The ultimate in luxurious living and prestige has just been signed by Tameer holdings, one of the leading real estate companies in the region. The cascading skyscraper development will contain 4 residential towers, stepped villas and townhouses, a commercial tower, a 7-star-luxury-business hotel, a private marina and a vibrant canal promenade.

Tameer has contracted Gensler to design this project which has been estimated to be worth some AED 100 million. The whole project is expected to reach some AED 13 billion (which is around $3.5 billion).

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Al-Dua’a Holdings, a, UAE-based property development, advisory and real estate investment company, has just announced the launch of The Plaza, a £68 million project. The Plaza, which we must admit is not the most original name, will be a mixed-use development with residential and retail elements alongside offices.

Toni Ashai, a celebrated architect from California designed the project. Ashai has gained recognition by designing high and luxury projects in Dubai. Consumer financing is available from Al-Noor Islamic Bank, which is one of the largest Islamic Banks in the world. They are offering up to 85% of the cost.

The Plaza will be situated in the heart of new Dubai, minutes away from Dubai Central Metro Station; within easy reach of world-class restaurants, five-star hotels, golf courses, beaches and luxury shopping centers. It is also nestled among the high-end residential developments in Dubai such as Emirates Hills, the Marina, Jumeirah Islands, Golf estates and Dubai-land.

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Tashyeed Properties, a Bahrain based property developer announced it’s freehold luxury residential tower, the Sukoon Tower, on Jan 8th 2008. Just 8 days later, they announced the fact that sales of apartments in the Tower in Juffair have been progressing well - more than 70% of phase one have already been sold.

Mr. Redha Rajab, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tashyeed said, “The sales team has had a great deal of interest in the project and we already have potential investors looking at apartments available in the second phase,”

“We believe the strong sales in Sukoon Tower have come from the attention to detail that has been put into the project. From the outset, Tashyeed Properties has worked with internationally renowned architects and interior designers to ensure the apartments and facilities at Sukoon have been designed with the resident’s comfort in mind.”

Top-of-the-range fixtures and fittings have been chosen including western style kitchens and bathrooms which is certainly nice to know, as we dread to think the sort of havoc a Tanour could cause the fire alarm system.

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Eat your heart out Dubai! So you think you can build a big building? Moscow is sending a message to the world with preliminary planning permission having just been granted to build the World’s largest building.

Crystal Island will cover a staggering 2,670,000 square meters, stand 450 meters tall and will cost an estimated $4 billion.

The tower, designed by renowned British architects Foster + Partners, will be multi use containing 3000 hotel rooms, 900 serviced apartments, a business centre, office spaces, a sports centre, entertainment centre and shopping mall as well as an international clown school, restaurants and cafes. Visitor numbers are expected to be high and there is a planned 16,500 space car park to accommodate them.

According to the designers: “The building’s spiraling form emerges majestically from a newly landscaped park, rising in converse directions to form a diagonal grid. This distinctive geometry extends throughout the project into the park. The result is that the scheme is seamlessly integrated into a new park landscape, which provides a range of activities throughout the year, including cross country skiing and ice skating in the winter.

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The real estate market in Panama is booming and one of the most “happening” areas is the luxury condominium sector. Despite attempts by the Panamanian government to slow down development, the skyline is bursting with new developments. Demand is high, partly because Panama is one of the largest free trade areas in the world, second only to Hong Kong. Panama is also a major banking centre due to “relaxed” banking laws.

There are some doubts as to the long term viability of this market, which is largely populated by “flippers,” property investors who buy and hopefully sell on a condo before construction is even complete.

Estate agents are obviously keen to encourage this practice as it means earning several commissions on the same piece of property and are trying their hardest to push prices over $5,000 per square meter. So far, the highest achieved has been $4,000. As little as 2 years ago, the record price was Less than a quarter at $1,000.

But the fear is, that when the time comes, there will be no actual “residents,” for these condos. Only time will tell as to how well grounded these fears are, and for the time being, Panama is still attracting many foreign flippers.

Here is a look at some of the upcoming condo developments in Panama City.

Element Boutique Condominiums

A 32-story high-rise featuring 100 luxury condominiums.

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^{Kuala Lumpur Skyline [photo credits to Christopher Chan on flickr]}

The Star (Malaysia) recently published an article titled Kuala Lumpur’s 10 most expensive condos. The article revealed a list of Kuala Lumpur’s 10 most luxurious high end Condos going for a minimum of RM1000 sq/ft (£142 or US$287 sq/ft). The list however excluded the yet-to-be launched Four Seasons and Binjai developments.

We are going to shed more light on each of the 10 most expensive condo developments in Kuala Lumpur.

1. One KL
2. The Troika
3. K Residence
4. The Meritz
5. Marc Residence
6. The Avare
7. Park Seven
8. Pavilion Residence
9. Idaman Residence
10. Ampersand @ Kia Peng

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Earlier this month Omniyat Properties previewed their planned 230 apartment development, ‘The Pad’. Models of the building, to be designed to look like an iPod MP3 player, were on display at Dubai’s International Property Show 0n 3-5 April.

As an intelligent building the Pad will demonstrate prime specialisms of Omniyat Properties ultimate parent, Almasa Holdings, namely IT and real estate. Also known as ‘iPad’ the building will include lofts, studios and one and two-bedroom apartments. According to Bloomberg (25th April), apartments will cost up to AED 9m ($2.5m). The smallest units start at 581 sq. feet.

Starting prices according to Dubai based realtors GoWealthy.com are as follows:

Studio US$343,688
1 Bedroom US$362,372
2 Bedroom US$901,158

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