{"id":19337,"date":"2012-05-16T12:28:39","date_gmt":"2012-05-16T08:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=19337"},"modified":"2012-05-16T12:33:28","modified_gmt":"2012-05-16T08:33:28","slug":"dubai-real-estate-sparks-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-business\/dubai-real-estate-sparks-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Dubai Real Estate Showing Sparks of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What’s the story?<\/strong>\u00a0Sparks of life from Dubai’s real estate sector – rents and house prices are beginning to move in the right direction.<\/p>\n

Yawn, so what?<\/strong>\u00a0Well aside it being interesting for those in negative equity,\u00a0and those struggling to pay mortgages, real estate is very much a barometre of where the country is on the economic cycle. So far we have been bouncing along the bottom, and have been for four years.<\/p>\n

Dubai was also one of the first countries to move into a real estate crisis, so it could be a barometre for the wider region and stretching it a little international market.<\/p>\n

So what do the experts say?<\/strong> Rental market yields in some areas, for some property types, are up.<\/p>\n

Woohoo. Doesn’t exactly sound like the market is on the boil?<\/strong> No, but then rents are no longer appear to be going only one way – south – either. What it is is patchy.<\/p>\n

Patchy?<\/strong> Yes. You’re less likely to see freefall in headlines over the next 12\u00a0months.<\/p>\n

Didn’t I read earlier this week another report with generally positive news?<\/strong> Yes you did. Dubai was the world’s top performing real estate market in the first quarter of 2012, according to the latest Knight Frank Prime Global Cities Index. Dubai recorded a four percent rise between December 2011 and March 2012, the index showed, putting it ahead of the likes of Jakarta (3.3 percent) and London (2.7 percent).<\/p>\n

Knight Frank said Dubai’s house prices rose 2.7 percent since last September and 0.3 percent over the past 12 months.<\/p>\n

Basically some areas have now hit bottom and you will see some rises, some will continue to see a degree further softening – i.e. falls. Think International City vs. Palm Jumeirah and appartments versus villas.<\/p>\n

So, is now the time to buy, and buy to rent?<\/strong> For the brave investor, it could well be, but be careful where and what you buy. Clearly there is increasing activity from admittedly a low base: Residential unit transactions\u00a0during the first quarter of 2012 totalled AED3.1bn, a nine percent increase\u00a0compared to the previous quarter.<\/p>\n

And where are we likely to see most demand?<\/strong>\u00a0The highest increase in lease rates took place in the two bedroom sector at\u00a0five percent, followed by five and six bedroom units which both increased by\u00a0around three percent.<\/p>\n

Developments such as Emirates Living and the Palm Jumeirah have shown positive\u00a0growth over the last three quarters.<\/p>\n

Overall lease rates in Emirates Living have increased by six percent year-on-year.<\/p>\n

For apartments, the highest increase in Q1 was for one bedroom units, which\u00a0grew by two percent while three bedroom units grew by one percent.<\/p>\n

Within the emirate’s freehold areas, the highest increase in lease rates took\u00a0place in the Greens at seven percent, followed by Downtown Dubai where rates\u00a0grew by six percent.<\/p>\n

What about commercial property?<\/strong> Hold off there… CBRE also said Dubai’s commercial property market is likely to remain flat in 2012 as new supply keeps rents below 2005 levels.<\/p>\n

Around 171,500 sq m of new office space entered the market during the quarter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dubai was also one of the first countries to move into a real estate crisis, so it could be a barometre for the wider region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,154,187,893],"tags":[197,894,18316],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19337"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}