Dubai real estate prices expected to rise

source Gulf News

Dubai: The future of real estate in Dubai is sunny, with most real estate agents predicting the market will pick up in the next six months.

"If we look at other markets, as the availability of financial lending changed, there was a slow period for a couple of months and then the market improved in terms of transactions," Ryan Mahoney, managing director of Better Homes, said.

Mahoney said the number of transactions for November is consistent with the number of transactions recorded in January, well before the arrival of the unwelcome crunch.

"I'm doubtful whether transactions will rise to previous levels in the next six months. But people will have a sense of prices falling. Then they will stop falling and start to grow again. It may take more than a year," Mahoney said.

Mohammad Binbrek, chief executive officer of Dubai Properties, agreed, saying transactions have not been affected.

"I believe the current issue is more to do with public sentiment than the availability of liquidity or resources. We need to address people's fears and concerns. Once that is done, it will be business as usual," Binbrek said.

The guarded optimism was reflected in a survey of more than 170 Dubai-based estate agents. Around 77 per cent of the respondents said the issues currently plaguing the property industry in Dubai would be gone in six months.