2016 to see Dubai recovery

Property website Bayut.com has made a confident statement predicting that the troubled Dubai property market will bounce back definitively in 2016.

The company’s chief executive officer, Haider Ali Khan, emphasised that the ground-level situation was far better than the gloomy prognosis of pessimistic experts would suggest. While acknowledging that the first half of this year saw prices fall by up to 10%, Mr Khan said that the size of the market was constantly increasing due to the continued faith of investors in its eventual recovery and that much-needed easing was underway, which would put the market back on steady ground and an upward path again.

Continued demand

Bayut said that it was counting on an ongoing rise in the emirates’ population and its status as a top tourist resort with excellent leisure and hospitality facilities, in addition to its importance as a major regional business hub. These factors should ensure continued demand for real estate and prevent a major crash similar to that of 2008, Mr Khan said. An influx of new workers is expected to arrive in the city in the latter half of 2015 and beyond, ensuring a steady demand for residential property.

Period of readjustment

Bayut’s previous market report isolated the factors it believed had caused the slump in the real estate sector. It singled out the government’s measures to combat market overheating, the stronger dollar, the drop in the price of oil, the Russian crisis and the accompanying sanctions and other global economic factors. However, it emphasised that none of these issues pointed to a fault within the actual Dubai property sector itself and suggested that market readjustment to shed the weight of excessive prices was ultimately healthy.

‘Although the slowdown has driven out flippers eyeing quick gains, herein lies a chance for long-term players to make a calculated move and be prepared with the right arsenal once the battle heats up in the coming months,’ the report concluded.

Overly negative reports

Bayut also highlighted new laws recently introduced by Dubai’s government to secure investors’ interests, and the increased pressure on developers to meet deadlines. These were often overlooked in the general pessimism of commentators, the company said. Citing a recent negative report by a noted agency that was widely taken as a sure sign of a forthcoming crash, Bayut pointed out that such reports undermined investor confidence and could therefore be seen as self-fulfilling.