Dubai-based property developer Nakheel has made an AED2.35bn ($640m) repayment of bank debt more than a year and half ahead of schedule.

The payment is roughly a third of the total outstanding AED6.8bn-worth of debt due to be repaid in September 2015.

At the beginning of the year, the company announced its debt repayment plans, revealing it would be largely debt free by September 2015.

Following the latest repayment, Nakheel is scheduled to pay a further instalment of AED1.65bn in August followed by AED1.5bn in February 2015. The final payment of AED1.5bn will be made in September 2015.

The company also confirmed in January that an AED4.5bn trade creditor sukuk due to paid in August 2016 will be paid on time.

Buoyed by an upturn in Dubai’s property market and improved economic conditions throughout the UAE, Nakheel has been able to fast-track its original debt restructuring plans announced in 2011.

Nakheel has launched several new projects this year. In early February, it awarded an AED375m ($102m) contract to Gulf Technical Construction Company (GTCC) to build The Pointe at Palm Jumeirah.

The Pointe is an AED800m, 136,000-square-metre retail and entertainment complex that will be located at the tip of Palm Jumeirah

Nakheel say it currently has more than 4000 units with an estimated current sale value of AED13bn in the development pipeline.