Properties of the Endowments and Minors’ Trust Foundation (Awqaf Dubai) achieved their highest-ever occupancy rate of 99.6 percent during the first half of 2024. The numbers are even more impressive given that the Foundation added 1,887 new units to its portfolio over the past five years.

By the end of the first half (H1) of 2024, the total value of new and renewed contracts for the Foundation’s properties amounted to AED162.6 million, marking a 12.5 percent increase compared to the same period in 2023, when it was approximately AED144.5 million.

The total number of properties under the Foundation, including those in its real estate portfolio (endowment properties, minors’ properties, and Awqaf Dubai’s properties) reached 5,863 in H1 of this year. This portfolio increased by 1,028 units in 2024.

Ali Mohammed Al Mutawa, Secretary-General of Awqaf Dubai, emphasised the Foundation’s keenness to harness all possibilities to achieve the noble goals of Dubai’s leadership and enhance the emirate’s standing globally as an advocate of endowment initiatives. Awqaf Dubai is also keen to implement endowment projects to drive investment and innovation in this sphere and showcase an exceptional endowment model that reflects Dubai’s unwavering support for humanitarian initiatives, he added.

Al Mutawa stated that Awqaf Dubai operates in alignment with the emirate’s strategy to enhance endowment assets and broaden services in this area, enabling it to play an effective role in promoting growth across various societal sectors, thus fostering a positive impact on society, and improving overall quality of life.

He added that Awqaf Dubai’s real estate portfolio is experiencing significant growth in terms of new and renewed contracts despite the steady increase in the number of real estate units falling under its purview in recent years. He pointed out that Awqaf Dubai strives to manage its properties according to international best practices to achieve optimal returns from its assets and use them to support and empower specific segments of society as desired by endowers.

Awqaf Dubai’s real estate portfolio was valued at about AED289 million by the end of 2023, with 4,835 units under its management in that period.