences (JBR) on their portfolio, but researching Damac website have not shown us which part of JBR Damac has been involved in. JBR is a Dubai Property project.

The problems for Damac have caused them to go into “Spin the PR mode” to regain some of the credibility. But the advertising shows more than Damac like to admit. So now Damac is pushing very hard through both newspaper and outdoor media, that they are a company that delivers.

The Damac Properties Advertising and Press Releases

So according to recent Damac Advertising – so far 648 homes and shops delivered.

And according to a press release and advertising from Damac – they are currently delivering Lake Terrace (572 units) – and they will delivery in 2008 the following properties: Lake View (527 units), Executive Heights (192 units), Terra Del Sol 1&2 (198 units) and The Crescent (848 units)

Scheduled for 2009 are 3661 units and 2010 3490 units. So let’s look at this in a table:

So the clever reader will ask… What happened to Palm Springs and Ocean Heights? Well seems like they are hit by another delay – and might not be delivered before 2011 or? This would then be the 5. delay for Ocean Heights. But if Damac was sure they could deliver the properties in 2010 – we do think they would have made it into the advertising.

So a property company has taken deposits and sold more than 9.446 properties in the UAE. But only so far delivered 6.86% (648 units) in 5-6 years according to their own advertising. What is wrong with that picture? One can assume that most properties have been sold off-plan.

We do know that some of the more expensive flats in Marina Terrace have never been sold and are still available direct from Damac. Who is to blame for the delays? And are the Damac Properties really selling as great as Damac want to show the world?

So what is the real picture here? We will let you draw your own conclusions.