Masdar downsizes city to suit current climate

Abu Dhabi’s revolutionary green initiative Masdar City has been scaled back in order to better reflect current demand for property and green technology.

"The master plan was set in stone about four years ago. The world has changed quite a bit since then and we have learned more about how to do it," Alan Frost, director of Masdar's property development unit, told Abu Dhabi-based daily The National.

"It is a phased project. Not everything is going to drop down on day one."

The news report said a certain section of villas would be scrapped in favour of more efficient apartment buildings and many commercial spaces are expected to be larger.

The move is aimed at making Masdar City a smaller and more sustainable development with less emphasis on futuristic technology, but better suited to the current financial climate.

Masdar aims to finish the first stage by the end of 2013.

Steven Morgan, head of the Dubai office of property consultancy Cluttons, supported the move.

"What they are looking to do is perfectly reasonable and more in line with property developers internationally," he was reported as saying. "Over the life of an investment, these kinds of projects need to make a good return."