Ample demand for private and commercial properties fuel the real estate sector in the Gulf Arab sheikhdom which benefits from ongoing turmoil in some Arab countries.

Earlier in the week, real estate service provider REIDIN said in a study released last Sunday that property sales prices increased in Dubai (2.5 million inhabitants) on average by 18 percent year on year in the first three months of 2013. This increase was even more an indication for Dubai's new economic strength, added REIDIN, as during the first quarter 2,200 new objects were added to the market in the sheikhdom.

Property buyers are mostly locals, expats from Russia, India and East Asia and wealthy Gulf Arab nationals from Dubai's neighbors like Saudi Arabia or Kuwait as they shy away from buying in traditional Arab hotspots like Egypt or Jordan due to fragile political environment in these countries.

The rising demand was also visible when on the day before, Dubai's biggest developer Emaar Properties started with the sale of 188 newly built affordable townhouses in the Mira district for less than 1 million Dirham each (272 million U.S. dollars). The rush for the sales session last Saturday morning was so huge that Dubai Police was called and had to restore order among the over 500 applicants at Emaar's headquarters near the world's tallest tower, the 828-meter high Burj Khalifa in the heart of Dubai.

On Wednesday, Nakheel, Dubai's state-owned developer of the man- made island The Palm Jumeirah which can be seen from space, confirmed the sector's upward trend. In the first quarter of 2013, Nakheel said it earned in the first quarter a net profit of 491 million Dirham (133.90 million dollars), a 36 percent increase year on year.

Nakheel (Arabic for palms) added its revenues climbed 62 percent to reach 2.2 billion Dirham (599 million dollars). The developer delivered 770 villas in the first quarter, most of them located in the Palm island.

Nakheel benefitted from what REIDIN called a major turnaround of the Dubai real estate market. Dubai was hit hard during the height of the global financial crisis in 2009, when Nakheel and the emirate of Dubai were saved from default by its neighbor Abu Dhabi with a 10 billion dollar guarantee. Endi

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