"Weaker demand, a strong U.S. dollar and ongoing cooling measures have dampened sales volumes in the mainstream sector"
This was the observation on Dubai's property market according to Knight Frank real estate consultancy group, as reported in a bloomberg.com article recently. Dubai experienced a 12.2 percent drop in property prices from last year's numbers, considered the highest drop in the world. Ukraine, which experienced political upheavals and separatist insurgencies plus almost 2 years of protest, was a bit luckier than their Middle East counterpart, coming in at 12 percent.
In the same article, Hong Kong was the highest performer with a 20.7 percent increase with its property prices. "The slump in Dubai real estate looks set to continue. Villa prices will fall by a further 5 percent to 7 percent in the second half of the year. Rental prices are also weak and are expected to drop another 1.5 percent to 2 percent in the second half, although apartments continue to be viewed favorably by some investors," stated Cluttons on the state of the Dubai property market. Cluttons is also a highly specialized realty consultancy services group that operates in the U. K. as well as the Middle East.
Another article on thenational.ae also mentioned a rather positive note for this property market. This is due to the outcome of the UAE-Iran cross border trade report last year, which stabilized at Dh62.4 B. "We have seen Iranian traders who have businesses in the UAE speculatively looking for more office space, retail space or industrial space..We have also heard from our banking clients that Iranian clients are seeking loans to fund expansion," said Faisal Durrani, Cluttons' head of research.
"The expectation is that a lot of those funds will flow through the UAE's banking system, which will help to boost liquidity levels. This will have a positive impact on the real-estate market in general," continued Durrani.
More info on the report can be read here.
