Damac expands into Iraq with launch of luxury residential project in Baghdad

Damac Properties has launched a luxury residential project in Baghdad as part of its expansion plans in the Middle East as the Dubai-based company forecasts continuing demand for property in the UAE.

Damac Hills Baghdad will be built near Abbas Ibn Firnas Square, five minutes by car from Baghdad International Airport, the company said on Thursday. Phase one of the project comprises three residential clusters including Misk, Fayrouz and Lamar.

“It’s a big project for us that will be going live today,” Amira Sajwani, managing director of Damac Properties, told The National on Thursday on the fringes of the Sharjah Investment Forum. “It's our first project in Iraq in the last few years,” she added, without disclosing the total value of the project or its completion date.

The company said the new project is part of a larger development that spans 6.2 million square metres.

“As one of the largest real estate developments in the [Iraqi] capital, this project offers a diverse selection of ... luxury villas in various sizes, offering four and five-bedroom layouts, with architectural styles that celebrate Iraq’s timeless and refined design heritage,” said Majid Al Ghazali, senior vice president of projects at Damac International and managing director of Dico International in Iraq.

Central parks, a health club, leisure spaces, restaurants and cafes, as well as a modern water supply system, an on-site power substation and solar-powered heating, form part of the new gated community.

Damac is also active in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar and Lebanon.

UAE property boom set to continue

The UAE remains Damac's core market. The company expects the Emirates' property market to continue to perform strongly amid government initiatives such as expansion of golden visa scheme and an influx of high net worth individuals to the Arab world’s second-largest economy.

“The volume of people that are moving here, the ultra-high-net-worth [individuals] that are coming here – with their businesses, with their companies, with their employees – is fuelling the demand of housing requirement,” Ms Sajwani said.

Last year, the UAE saw the arrival of 7,200 millionaires, building on an influx of 4,700 in 2023 and 5,200 in 2022, Knight Frank said, quoting data from Henley & Partners. The total number of dollar millionaires in the UAE stood at 130,500 at the end of December, ranking the Emirates as the 14th-largest wealth market globally.

The golden visa regulations as well as lower property prices compared to other big global cities are also attracting more people to move to the UAE.

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“We're still massively under the prices of the global cities that we compete with today, which are London, New York, Shanghai, Hong Kong, so there's still opportunity in the market,” Ms Sajwani said.

Damac sold more than 15,000 homes at different projects this year and “we continue to have an exciting quarter ahead”, she said, without disclosing sales numbers for the year.

Oversupply of property is not an issue as the new homes that are being built is “being absorbed very quickly by newcomers who are moving into Dubai" Ms Sajwani added.

In the first half of 2025, the volume and value of all real estate transactions in Dubai rose sharply amid the entry of more than 59,000 more investors into the booming market, the Dubai Media Office said in July, citing Dubai Land Department (DLD) data.

The number of transactions reached 125,538, up nearly 26 per cent on an annual basis, while value of these transactions rose about 25 per cent to about Dh431 billion, DLD said.