Real Estate

dubai expat life

Dubai among worst hit property markets in the world

Dubai Real Estate

Dubai real estate was the 9 worst performing market in the world last year, according to a new report by Knight Frank. However, the results of a survey of the 50 biggest property markets in the world also show the rate of decline in Dubai has began to slow.

Reported in Arabian Business, Dubai prices have declined 49.7 percent overall since the peak in the third quarter of 2008.

Last month, a survey of local analysts by Arabian Business found house prices in Dubai’s battered real estate market will slide a further 15 percent by the end of the year.

The Gulf’s worst-performing real estate market over the last three years has seen rents and prices more than halve from their 2008-peak, but residential costs have further to go, analysts said.

Oversupply continues to be a key driver behind falling rents and prices, analysts said. Colliers calculated that around 13,000 units are due to come online by the year-end, followed by a further 27,000 properties in 2012.

Dubai said in June it had cancelled 217 property projects as of May 31, following a review of more than 450 projects. The emirate said it expected a further 237 developments to be completed in due course.

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House prices in Dubai approaching bottom

House prices in Dubai approaching bottom

Real estate prices in Dubai’s battered property market are bottoming out more than two years after the financial crisis sparked a slump that devastated values, an analyst has said.

Fifteen months on from the Dubai World debt crisis, which saw the state-owned conglomerate seek to alter terms on $24.9bn of debt, investor appetite is picking up, said Saeed Hashmi.

“We’re now a year on from the whole Dubai World situation. We’ve moved on, mature markets have stabilised again. Declines are slowing down, we’re getting close to the bottom of the market,” the head of valuation and advisory at Landmark Advisory said.

The emirate’s housing market has been in decline since 2009. The value of real estate deals in Dubai plunged 65 percent in 2010, data from Jones Lang LaSalle shows, while the number of transactions fell by more than half.

Average house prices in Dubai have tumbled 62 percent from their peak, Deutsche Bank said this month.

Complicating the matter is the threat of new supply, which could further the price slump. As many as 48,000 homes will be completed in the next two years, increasing current supply by 12 percent, Landmark Advisory estimates.

The UAE’s trade and tourism hub may also benefit from the political unrest sweeping the Arab world, as investors seek comparatively safe markets for their funds.

From: Arabian Business

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Six Month Realty Visa For Property Owners in Dubai

Dubai Realty Visa for real estate investors

Well, the game of rule popping goes on for investors who bought “free hold” properties in UAE, thinking they have got residency permit of 25 years. When builders, developers and real estate agents were conning investors government was looking the other way. It suddenly woke up from slumber and started (and modifying) one law after the other for “transparent” real estate transactions.

The newly announced multiple-entry visas for property owners can be renewed as soon as they leave the country, contradicting the earlier official claim that to become eligible to renew the visa, property owners should leave the UAE for at least a month.

On May 2, in an unprecedented move, Lieutenant General Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Interior, issued a decree allowing expatriate property owners to obtain multiple-entry visas that are valid for a period of six months. Property owners must meet a set of criteria to be eligible for the visas.

The ruling, which applies to all of the emirates, stipulates that:

– The property in question should be worth at least Dh1 million and be wholly owned by the investor who is applying for the visa. [meaning investors with property less than a millions dirhams shall not get the residency visa]
– The property should also be ready for the investor to move in and the investor must have a monthly income of no less than Dh10,000, or the equivalent in foreign currencies.
– The visa may be renewed any number of times, with no waiting period, but holders cannot stay in the country for more than six months at a time.
– After spending six months in the country, investors are expected to leave the UAE before renewing their visas, according to the ruling.
– The apartment or villa must be capable of comfortably accommodating the family of the investor, without elaborating.
– The investor is required to obtain the title of the property from the registration authority in the respective emirate.

This will certainly place the small investors in a jam.

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Villa prices in Dubai fall by 45% amid real estate slump

Villa prices at Jumeirah Park and Jumeirah Islands, Nakheel’s exclusive residential developments in Dubai, have plunged up to 45 percent in the last four months.

Brokers across the UAE said speculators were desperately scrambling to off-load property before prices fell further.

Imran Aslam, agent at Dubai-based property broker AAA said completed three to four bedroom villas on Jumeirah Islands were now on the market for as low as six million dirhams, down from 10.5 million dirhams four months ago.

“It’s a big difference now. Investors are quickly reducing prices. They are also finding they have got too many [properties], so they want to sell. At the moment there is no stable price in the market.”

Aslam said off-plan villas at Jumeirah Park, a 350 hectare planned residential community due for completion in the next few months, have fallen in price by 40 percent.

Distressed investors are fleeing Dubai’s once red hot real estate market as the global credit crunch hits demand, sending values tumbling.

Lack of mortgage availability exacerbated by a regional liquidity squeeze is also hampering would be buyers, agents said.

Adriana Kapostikova, broker at Dubai Waterfront Properties said: “It [the market] is going down. This is the problem. There are people putting prices down and down because they want to sell. It’s cheap now.”

Up-market villas on Jumeirah Islands, a smart residential enclave consisting of a series of man-made islands near Emirates Golf Club, have come down in value from 12 million dirhams to nine million dirhams, a reduction of 30 percent, Kapostikova said.

Abu Dhabi-based broker Ocean View said real estate values at Jumeirah Park had slipped 40 to 50 percent in the last few months.

Private developer Nakheel completed Jumeirah Islands in 2006. Villas at Jumeirah Park, which is a family orientated development with a number of open spaces and parks, range from three-five bedroom villas.

From Arabian Business

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Property and Real Estate Companies Cutting Jobs in Dubai

nakheelDubai has felt the heat of global recession and at least property and real estate sectors are already in downsizing mode.

Nakheel, Dubai’s real estate master developer, made 500 people (or 15 per cent of its global workforce) redundant while scaling back projects.

This is the second biggest confirmed job cut in the UAE so far, and comes after two developers, Damac and Omniyat confirmed a total of 269 – 200 by Damac and 69 by Omniyat.

All other major developers have earlier said they are revising headcount downwards, as business activities in Dubai’s real estate has come close to a near halt.