Dubai developer Damac Properties posts 68% drop in Q3 profit

Dubai’s Damac Properties, owner and operator of the only Trump-branded golf club in the Middle East, on Wednesday reported a 68 per cent plunge in third-quarter net profit as revenue dropped.

The developer reported a net profit of Dhs230.8m ($62.8m) for the three months ended Sept. 30, according to a statement to Dubai’s bourse. This compared with a Dhs719.3m profit in the year-ago period.

EFG Hermes forecast the firm would make a quarterly net profit of Dhs340m.

Residential prices in Dubai have dropped more than 15 per cent since 2014, in part as a result of soft demand and a raft of new supply hitting the market.

The long-running slowdown in Dubai’s residential real estate market will continue next year, but the market is expected to recover by end of 2020 or 2021, Dubai-based news service Zawya quoted Hussain Sajwani, chairman of Dubai’s Damac Properties, as saying at a conference on Monday.

The property firm’s third-quarter revenue came in at Dhs1.54bn, down from Dhs2.29bn in the previous year.