Dubai — Mubasher: Prices of the Palm Jumeirah’s housing units dipped 9.5% in 2018, UK-based Savills said on Wednesday in its first report on the GCC nation’s property market.
Capital values across Dubai Marina and Jumeirah Lake Towers fell by 5-7% in the 12-month period ended last December, the report entitled “the UAE Property Report” added.
Prices for apartments in Downtown Dubai slumped 16% while values in the Burj Khalifa tumbled 12% year-on-year in 2018, the real estate services provider noted.
As for villas and townhouses, capital values on an average decreased 9% in Arabian Ranches, 12% in Meadows and Palm Jumeirah and about 14% at Jumeirah Park in comparison with December 2017.
Dubai’s residential real estate market was firmly in a correction phase during 2018 with inventory levels piling up across micro-markets as large planes launched during the period between 2014 and 2016 were delivered to the market, Savills noted.
The report highlighted that a slowdown in global trade and financial markets has taken its toll on demand.
Over the course of the previous year, transaction activity fell by around 22% year-on-year, while apartment buyers adopted a wait-and-watch approach, it added.
The British property services firm said that demand for ready-to-move properties hiked in view of rising project completions over the last twelve months with developers offering generous post-handover payment schemes.
New project launches were limited to small and medium-sized plans, the report found, adding that supply addition was led by eminent developers with proven track records.
Most of the UAE property markets saw price value drops due to the level of existing supply combined with new launches, while both capital and rental values witnessed year-on-year drop, the report said.
Savills identifies the UAE as “one of the great success stories of the Middle East” on the back of the Arab country’s bold moves such as visa liberalisation and increasing government spending on infrastructure.
“The UAE Government has made a number of bold, innovative changes to stimulate the growth of the economy and secure its long-term future. Through both public and private sector investment, we envision the UAE will continue its progress towards a diversified economy and a more mature real estate market,” Steve Morgan, CEO of Savills Middle East, commented.
The UAE’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to accelerate to 2.9% this year, up from 2.3% in 2018, the report said, citing the World Bank and Oxford Economics.
