Durrat Marina developers are taking advantage of global downturn and reduced costs to go ahead full steam with the BD690 million ($1.83 billion) project.

Approximately 700,000 sq m of the massive project is all set to take off with construction expected to commence soon, said its chief investment officer Othman Janahi.

"The piling and reclamation have been completed and once work begins, we shall have it finished in five years," he said at a media briefing at the project site, a part of the BD2.3 billion Durrat Al Bahrain development.

"Now is the right time to proceed with the development," said Janahi. "The costs are low and will rise in the future. We are ready to take advantage of these while the going is good."

He said the project was initially expected to cost around BD867 million. "Now, with costs plummeting, we expected to have it up and going on BD690 million," said Janahi.

He said it was only a matter of time before the real estate market bounces back.

"Bahrain, more than any other country, has become a developers' market as opposed to a contractors' market earlier. Developers should take advantage of that," said Janahi.

The project, which comprises one crescent of the Durrat Al Bahrain project, will house 63 towers of varying heights in the first phase.

"More than 95 per cent of our investors will be Bahraini and GCC nationals, while a large number of them will be the end users," he said.

Janahi said there were also third-party developers who will be investing in the project. "The Durrat Marina Company will take care of the development of the whole project, while third parties have been invited for the development of the residential areas," he added.

The development is located within the seaside resort of Durrat Al Bahrain in the southern part of Bahrain.

It is a luxury mixed use residential, leisure and retail Marina development project that will accommodate the largest and the most sophisticated marina facilities in the country, according to developers.

It houses marina berths capacity of more than 350 yachts and boats of different sizes up to mega yachts.

Ithmaar Development Company chief executive officer Mohammed Khalil Alsayed said construction costs in Bahrain had come down by between 30 per cent to 40pc in the last one year.

"This has happened because of a sharp fall in prices of steel, cement and sand - the core construction materials," he said.

"Also, because of the global downturn, the number of projects has reduced and the market is not as saturated as it was before.

"There is a spare capacity in the contracting business and this has resulted in tenders being received by developers at much lower rates than what they used to be earlier."

Alsayed said this had eased the pressure on some of the projects. "This is especially true of those projects that have just started or are about to start," he said.

"We find there is now room to get more competitive prices from contractors."

Alsayed said the downturn also meant it was an opportunity to implement projects at a lesser cost.

"The spare capacity has resulted in it becoming a developers' market, rather than a contractors' market, which was the case earlier," he said.

For example, Alsayed said, the Dusit Dilmunia Hotel which is coming up on Bahrain Health Island was expected to cost around 30 to 40 per cent less now, at between BD37.8 million and BD58 million.-TradeArabia News Service