Dubai is doubling down on its financial center with a new $1.4 billion district, looking past the Iranian attacks that rattled the city’s residents earlier this year and drove down property sales.

Construction on the Water Gardens, a four-building district that includes two hotels as well as residential and office towers, has begun with 30,000 workers already on site. The district is set for completion before the end of 2028.

Property sales have softened in Dubai amid slower demand from foreign investors following Iranian attacks on the United Arab Emirates at the start of the war. While the number of deals have fallen, real-estate prices and rents have largely held steady with values falling marginally.

Even so, sales are still continuing, Shahab Lutfi, chairman of H&H Development, which is helming the project said in an interview. Last week, H&H sold two Four Seasons branded homes in the new district, with one fetching 35 million dirhams ($9.5 million) and another 45 million dirhams.

“There are cycles in every industry and Dubai always comes out of these cycles much stronger,” Lutfi said. “We don’t look at it on a short terms basis and we’ve managed our financials pretty well.”He co-founded H&H along with Mohamed bin Hadi Al Hussaini, who is the UAE Minister of State for Financial Affairs.

Dubai’s financial hub topped 10,000 activeed companies for the first time, underscoring the emirate’s continued success in attracting global firms despite a period of heightened geopolitical tensions in the region. Still, real estate firms have faced pressures.

“I’d comfortably say there is a 50% drop at least, if not more, but that’s expected,” the chairman said when asked about his company’s sales. That data came up when the firm looked at sales transactions from March to September in comparison with the same period a year earlier, he said.

“We had an overheating market, but even a 50% drop of whatever we used to sell before is still comfortable,” the chairman said.

Lutfi said about 85% of the branded residences in the new districts were sold with prices topping 8,000 dirhams a square foot, one of the area’s highest rates. Another hotel is being built with 154 rooms and 40 residences.

Eden House, a residential building with 132 apartments, is also under construction and will be held for rental income. A 12-story office tower will add 246,737 square-feet of Grade A office space along with a members club, according to Miltos Bossinis, chief executive officer of H&H. Most of the development will be leased and operated, Lutfi said.

The war has driven prices higher for contractors building in the region and across the world. Lutfi said costs have climbed about 15% for construction materials.

Still, “it’s not like people are running away or reducing the sales price drastically,” Lutfi said. “If you’re lucky, you might get 4% or 5% discount on some projects, not in ours, but around the city.”