The Emirati real estate company “Azizi” revealed last week the plans for the “Burj Azizi” tower in Dubai, which is intended to rise to a height of 725 meters – with an investment of 1.63 billion dollars. This means that the tower will become the second tallest in the world, after the Burj Khalifa tower that is It is also in Dubai, and is 828 meters high.
On the way to the second place in the world, the Azizi tower is expected to overtake the “Merdeka 118” tower in the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, which only opened its doors this year – with a height of 679 meters. The Merdeka Tower, which has 118 floors, then overtook the Shanghai Tower, which is 47 meters lower than it, and took the second place.
CNN stated that as of today, Dubai is the leading city in the world in the number of buildings that exceed 300 meters in height – according to the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Living Environment.
“Battle for status and prestige”
Azizi Tower is expected to contain about 131 floors “only”. Sales of the assets in the tower are expected to begin in February 2025 – and the completion of its construction in 2028. The tower is intended to include, among other things, a seven-star hotel and residential apartments, including penthouses, swimming pools, saunas, cinemas, gyms, mini markets and a playground for children.
The construction of the tower in Dubai is, among other things, another stage in the competition between the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia for the hegemony, which has been increasing in recent years and is also reflected in the struggle to attract large foreign companies. Four months ago, Saudi Arabia decided to actually promote, and even chose American service providers to design the 1 km high Riyadh tower. About two months later, the Trump group launched its own plan to build a tower in Jeddah.
“The towers are part of a competition, which is not necessarily business,” says Dr. Yoel Gozhansky, head of the regional arena at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), Tel Aviv University. The same struggle is manifested in many aspects. The Saudis, for example, demanded that companies transfer the staffs to them. The towers are beyond the desire of the Emirates and the Saudis to diversify the economy. Those towers become a tourist asset, which is presented to people as the ‘tallest tower in the world’.”
The tower in Riyadh is being planned at the same time as the Naum City of the Future plan in the northwest of the kingdom, in which the Saudis are investing half a billion dollars. The estimated significance of the tower in Riyadh at a height of 1 km is about 250 floors. However, already at the end of last year, Saudi Finance Minister Muhammad Al-Jadaan admitted that delays are expected in Vision 2030. In other words, it is possible that Riyadh has set unreasonable goals – of course in terms of schedules.
In order to understand to what extent the skyscraper market is gaining momentum in the world, we note that when the Burj Khalifa was launched in 2009 – it overtook the “Taipei 101” tower in Taiwan, at a height of 508 meters, which lasted only five years.
Mohammed bin Zayed, President of the United Arab Emirates / Photo: Associated Press, Kamran Jebreili
The highest restaurant in Dubai
The Azizi company that is in charge of the new Emirati project is based in Dubai, and it earned its name after delivering tens of thousands of housing units to customers and investors from more than 100 countries. The company is currently building about 40,000 housing units, whose delivery worth several billion dollars is expected to be completed by 2027.
Among the well-known places where she has built properties are Palm Island and Jebel Ali. “Our investment in Burj Azizi, more than 6 billion Emirati dirhams, reflects more than just creating an iconic structure,” said Mirwais Azizi, founder and chairman of Azizi Company. “My vision for the tower is to create a lasting legacy, and a contribution to Dubai as a preferred destination for residents and visitors “.
As Azizi pointed out, the new tower is expected to become a tourist destination in itself – similar to the Burj Khalifa. Thus, although the tower will not be the largest in the world, it will include unique attractions in height: the highest hotel lobby in the world on the 11th floor; The highest hotel room in the city on the 118th floor; the restaurant on the 122nd floor which will be the highest in Dubai; And, the night club and the highest observation deck on the 126th and 130th floors respectively.
The luxury housing market is booming
The addition of Burj Azizi to the number of tallest towers in Dubai reflects the growth in the city’s real estate market, which the emirates are trying to encourage through residence permits for foreign workers and a ten-year gold visa program. From that growth, the “National” notes that Dubai’s luxury housing market has reached In 2023, the volume of purchases of houses costing 10 million dollars and more in Dubai almost doubled to 7.6 billion dollars. The real estate company “Knight Frank” noted that this is a higher performance than London and New York.
Burj Azizi / Image: Azizi Developments blog
A report by the “Betterhomes” company from June indicates that this trend is likely to continue. An examination of the sale of luxury properties carried out in this case according to 15 million dirhams (about 4.1 million dollars) or more in the first five months of 2024, found 948 transactions in the sector. The centers of demand during this period in the emirate were on Palm Island, the Dubai Water Canal, and Dubai Hills.
The scope of the luxury deals brings entrepreneurs such as the “Sankari” company to establish the “Marasi Marina” project, which will be inaugurated in 2027 with an investment of one billion dollars. The prices of the housing units in the project start at 10 million dollars.
For your attention: The Globes system strives for a diverse, relevant and respectful discourse in accordance with the code of ethics that appears in the trust report according to which we operate. Expressions of violence, racism, incitement or any other inappropriate discourse are filtered out automatically and will not be published on the website.