Welcome everyone. Thank you for joining the Aldar Properties H1 2026 financial results presentation. My name is Gabrielle. I will be coordinating your call today. During the presentation, you can register a question by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you change your mind, please press star followed by two. If you have joined us online, you can submit a text question via the Q&A button on your browser. I will now hand over to your host, Mr. Faisal Falaknaz. Please go ahead.
[Non-English content] Thank you all for joining today's call to discuss Aldar's financial results for the first half of 2026. As you know, the latter part of the first quarter and much of the second quarter coincided with a period of heightened regional tension disrupting market activity across the U.A.E. However, the U.A.E. has demonstrated remarkable resilience in many dimensions, from security to continuity in economic activity. We have seen business activity continuing largely uninterrupted, public and private sector investment commitments reinforced, and consumer confidence has held up well. Against that backdrop, Aldar delivered a resilient first half underpinned by a sizable backlog, disciplined execution, and the defensive qualities of our recurring income platform, notwithstanding softer development sales and a weaker hospitality performance, which I will cover in more detail.
At group level, first half revenue increased 8% year-on-year to AED 16.8 billion, EBITDA rose 19% to AED 6.3 billion, and net profit after tax increased 18% to AED 4.9 billion. Earnings per share rose 17% to AED 0.53 . Within Aldar Development, group development sales declined 34% to AED 12.1 billion year-on-year, reflecting a more measured approach to new launches in the U.A.E. in response to prevailing market conditions. EBITDA increased 21% year-on-year to AED 4 billion in the first half, driven by recognition of our development revenue backlog, which today stands at AED 71.6 billion. Aldar Investment delivered revenue growth of 12% year-on-year to AED 4.2 billion and an adjusted EBITDA increase 18% to AED 1.8 billion supported by high occupancy, steady rental growth across core asset classes and contributions from recent acquisitions. Assets under management increased to AED 55.8 billion.
We remain focused on prudent capital deployment while continuing to progress on our develop-to-hold pipeline, which now stands at AED 20 billion, supporting further diversification and income growth over the next four years. Our balance sheet remains robust with group liquidity of AED 37.1 billion underpinning our strategy and countercyclical approach. On slide number four, we summarize year-to-date recent announcements across the group. I will only highlight key developments that took place during the second quarter and into July. At the group level, we further enhanced our financial position in April by closing a AED 5 billion, five-year syndicated sustainability-linked revolving credit facility, attracting strong demand from regional and international banks and reflecting confidence in the group's credit strength. On land replenishment, last week we announced Marsa Al Saadiyat, a landmark AED 100 billion waterfront destination on Saadiyat Island with Aldar as the master developer.
In this role, Aldar will be responsible for securing the overall master plan approvals, coordinating the district-wide development strategy, as well as delivering the primary infrastructure across the destination and delivering over 7,000 units with a combined gross development value exceeding AED 70 billion. We plan to commence sales exceeding AED 60 billion. We plan to commence sales on Marsa Al Saadiyat during the second half of this year. During the quarter, we launched three new development projects in Abu Dhabi: Yas Park Place, Al Ghadeer Gardens, and The Orchids at Yas Acres, which were all well received by the market. In July, we launched the second phase of Al Ghadeer Gardens in [Seih Al Sederah] and The Canopies, which is the first launch at Yas Point, a new waterfront destination on the north shore of Yas Island with a GDV of about AED 6 billion.
During the quarter, Aldar Investment acquired three additional assets in KEZAD for AED 650 million and added five new develop-to-hold projects valued at AED 5.2 billion to the pipeline, which now totals AED 20 billion, which is expected to drive further scale diversification and earnings growth over the next four years. The five new D-Hold projects are two affordable value housing projects in Abu Dhabi in collaboration with the DMT, a residential and community retail development in Dubai Studio City, and two schools in Abu Dhabi. First, the relocation of Cranleigh Abu Dhabi to a new purpose-built campus on Saadiyat Island, and second, the new Al Ghadeer British School as part of the recently launched Al Ghadeer Gardens community, scheduled to open for the 2030-2031 academic year and accommodate more than 2,800 students. Turning to slide number five, where you will find more information on Aldar Development.
The business delivered a solid first half performance supported by continued project delivery, backlog conversion, and a disciplined launch strategy. Revenue increased 10% year-on-year to AED 12.4 billion, while EBITDA rose 21% to AED 4 billion, reflecting steady delivery across key developments. As mentioned earlier, group development sales declined 34% to AED 12.1 billion, reflecting a more measured approach to new launches in the U.A.E. from a deliberate pause at first followed by a greater emphasis on mid-market product launches in response to prevailing market conditions. Nevertheless, first half U.A.E. sales still came in at AED 9.4 billion with inventory sales accounting for 67% and the three new launches in the second quarter achieving over 80% sold status.
Al Ghadeer Gardens nearly sold out, demonstrating resilient demand for well-located family-oriented communities and providing us strong evidence to ramp up launch activity in the second half of the year, all the while we remain disciplined on pricing and phasing and payment plans. Our international businesses continue to gain momentum with H1 sales of AED 1.4 billion at SODIC in Egypt and AED 1.2 billion at London Square in the U.K. The group development backlog remains substantial at AED 71.6 billion, including AED 59.9 billion in the U.A.E., providing strong visibility on revenue and cash flows over the next two to three years. Turning now to slide number six, you will see further detail on U.A.E. development sales. Notably, U.A.E. sales to overseas and expatriate resident buyers totaled AED 7.6 billion, representing 80% of U.A.E. sales, highlighting continued international confidence in Abu Dhabi as a global living and investment destination.
We handed over 1,000 units in the first half, already surpassing the full year 2025 total of about 850 units, reflecting strong delivery momentum on the ground. Cash collections totaled AED 7.6 billion, in line with contractual payment schedules and demonstrating continued buyer commitment. Default rate remains low and manageable, with 90-day-plus defaults at 1.3%-2%, a modest uptick from historical levels of around 1%. While we have seen some upward pressure on construction costs following the geopolitical developments, the impact has been selective, and we have mitigated a significant portion of these pressures through competitive tendering, early procurement, forward purchasing of materials, and advanced payments to contractors. Where cost increases have occurred, they have been partially offset by stronger pricing. We therefore continue to expect project margins to remain broadly unchanged.
On slide number seven, you will find details on Aldar Investment, which has continued to grow as a well-diversified platform with AED 55.8 billion of assets under management, delivering a strong base of recurring income. Revenue increased 12% year-on-year to AED 4.2 billion, while adjusted EBITDA rose 18% to AED 1.8 billion. Performance was supported by high occupancy, long-term lease structures and rental growth across investment properties as well as contributions from recent strategic acquisitions and completed D-Hold projects and finally, from continued growth at Aldar Education and Aldar Estates. The second quarter reinforced the defensive and diversified value of the business with every segment performing well through the disruption other than the hospitality segment. Turning to slide number eight, the investment properties portfolio delivered strong growth in H1 with adjusted EBITDA increasing 30% year-on-year to AED 1.3 billion. Performance was supported by portfolio-wide occupancy of 95%.
Commercial adjusted EBITDA increased 14% to AED 478 million. Occupancy remained high at 99%, driven by strong demand for Grade A office space from a diversified tenant base that includes government-related entities and established corporates, and further supported by the newly acquired buildings at The Link in Masdar City in April, contributing about AED 15 million of adjusted EBITDA in the period. Residential adjusted EBITDA was AED 261 million, down 1%, reflecting the turnover of a bulk lease and temporary vacancies related to refurbishment at Eastern Mangroves. Nevertheless, occupancy remained high at 96%. Retail adjusted EBITDA increased 68% to AED 463 million, supported by strong fundamentals across the core portfolio and contributions from The Galleria Luxury and the recently completed D-Hold asset, The Grove Mall, expected to open in Q4. Overall retail portfolio occupancy stands at 96%.
Excluding Remal Mall and Grove Mall, Yas Mall specifically maintained occupancy of 96%, with tenant sales and footfall down 2.5% and 9% year-on-year respectively. Industrial and Logistics adjusted EBITDA increased 173% to AED 95 million with occupancy at 97%. Growth was supported by continued organic growth, the acquisition contributions of ALMARKAZ and two KEZAD assets last year, as well as the three additional purpose-built multi-let warehouses in KEZAD acquired this year, and finally, the completed D-Hold project of 20,000 sq m build-to-suit facility for Emirates Snack Foods. A quick note on the recent Abu Dhabi rental measure whereby rental caps were introduced from 5% to 0%. Our understanding is this remains a temporary initiative. To date, our exposure has been limited. As a reminder, our largest commercial assets are excluded, as they are located in a free zone.
The majority of our residential units sit in long-term bulk corporate leases with contractual escalations. Therefore, the impact on EBITDA is immaterial, and if anything, this initiative only confirms how under-rented and in-demand Abu Dhabi residential remains. Turning to slide number nine, in Hospitality and Leisure, adjusted EBITDA was AED 140 million, a decline of 18% year-on-year, with performance impacted by regional geopolitical developments. Occupancy was 54% in the first half, with RevPAR decreasing 7% to AED 430. However, ADR increased 21% to AED 800, demonstrating the portfolio's ability to maintain pricing even in a challenging operating environment. In Education, adjusted EBITDA increased 4% to AED 133 million, driven by steady organic performance and annualization of new schools such as Noya British Academy and Muna British Academy. Term three retention remained high.
And more notably, we are seeing a very positive trend in enrollment for the upcoming academic year, which could be regarded as an indicator of demographic stability in the U.A.E. 75% of students across our 13 operated schools have re-registered for the next year, which is ahead of July of last year. Meanwhile, we have received applications from over 4,000 new students, which is in line with this time last year. Aldar Estates adjusted EBITDA increased 18% to AED 227 million, reflecting strong contract momentum across PM and FM and integrated community services. The business now manages approximately 146,000 residential units and 2.5 million square meters of prime retail and commercial space with contracts valued at more than AED 2.9 billion. Turning to slide number 10 and our key balance sheet metrics.
Over the last couple of years, we have taken a countercyclical approach to funding and liquidity management aimed at reinforcing our financial resilience and building a robust capital buffer that positions us well to navigate periods of volatility. This approach has served us very well throughout the recent disruption. The AED 5 billion sustainability-l inked revolving credit facility closed in April further diversified funding sources and strengthened financial flexibility. We have maintained a prudent leverage profile with net debt to adjusted EBITDA at 1.4x and adjusted EBITDA to interest expense at 7x. These leverage and coverage metrics include the impact of debt accounted AED 12.9 billion in hybrid capital notes. Total available liquidity stood at AED 37.1 billion at the end of June, comprising AED 16.8 billion of free and unrestricted cash and AED 20.3 billion of committed undrawn bank facilities.
The debt maturity profile remains well spread with an average senior debt maturity of 4.5 years and no material refinancing requirements in the near term. Looking ahead, our focus remains on our disciplined capital deployment aligned to long-term value creation and strategic priorities. You will find our approach to sustainability and key highlights on slide 11 and 12. We have continued to make tangible progress under our sustainability framework while maintaining our MSCI rating of A, our number one ranking among GCC real estate companies in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and our inclusion in the FTSE4Good Index Series. All new developments launched in Abu Dhabi in the first half achieved a 3-Pearl Estidama design rating, while all new developments achieved a 2-star Fitwel rating.
We also remained ahead of our 2026 efficiency targets with a 34% reduction in energy use intensity by design against ASHRAE 2007, a 42% reduction in water use intensity by design against the Estidama baseline, and a 39% reduction in embodied carbon and construction materials. Across our existing assets, energy consumption reduced by 12% and water consumption by 20%, while 98% of construction and demolition waste was recycled. All investment opportunities also underwent ESG Due Diligence, and lost-time injury frequency rates remained low at 0.04. On human capital, we outperformed our NAFIS commitment to recruit 1,000 Emiratis by 2026, reaching the target ahead of schedule, with U.A.E. nationals now representing 46% of the group's employee base. Turning to slide 13 on guidance. This has been no ordinary year.
Against a more challenging regional backdrop, we are pleased with the resilience of the business and the solid performance delivered in the first half. We remain confident in the long-term outlook for Aldar and the U.A.E., supported by the country's resilience, continued investment, and clear commitment to economic growth and diversification. That said, in light of the current ongoing environment, we are updating certain full year 2026 metrics. We now expect full-year group development sales of AED 30 billion-AED 34 billion, revised down from AED 45 billion-AED 49 billion, reflecting the impact of launch timing and our product offering in the first half of the year given the more measured demand environment. Despite this, demand remains healthy, and we continue to see strong customer interest across our key projects and destinations.
Delivering the revised guidance will require a substantial stronger sales contribution in the second half, and we expect a busier H2 launch calendar with a faster pace of releases across established and new destinations, including the planned first launch at Marsa Al Saadiyat. This will be supported by continued sales of existing inventory and contributions from our international platforms. Aldar Development EBITDA guidance is revised to AED 8.9 billion-AED 9.3 billion from AED 9.5 billion-AED 10 billion while our U.A.E. development gross profit margin guidance of 37%-39% is unchanged and was supported by a first half margin of 38%. Group adjusted EBITDA guidance is revised to AED 12.3 billion-AED 12.7 billion, still representing strong growth over the AED 9.9 billion delivered last year reflecting the resilience of our backlog, project execution, and recurring income.
Guidance for Aldar Investment adjusted EBITDA of AED 3.7 billion-AED 3.9 billion is unchanged, reflecting the strength, defensibility, and visibility of our diversified recurring income platform, where performance continues to be supported by high occupancy long-term lease structures, organic rental rates, contributions from recent acquisitions, and the completion of developed D-Hold assets. Our capital development guidance is also unchanged at AED 3 billion-AED 4 billion from M&A and AED 3 billion-AED 4 billion for D-Hold CapEx. We remain fully committed to our 2030 ambition and to the strategic priorities that underpin it. That said, on our previously communicated three-year guidance, we are not reaffirming nor updating those targets at this stage. They were established against an earlier operating backdrop, and as we enter our annual budgeting and business planning cycle, we believe it is more appropriate to reassess the medium-term outlook comprehensively rather than update individual elements today.
We expect to provide an updated medium-term guidance alongside our 2026 full-year results. Until then, the revised guidance presented today should be the principal reference point for investors. The timing does not reflect any change in our long-term ambitions. It will simply allow the revised medium-term guidance to be based on the fully updated business plan and the latest operating environment. In summary, the strength of first half performance and our financial position are the result of the strategy that we have executed consistently over many years to scale and diversify the business. We enter the second half with substantial earnings visibility from our development backlog, a growing recurring income platform and balance sheet capacity to pursue opportunities through the cycle.
Our priorities remain unchanged, which are to calibrate launches carefully to demand, protect pricing and margins, progress on delivery of residential backlog and develop the D-Hold pipeline, and d eploy capital with discipline. With that, we conclude today's presentation and welcome your questions. Thank you very much.
Thank you. To ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. If you change your mind, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your device is unmuted locally. Please kindly limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you have any further questions, please rejoin the queue. If you have joined us online, you can submit a text question via the Q&A button on your browser. Our first question today is from Taher Safieddine from JP Morgan. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Very good afternoon, Faisal. Thank you very much for the call today. Just maybe two questions from my side. Let me start with the guidance and in particular on the sales. If I look at the revised FY 2026 versus H1, as you said, you are talking about potentially growing from AED 12 billion in H1 to somewhere around AED 20 billion at the midpoint of the guidance into H2. Clearly, that brings us maybe back to a very solid pre-conflict run rate. The question here is, how confident are you on delivering this guidance, especially that if I look at H1 in Abu Dhabi, the uptake has been relatively slow. Compared to, you know, one of your largest direct peers who has been maybe more aggressive on new launches.
Maybe your thoughts on that, and d o you need Marsa Al Saadiyat, Yas Point, and Dubai all working so that you can deliver this guidance? That would be my first question, if you can maybe elaborate more, please, on that.
Sure. The answer is we feel very confident. As we speak, we have customers downstairs lining up for The Canopies, which was the first launch of Yas Point. For reference, Yas Park Place, which we launched in April, was priced at around AED 27,000 per square meter. Canopy is averaging about AED 31,000 per square meter. Not only are we ramping up, we continue our disciplined approach in terms of margin accretion and capitalizing on pent-up demand. Then to your point, yes, we're going to have a busier calendar in the second half. We already have ready product in the cultural district that we have proactively decided to push in the second half. That will be coming in the next few months. Fahid is something that we have not launched this year, so it will be coming up with a new launch also in the second half.
Marsa Al Saadiyat is something that we've been working on for quite some time now. We're also quite advanced on that master plan. Finally, the Dubai master plan that we've been talking about, we have not only started working on when we announced the acquisition. We had taken the risk of starting the master plan works even before agreeing the deal with Dubai Holding. We actually feel extremely confident. To the point you made about some of our other competitors obviously being more aggressive, we are taking a more balanced approach that we believe protects shareholder value, which is a balanced approach when it comes to payment plans and pricing and providing products that we believe is going to serve the demand that is out there in the market.
You need to look at things not only what is the price per square foot, but ticket sizes is also an important thing to look at. Again, to reaffirm, we feel quite confident about this guidance.
Okay, clear. Maybe just a follow-up question on the development. If I look at the property development and sales revenues for Q2, the growth was up around 10% on the revenues. I mean, clearly you've done amazingly well on the margins. Margins have actually expanded on that portfolio. On the revenues, it just feels that the rate of growth has slowed down significantly versus where we were in Q1 and FY 2025. I just want to understand what was the reason behind that. Is it slower execution? Maybe you've taken a more cautious approach on construction progress.
If you can just maybe shed some color on that. Along the same points with the margins, if I look at the EBITDA margin for the property development and sales, which is the U.A.E. business, we are sitting at around 38% in H1 2026 on a gross profit margin. You're still committing to that guidance over the medium term, 37%-39%? You don't see any downside risk to that?
Let's talk about the drivers for the PDX business. The most important driver is value of work done. Despite the supply disruptions that we have seen, we have actually been pretty much on mark in terms of our internal targets in terms of hitting our value of work done. Where we have missed is we had anticipated to have significantly more land sales which are significantly more margin accretive. Given the environment today, we have decided to defer those land sales so that we do not discount the prices that we were anticipating on them.
Actually, quite the contrary, we believe with some of the recent announcements that we have done, we can actually achieve better prices on those land sales. The other thing is we've obviously seen slower inventory sales, and inventory sales are also somewhat of a driver for revenue growth. I think it's pretty much that. Value of work done was as expected, but the other two were a bit slower given the circumstances.
Margins-wise—
And then on the margins—
Yeah.
We do feel very confident about our margins. I think the best example I gave is The Canopies. We continue to launch projects that have significantly high GP margins. Marsa Al Saadiyat is a premium to ultra-luxury offering. Those will typically have a significantly high GP margin. We remain committed to the targets that we have provided in terms of our margin guidance.
All right. Thank you, very clear . I'll come back in the queue.
Thank you, Taher. Our next question is from Harsh Mehta from Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Thank you. I have two questions. The first one is, you know, the downward revision in 2026 EBITDA estimates at the group level is largely flowing through the Property Development segment. Hi, can you hear me? Hello?
It seems that we have lost connection with the speakers. Please stand by while we reconnect them. The call will resume shortly. Thank you very much for your patience while we've reconnected with the speaker. Our question was from Harsh Mehta from Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hi, Harsh. Sorry.
Hi. No issues. Actually, I posted the question on the chat box. [inaudible] My question was, you know, we've seen downward revision in EBITDA estimates for the group at 2026. That's pretty much flowing from the downward revision that we've seen for the property development segment. I was hoping to understand if you could provide some more color whether it's the U.A.E. business that's driving that downward estimate revision or is it the international business? We've also seen very weak EBITDA contribution from international business in 1H. Any clarity around that would be very helpful to get an understanding between what's happening on the EBITDA level at U.A.E. versus international operations.
Sure, it is predominantly the U.A.E. development business. The revision I would say is not that significant. Again, if you look at the drivers, we do have less sales which are again a somewhat driver for P&L recognition on the awarded projects through the backlog. Land sales, we don't know if we're going to close those sales this year or we're going to have to defer them to next year. The year is not over. You still have somewhat of supply challenges which we have been proactively managing again and we remain on track. There's a little bit of cautiousness I would say on that front. Again, I mean, you're talking about something in the range of like AED 400 million-AED 600 million revision, which is not a lot of money.
Clear. Just one follow-up. Similar to your earlier comment on your expectations of presales really rebounding in the second half and you kind of explained key drivers what makes you a bit confident about second half. I mean, even when we look at the EBITDA guidance, again, the second half seems a decent acceleration versus 1H EBITDA that you've reported. Even on a year-on-year basis, when we look at the numbers, the growth rate looks much better compared to the weakness, compared to the first half growth. Do you expect a much rapid rebound in terms of execution in second half that's going to drive that recovery in the second half a bit?
I mean, you have projects that are at different cycles of the S-curve. You had projects in the first half that were starting to reach at the endpoint of their S-curve as we are starting to hand over. At the same time, we have awarded a number of projects this year where the contractors have mobilized on site, so we're going to start recognizing a decent amount on that front. Again, I go to my other point is we have seen a decent pickup in terms of inventory sales as well, which is also going to help gap that difference. Yeah, I'd say the second half generally should see a good uptick in activity.
Thank you very much, Harsh. Our next question is from Rahul Bajaj from Citi. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hi, Faisal. Thanks for the call and taking my question. This is Rahul Bajaj from Citi. I have two questions mainly. Both are actually quite linked, so I will go together. I mean, I just wanted to focus on the international development business because sales in the international business seem to have done really well in the second quarter. Just trying to understand what are the drivers for this kind of sudden jump in sales in the international business, both in SODIC and London Square. Is the sale in the international business anyway linked to sentiments or what is happening in U.A.E. and in the broader GCC region, or that is completely separate and they are not really impacted? They push through even if there are maybe sentiment issues here locally. Just trying to understand what has driven international sales.
Linked to it, since you provided kind of the updated guidance for full year sales, which points to roughly around AED 20 billion of sales for the second half of the year, trying to understand will international continue to be a large part of it, kind of a run rate at which it was in the second quarter or it will be more domestic-driven in the second half of the year? Thank you.
On sentiment, I think he said is it related to the U.A.E. sentiment. I think the current situation is not a U.A.E.-specific thing, right? This is for us more of a global crisis that has affected the sentiment globally in general in terms of the disruption that has happened to energy supply and supply costs in general and shipping and global travel. Don't want to make a point, but this is not a U.A.E. crisis. This is a global crisis. The other thing is I would not read too much into what is happening in terms of the sales as something that is linked to the U.A.E. If you look at last year, SODIC, for example, had a very busy second half compared to the first half. They really caught up in terms of their sales. I think it's just launch-specific in terms of what they're offering in the market.
In general, the North Coast in Egypt tends to do extremely well. Like their sales, if you've noticed, have come from Ogami and June and those developments and prices have continued to perform really well given how attractive that destination has become. London Square I think is a function of the investment that we have done over the past two years. We have a number of drivers that go into those sales. You have private sales and you have BTRs, build-to -rents, which are sales to institutional investors, forward purchases to build buildings on their behalf. I think London Square is just in growth mode and Egypt is generally launch-specific driven. How much is international sales going to make up of the overall numbers? I don't want to give you a specific number today and commit to it, but I would say the majority of our numbers, the guidance is U.A.E.-led.
Thank you very much. Our next question is from Steve Bramley from HSBC. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much indeed. Well, firstly, well done, chaps, both you, Faisal, and Talal, for the profitability number actually, which I think is ultimately the most important line.
They just let me say the good news, Steve. I do not do anything. I just carry on the team success.
No, well, that's, you know, that's a good outcome. Congratulations. Look, as everyone else is asking multiple questions, I've got three. They're all short.
In Q2 sales, I actually thought you might post bigger numbers in Q2, possibly from a carryover from Q1. I was a little bit disappointed this morning to see your Q2 sales numbers. Having said that, when we published last week, our full-year numbers are in line with your guidance. In fact, they're right in the middle, oddly enough. I'd just like a little bit of comfort on how you are supporting your full-year guidance? That's question number one. Question number two, The Wilds, this year your sales rate's pretty low, no surprise all things considered, but just how are you thinking about that? Thirdly, you mentioned payment plans, Faisal, about being disciplined. Why, what, why are you being disciplined?
I was at with one of your major competitors, actually probably your major competitor in Dubai about a week ago looking at one of their sites, and I got a very favorable payment plan if I pushed. What's the point in being disciplined? Thank you.
On Q2 sales, see, whatever we put out has sold really well. If you look at the first launch that came out was Yas Park Place. Year- to- date, I think we sold about AED 1.4 billion-AED 1.5 billion, almost sold out. What's remaining is just large three-bed units. In May, we put out Al Ghadeer. That was completely sold out, AED 1.1 billion. Which is why we launched Phase 2, I think at the beginning of this month. In June we launched The Orchids on Yas. That sold out in terms of what we put out. We still have a number of villa offerings which we have not put to the market yet. Could Q2 have been better? I think if we put out more products maybe it would have been better, again we took the decision that we wanted to play it a little bit more cautiously.
The other thing is post the crisis in March onwards, we saw a significant dip in inventory sales. They were down in general 70%, 80% compared to previous years on a weekly basis, but we've seen a significant recovery in that. I'd say today they're somewhat around 20%, 30% down year-on-year, still down, but having significantly recovered. I think that will continue to improve going forward. I think I answered the point about the confidence for H2. We have a lot of product that is ready now off the shelf. It's just a matter of putting it out, and we feel very confident about putting it out, especially on the hype we created on those destinations. Again, the example of The Canopies, there was a lot of excitement around that product being on the beach, having a nice promenade, being in very close proximity to Disney.
Like the market really, really got excited about it and we are being rewarded for it. My team are showing me live sales, which is looking good, and we'll announce it probably in the next couple of days. The Wilds, you are absolutely right, that is not doing well. We are keeping our eyes on it, slower than expected because of the time when it was launched, it was the week of the crisis. Apartments in Dubai today are quite competitive even in that corridor. Today it's not moving as we expect. The market will rebound. Never bet against Dubai. The market will come back, we are not worrying about it too much. Payment plans. Why are we being disciplined? Well, because discipline is our key ethos and it has served us well over the past few years.
Payment plans are a significant driver of your IRRs and being a shrewd, prudent investor that we think we are, it drives significant accretion for our deal projects. We generate somewhere between 25%-40% IRRs on our capital if not more. Then we are being somewhat flexible on projects where we have sold more than 80%, we have actually gone to the market and said, you know what, special offer, we'll offer you a 40/60 payment plan, for example, we don't mind because the average on those projects then end up being significantly above that because if we sold 80% of a project at 60%, 70% during construction, then we don't mind being a little bit more lenient on the remaining to just to keep inventory moving.
Sorry, the last point I'd like to make is if you want to scale, and we are scaling, the less disciplined you are on your payment plan means a significant jump in your working capital. The more working capital you have to put, the less you can launch going forward. We need to be very efficient and prudent in the way that we use our capital, and capital has a cost of capital. That's the way we think about it. Default, sorry, that's the other thing we think about. If you tell a customer, come pay me 5% and then see you in one year when the next milestone comes, this is a recipe for speculation and default.
Thank you.
Quality over quantity.
Absolutely.
I promise I'll stop talking.
Our next question is from Charles Boissier from UBS. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Thank you for taking my question. Just one from my side. Going through your development to sell, a few projects appear to have slipped a little bit. 2028 versus 2027 or 2029 versus 2028 in terms of the delivery, not unexpectedly, but given your supportive message on demand, on construction progress, supply chain, I just was wondering if you could just provide some context on the revised completion timelines. I'm looking at various projects like Lagoon, Mandarin Oriental , on the develop-to-sell , and then on the develop-to-hold as well there, like Saadiyat and the DIFC Tower.
Then related to that, apologies, also just to check within the develop-to-hold, you had Grove Mall, which is now completed, which is 60% occupied. I'm mindful that it may not be officially open, even you mentioned a Q4 opening, but just was wondering what you expect in terms of the ramp-up in occupancy. There. Thank you.
Okay, pushing delivery timelines. You are absolutely right. Let's start with the D-sell. I think a lot of those projects are a result of longer design and award timelines. Post the project launches, which is catching up with us today. I think today we are doing a significantly better job than what we are doing in the past. Today on average it takes us somewhere around maximum six to nine months to award the project post-launch. That gives us a lot more breathing room in terms of being able to deliver on time despite having any challenges with our contractors in terms of performance. We are on the right track now. On the hold, you are also right. I don't think we have done a good job on that portfolio in terms of keeping our timelines. However, we have done a lot of changes as well internally.
Part of those changes is hiring a new Chief Development Officer purely for D-Hold. He has actually launched us last week and the pressure is on him. The delays are not a result of contractor delays. They're actually a result of prolonged again planning and design and award from our side, but we have gotten again significantly better on that and I expect that to continue. Improve going forward. The Grove Mall, the reason we put it as complete is because tenants have started taking handover of their units to start doing their fit-outs, which means financially it has started contributing to the P&L since the risk has now transferred to the tenants. That's why we thought it was prudent to show it as complete to emphasize the point that this is now a revenue-generating asset. In terms of leasing, we have actually done more than 60% leasing.
I think we're over 80%. How much percent are we now? 65%. We expect by the time of opening probably to be over 75%-80%. Yeah, the timing for that opening is sometime in Q4. Which is a busy season in Abu Dhabi with a number of things happening, which is the F1, Abu Dhabi Finance Week, it's winter, lovely weather. The Guggenheim is opening in December, so it's going to be great. We have also intentionally decided to delay the handover of The Grove units, the residential units, because we wanted to provide the residents with a better experience so that when they take over their units, they actually have the mall open and they are not going in with a construction site under their houses. Yeah, that's the update.
Thank you. Our next question is from Marc Mozzi from the Bank of America. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Congrats for your earnings. I have just a follow-up from my side, which is on your H2 sales target. How many units roughly are you planning to launch and how that compares to what you've been launching in H2 2025 and H2 2024? Because I tend to agree that you need a kind of a AED 20 billion sells in H2, which is a relatively ambitious level compared to what has been done in the past, which is comparable roughly to what you've done in H2 2025, just to make sure that we get a sense of the volume of units you're planning to launch.
I don't want to focus on units because it's also really driven by the ticket prices. Again, the stuff we're going to be launching in H2, a lot of this is on the premium to ultra-luxury side. I think in H1, we sold over 2,000 units. Last year, I think we did about 7,000 units. Again, it really depends on the mix. I would just focus on the sales guidance that we gave. How we get there, you'll get to see it by the end of the year.
Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. That's it.
Thank you, Marc. Our next question is from Evgenii Annenkov from Jefferies. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. Faisal, thank you for the presentation. I have two questions. First, I wanted to ask about Marsa. I understand it's an ultra-luxury community with an implied average unit price of over AED 8 million. On the other hand, I'm seeing that some other key projects in Saadiyat like The Grove or Baccarat had a slower sales momentum in Q2. In particular, Baccarat uptake only increased from 6% to 15%. I'm just trying to understand how Marsa fits your recent pivot towards the mid-tier segment like Al Ghadeer, which was a great success.
Also, who do you believe could be typical buyer of Marsa Al ? Might it be more skewed towards maybe U.A.E. nationals? My second question is, can you please give some color on the recently launched off-plan mortgage offering in the market? In case if you have done any studies, do you expect this to be a game changer for customers? Thank you.
Okay. Marsa, maybe it will be useful for everybody if I shed a little bit of light. Marsa 1 was never part of our land bank. This is something that is now added to our land bank, so it gives us additional run rate in terms of our sales, and you'll see that has been updated in our presentation. Marsa is a large master plan. We announced AED 100 billion. We are the master developer. We are responsible to design and deliver the infrastructure. However, you would have noticed that we split the AED 100 billion into AED 60 billion for us. There is another private developer that is sharing another part of the district. I'll leave it to that developer at the right time to announce themselves, but we are focused on the AED 60 billion. Which has around 7,000 units.
Roughly, and the numbers are always going to change plus or minus, we're looking at about 6,000 apartments and 1,000+ villas and mansions and a little bit of ultra-luxury plots. Why do we think this is going to be attractive? I think there's nothing that is going to be like Saadiyat, built ever. You are not going to find a place in the U.A.E. that has the number of museums that the Saadiyat Island or cultural district has. One of the centerpieces of Marsa is also Dar al Funoon, which is the opera house, which is like an opera house. I think that's the last Frank Gehry design that has been done. The villa project is going to be a gated community.
Lagoons, for example, is a project that we launched about four years ago that is not a gated community, so this has a little bit more premiumness to it. Who are the types of people that are going to be interested in this? I would say typically Saadiyat attracts a lot of overseas investors, and we expect that to continue going forward. You're going to have a lot of resident expats and the Emiratis that are going to find this very attractive. I have a note on my list on all the people I know in my contact list who have asked me to make sure I add them when this launches. This is a product, this was the worst kept secret in Abu Dhabi. Everybody knew this was coming, and everybody is waiting for it. We're very confident about the pent-up demand that is there for it.
Moving on to the off-plan mortgage, this is something that we are very excited about. I think it comes at a timely time when we have seen somewhat uptick in default rates because people are somewhat under pressure for various reasons. The way this works, Central Bank regulation says that for a customer to be able to take an off-plan mortgage on a product that, on a property that is not yet ready, they need to have paid at least 50% equity, which means developers that have payment plans that are lower than 50% during construction have no use of this product. It is the developers, and I go back to the point about discipline, Steve's point, this has served us well today because we are the developers that can benefit from this.
The way this is going to work, for example, let's take one of our upcoming developments, The Source. We are going to very closely be hitting the 50% milestone on The Source and customers still have to pay up to 60%, 70%. The pitch to customers is going to be, " Dear customer, thank you very much for making your 50% milestone payment. By the way, here's a mortgage product that you can get. Don't worry about your milestone payments. Your next 10% or 20%, a bank will pay on your behalf, oh, and you don't have to pay principal. You'll have principal moratorium until the property is handed over. On top of that, we have gotten you a very attractive interest rate that is competitive, and you only have to pay interest during this period. You can lock in your mortgage today and not have to worry about it going forward."
Customer gets peace of mind. They don't have to worry about their future milestone payments, which means we have peace of mind because we have de-risked our collection, which means banks are happy because they are giving mortgages to a very reputable product or backed by a very reputable product or developer, which means this is not going to default. They know we have a credible track record in terms of delivery. That's how we think about this off-plan product, and we are ramping up to start issuing the first mortgages this summer.
Thank you. Our next question is from Marios Pastou from Bernstein Société Générale Group. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, and thank you for taking my question. I just wanted to come back actually on some of the questions around the pricing and the payment plans, if I may. Given the market, and I suppose when you're launching projects today or in any planned launches, are you having to factor in any lower average pricing levels compared to what you were anticipating, say, six months ago or even when underwriting that particular project? Just as a second part to that, if we move beyond, say, any revised payment plans which you've already commented on, are there other incentives which may be on offer or which you could offer to a buyer to support any planned sales? Thank you.
I mean, could we have gone more aggressive? The same [pre-crisis] ? Obviously we could have been more aggressive. I think the most important thing is we have not reduced prices. We have kept either prices constant or pushed them incrementally or the example of The Canopies today, I think this is about a 13%, 14% price escalation compared to Yas Place. Yes, this is a little bit more premium because it's next to Disney and next to the beach, price escalation is important for us, not only for us, but because as a developer we do not want to discount the product that is out there for our customers as well in the market. Price drop for us is a big no. We will not drop prices to sell inventory. What can be done in terms of incentives? Pre-crisis we were doing 60%, 70% during construction. We have shown leniency.
We've done 50/50. We've done 55/45. I think we'll continue showing a little bit of leniency. I think we have a little bit of flexibility in terms of the milestones in the first year. We have done fee waivers, which is a bit easier to do in Abu Dhabi than Dubai because the registration ADM fee in Abu Dhabi is 2%. In Dubai, it's 4%. We do a little bit of rebates as well for customers on special projects. I mentioned on inventory on predominantly sold projects, we tend to be a little bit more lenient when it comes to payment plans. Lastly, sorry, the message we give to the team is we do not want to discount the brand and we don't want to discount the product.
If you start really dropping your pants, excuse my language, then it doesn't look good on the brand and we have the best destinations, we have the best products, we have invested significantly into our digital platform which is benefiting our customers. We focus on customer experience, what we call signature hospitality. I think there's a lot of things that the customers also look into other than payment plan and pricing itself.
Thank you very much, Marios. Our last question today is from Kato Mukuru from Cantor. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hello, can you hear me? Hello?
I can hear you, sir. Go ahead, sir.
Thank you. I just wanted to talk about the debt. If I look in the second quarter, your debt-to-equity ratio has now increased to about 64% and it was as low as 49% this time last year. Is there a ceiling on that? I understand very much the countercyclical approach and the idea of building up the cash pile. I just wanted to know if there was a ceiling on that number and where you thought you would be, let's say, by FY 2030. On the same point, have you noticed on a quarter-on-quarter basis funding costs that you are receiving for that debt actually coming down significantly? I estimate about 200 basis points, it would be interesting to see if it's getting marginally cheaper for you to borrow as well at the same time, you're taking advantage of that to build up your cash pile. Thank you very much.
We look at a few metrics. I think the two most important ones for us are loan-to-value and net debt- to- EBITDA. We manage our metrics to maintain our investment-grade status. We are, as you know, rated by Moody's Baa1 for AIP, which is the recurring income platform, and then Baa2 for the group. AIP has a maximum LTV of about 40%, the group has a maximum LTV of about 30%, and we are well within that. We still have a lot of buffer on that front. Net debt- to- EBITDA for the group overall, I think we try to stay away from anything above 3.5x-4x. We have strengthened the balance sheet significantly. We have issued over the past two years about AED 3.5 billion of hybrid notes, and those hybrid notes get 50% equity rating by Moody's.
What you are looking at from an accounting point of view is 100% debt because it's tax efficient to have it as a debt instrument because it's tax deductible interest. From Moody's point of view, they look at it 50% equity. That's how we think about our thresholds. We have still significant room to continue growing our debt. Our debt has grown. I think end of last year it was about AED 25 billion. It has gone up to AED 33 billion, we remain significantly well within our thresholds. Have we seen our financing costs go down? I mean, we have very competitive cost of funding. If you look at our RCF, we have five-year RCFs typically that go all the way from 80-90 basis points over IBOR. That is super competitive.
If you look at our senior instruments, our sukuks, I think the last issuance we did over benchmark was about 90 basis points . In the past, I think it has averaged around 100-110 basis points. You've seen a spike obviously in the credit markets in terms of spreads post the crisis, I think those have significantly gone down. The majority of our debt, by the way, our fixed debt has been swapped into floating. We're benefiting today because we're paying less in floating than we are giving away in fixed. Yeah, we do have a quite competitive cost of funding.
Thank you. Our next question is a follow-up question from Taher Safieddine from JPMorgan. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Faisal, again. Maybe just to shift gears, just on the recurring portfolio, just to understand how should—
Taher, I can't hear you. I don't know.
We can't hear you anymore. Just make sure that you're not on mute, please.
Sorry, can you hear me now?
Yes, sir.
Yes, okay. All right, great. Just to shift gears maybe on the recurring portfolio, Faisal, just a few questions. The first one is on the education portfolio. It seems that the growth rate on the EBITDA or there's some margin pressure on the education portfolio in Q2 and in H1. Can you just help us understand what's happening there? Is it the ramp-up of the new schools? That would be my first question. Maybe along the same lines, in terms of enrollments for next year, I remember a few months back you said that the number was up around 7%, 8% on a like-for-like basis. How is enrollment for next year looking since we are actually almost coming towards the end of July? That would be my first question on the recurring portfolio, please.
Education, in term three we have lost a number of students on the back of the regional crisis. We have a base of about 18,000 students. The last time we updated you we said we lost about 1%. That number has gone up now to about 1.5%. Which we think is still a quite positive outcome despite the circumstances. That's one reason. The second reason is you're right, new schools like Yasmina American School, which was the old Yasmina campus, Yasmina British Campus, is still ramping up. That school is still loss-making. You do have a number of other new schools that are adding to the bottom line such as the new Yasmina campus where the students' body from the previous school has moved and Noya , which has accelerated in terms of ramp-up and we expect the school to be full in this next academic year.
On enrollments, I mentioned this in the earnings script, More than 75% of the existing student body have already confirmed re-enrollment. This is in line with what we had observed last year. Another thing is we have had more than 4,000 new applications, new students apply. This is also in line with last year. Therefore, so far we are looking good. Does it mean we're going to end up good? Well, probably, let's see how it goes. So far the signals are very positive, extremely positive. We just have to wait and see how the academic year starts, but the growth in enrollment is probably going to be in line with what we saw last year.
Okay, we are comfortable on the single-digit growth enrollment at least?
I would say we'll get very close hopefully to the double digits as well. We feel confident.
Okay, okay, double digits. All right, okay.
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[Non-English content] Just a final question from my side is just on the guidance. You have not changed the guidance on the deployment, on the recurring portfolio, or the D-Hold. I just want to understand I mean, the opportunities. I mean, you've been busy even during the conflict, right, in terms of new announcements, especially on, I think, residential leasing, the affordable housing with the government. What kind of opportunities do you think now are making more sense? Are you seeing some attractive offers in the market in terms of sellers or potentially, you know, new asset classes that you're looking at or you want to double down on a few of the existing recurring segments that you have? Maybe some color there, please.
We have two deals that we feel quite good about. We think we'll do one sizable transaction hopefully in the next maybe month or two. There's another deal which is a distressed deal that we also like very much. Let's see how that goes. We're still doing our due diligence. We also feel good about that. Then there are some deals that are coming online now, bidding processes that we are looking at. I'd say our favorite is industrial and logistics. By the way, last year in the first half, our industrial and logistics portfolio had an adjusted EBITDA of about AED 35 million. Today, this year, first half is about over AED 90 million. A lot of that growth is on the back of acquisitions, but I think we were very clear over the past couple of years about our conviction into this asset class.
While the jump is significant, it is not where we want it to be because the asset base today, even with all the greenfields that we have in the pipeline, is only about AED 4 billion-AED 5 billion. We wanted to cross AED 20 billion. That's like the target that we have given our team internally. By the way, speaking of hiring, because I mentioned the Chief Development Officer for D-Hold, we have also hired a Chief Industrial and Logistics Officer to emphasize the focus on this asset class, and a veteran from the industry as well. I say that's somewhat of the color, we remain confident about deploying into M&A. There's a bit of catch-up that we need to do in terms of D-Hold deployment in terms of construction activity and spending.
Thank you very much, Taher. I will now hand back to Mr. Faisal Falaknaz for closing remarks.
Closing remarks, I would say t he results speak for themselves. The U.A.E. has continuously demonstrated resilience throughout any crisis, any cycles. Our business model, our diversified business model, continues to serve us very well. Our roadmap has not changed. Like I said in the earnings script, we remain committed to our 2030 targets and the pillars behind it. We just need to update you in due course in terms of how we get there, but the end destination has not changed. The U.A.E. and the leadership, I think, following the crisis, have been investing significantly into resilience. Into things such as energy security, new logistical corridors, in-country supply chain, which is something that is very important for us given how much we procure from the supply chain, social infrastructure. Abu Dhabi, for example, has announced this year the Sphere, the Guggenheim. There's a lot more. That is going to come.
There's a lot of things that are happening. You've seen the Fujairah port expansion, which is going to serve us around diversifying our logistical corridors. The ADNOC pipeline expansion, which is over 50% complete, which is again part of our energy security. The Etihad Rail integration, the first start of the residential rail from Fujairah to Abu Dhabi, and the stations are just adding up. You're going to have Sharjah and Dubai very soon. Dubai announced the Golden Line Metro, the list goes on and on and on. My conclusion is we are going to be significant beneficiaries of everything that is happening with the support of the visionary leadership that we have and the strong fundamentals of the U.A.E. That's it from my side. Thank you very much.
Thank you. This concludes today's Aldar Properties H1 2026 financial results presentation. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.