Abu Dhabi — Mubasher: The UAE’s growing investment into infrastructure and its efforts to diversify the economy and positive regulatory changes have laid the ground for stronger economic growth, UK-based Savills said in its first report on the GCC nation’s property market.
The real estate services provider 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.
In the same vein, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently projected the UAE’s economic growth to register 3.7% in 2019.
Savills said that the Gulf country’s non-oil sector grew by 50 basis points to 3% in 2018 in view of increasing investments attributed to the upcoming Expo 2020 in Dubai and the UAE’s longterm focus on infrastructure development.
The six-month Expo 2020 Dubai will be held on 20 October 2020 to 10 April 2021 and is expected to welcome more than 25 million visitors.
As for the UAE’s real estate market, the British property services firm said “supply addition in the residential sector actually witnessed a year-on-year decline as developers focused on consolidating their operations and completion of existing under-construction and launched projects.”
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 found.
“There is still some way to go towards recovery but we are starting to see investor optimism return,” Morgan added.
