Al Nakheel Properties and the Trump Organization announced Monday that one of the two exclusive penthouses in Trump International Hotel & Tower on Palm Jumeirah will be breaking property records by selling for more than $30 million (The earlier record was $12 million for a penthouse at the Burje Tower, Dubai).

The two towers of the Trump International Hotel & Tower, scheduled for completion in 2011, will form the gateway to Palm Jumeirah, the offshore development that will co-host a permanent residence for the Cirque du Soleil and the retired QE2 cruise liner, along with hotels, apartments and villas.

Besides the penthouses, the Tower is selling 399 freehold residential apartments between 890 to 7,500 sq. feet in size. Pre-sales for some units are said to be in the vicinity of around $3,000 per square foot.

The development is the first in the region for Donald Trump, the US property magnate. He has reserved a penthouse apartment in the tower for himself, which will have views across the Gulf. “People will continue to pay for good locations and good product – it is an iconic building in the middle of the iconic Palm, with Trump branding on top,” he told the Financial Times.

Dubai’s real estate market is booming as the diversified city-state attracts much of the petrodollar surpluses caused by record oil prices. According to property consultants Colliers International, Dubai property prices have surged 78 per cent in the first quarter of this year.

Still, Dubai lags well behind the average property prices in centres such as New York and London. London’s most expensive flats are the Candy brothers’ One Hyde Park, where penthouses have allegedly sold for more than £80m ($157m).

Via Financial Times