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Dubai’s real estate market is booming once again. What we witnessed at last month’s Cityscape Global 2014, one of the largest international exhibitions specialising in real estate investment and development, reveals just how buoyant the sector is, with 27 new projects worth AED 40 billion being presented at the show. A number of the main developments and features were:
• Dubai Properties, a subsidiary of the state-owned Dubai Holding, is launching a new luxury waterfront hotel in Dubai Culture Village.
• Dubai’s Damac Properties says this year’s Cityscape was its ‘most successful’ one to date and that its stand was packed with investors seeking details about its latest development, AKOYA Oxygen.
• Dubai Downtown project, which is being undertaken by Emaar, and Dubai Creek Harbour, a project which includes hotels, residential towers, and tourism and leisure facilities.
• Projects by Nakheel, Miras, Omniyat, Nikken Sekkei, Seven Tides, Sun and Sand Developers and TDIC were among the many launched at the three-day event,.
Who is investing in all these projects?
• According to the Dubai Land Department (DLD), 6,636 properties were registered across the emirate for the first half of the year, further underlining the sustained investor confidence in the real estate market.
• With AED 113 billion worth of transactions pumped into the Dubai property industry in the last six months, DLD believes that Dubai has now established itself as a prime global destination for real estate, following the implementation of new laws and regulations which safeguard investors.
• A total of AED 78 billion worth of investments from GCC, Arab and foreign investors from the first eight months of this year were injected in Dubai.
• Middle Eastern investors are expected to spend $180 billion in commercial real estate markets outside of their own region over the next decade, according to a report released by leading commercial property consultants, CBRE.
The reality for renters
Dubai’s real estate market is unique and offers a diverse range of products and services, meaning that there are opportunities for large and small investors. The sector is burgeoning, laws and regulations are in place, it is balanced, and the market is protected. Yet the flip side of the coin is that we are witnessing the same rises in rent as in the previous boom years. Despite the 50,000 properties currently listed for rent listed in Dubai, it is still difficult to find a decent apartment at a reasonable price.
An interesting study by website Dubizzle has found that rents and house prices in Dubai’s prime locations now match those in New York’s Manhattan district. The average rent per month for a one-bedroom apartment in a prime Dubai district ranges from AED 7,500 to AED 13,000 while a similar property in Manhattan would demand a rent of AED 7,300 to AED 11,900, it said.
Landlords in Dubai, if you price people out of the market, you will kill the goose that has laid the golden egg.