Property developer Riviera Group has launched a 22-storey apartment block in Jumeirah Village Circle (JVC) worth Dh125 million.

La Riviera Apartments will contain 144 mainly one and two-bedroom properties will start in price from Dh575,000. There will also be two ground floor retail units.

Work on the building, which is on a plot close to the existing La Riviera Estates apartments and town houses development in JVC, is already about five months in, according to Riviera Group’s managing director, Abdul Rauf Razzak.

The project has been designed by building consultancy Bel-youhah and piling work is under way. Main contractor Union Contracting is expected to finish the building during the last quarter of 2018.
La Riviera Apartments will contain community facilities including a pool, a “retreat lounge”, two barbecue zones for entertaining guests and a health club.

Mr Razzak said that the project was being funded through a mix of debt and equity. “We have financed from our own sources for the land. We have got bank finance to support the project – that has been approved,” he said.

Iseeb Rehman, the chief executive of real estate consultancy Sherwoods, which has advised on the development, said that it is aimed at investors and first-time buyers.
He said that although the luxury end of the market had experienced price declines of about 9 per cent last year, more affordable units of Dh500,000 to Dh1m were subject to uplifts in value of about 11 per cent.

“Dubai is one of those places that if you price the right product, it will sell. If you can take away the gizmos and the frills from it, it reflects in the value straight away.”

He added: “People are a lot more educated, they have a lot of information at their fingertips, so they are able to ascertain value. When they are making an investment decision, it doesn’t take them long.”
The project is Riviera Group’s seventh launch to date, with the company completing 969 units in buildings with a total of 1.45 million square feet of space. These have been delivered in Dubai Marina, International City and Jumeirah Village Circle.

Riviera Group also has three more projects in the pipeline – La Riviera Suites in Jumeirah Village Triangle is currently in its design phase and is likely to be launched later this year, while a pair of schemes known as La Riviera Heights and La Riviera Horizon remain in the planning phase for the Meydan Horizon development close to Ras Al Khor.