Dubai's Emaar Properties, the builder of the world's tallest tower, reported a 21 per cent rise in third-quarter net profit on Wednesday.

The rise came despite a fall in revenue stemming from a second successive quarterly drop in home sales as the emirate's property market showed further signs that recent rampant price growth was abating.

The developer, in which the government has a 31.2 per cent stake, did not provide an explanation for the profit rise.

It made a net profit of Dh701 million ($191 million) for the three months to September 30, it said in a statement. That compared with a profit of Dh581 million ($158.137 million) in the year-earlier period.

The earnings missed an estimate by brokerage Sico Bahrain, which had forecast Emaar's quarterly profit would be Dh762.4 million ($207.511 million).

The profit increase came despite revenue in the quarter dropping to Dh1.98 billion ($539 million) from Dh2.35 billion ($639 million) a year ago.

Homes sales slowed for a second quarter this year with Emaar selling units worth Dh1.5 billion ($408 million) in the period, down from Dh2.7 billion ($735 million) in the corresponding period in 2013, according to Reuters calculations.

Speculative buying and new project announcements have pushed up home prices, making them unaffordable to many and thus slowing sales, raising fears of another property market bubble.

Price rises had been among the steepest in the world in 2013 and the first half of this year, leading to warning from the International Monetary Fund over a likely property bubble, although data published at the end of the third quarter showed growth was slowing.

Emaar's chairman Mohamed Alabbar last week welcomed talk of a slowdown in the emirate's property market and vowed to keep supplying new homes to help hold prices at "a reasonable level".

The developer, which built Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world's tallest tower, announced a series of new projects this year including a new 6 million sq m waterfront project at The Lagoons with Dubai Holding on Monday. - Reuters