Palm City Residences, the Maltese and Kuwaiti-owned luxury residential village in Libya, has registered a positive performance in 2009, its first year of operations, with earnings before interest, depreciation, tax, and amortisation at 62 per cent of total revenue.

To date, 204 of the 413 residential units are leased, with another 78 leases in the offing. The 282 units will generate an annual rental value of €15.2 million. Over 70 per cent of the residences are leased for five-year terms. The first tenants moved in last June.

Developed by Mediterranean Investments Holding plc at Janzour, on the outskirts of Tripoli, the 171,000-square metre project is on track to achieve its ambitious projected financial targets.

"We expect 95 per cent of units to be occupied by the end of this year and we are well on track to achieve a targeted EBIDTA of around 80 per cent of total revenue," Palm City Ltd managing director Reuben Xuereb said on Friday.

Palm City Ltd has a headcount of 75, which will increase to 120 by the year's end.

The village offers a mix of studio apartments, two- and three-bedroom apartments, maisonettes, terraced houses, bungalows, duplex apartments, penthouses and fully detached villas with their own private pools.

Tenants from Norway, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Brazil, Italy, the US, UK and Malta are involved mainly in oil and gas production (40.4 per cent), construction, finance, medical and tourism sectors.

Mediterranean Investments Holding plc is a joint venture between the Corinthia Palace Hotel Company Ltd and the Kuwait National Real Estate Company, a leading real estate company operating in Kuwait and the Gulf.