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Real Estate Sales Value Tumbles
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Gulf nationals sold proper-ties valued at dhs15.7 billion ($4.3 billion) in Dubai during the eight months ended August this year, the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) and the Land Department said in a joint statement yesterday, according to Bloomberg news wire.
Land sales by developers and individuals accounted for dhs10.8 billion of Dubai’s total property sales between January and August. Apartment sales followed with dhs2.9 billion and villa sales reached dhs2 billion, RERA said.
According to the Dubai Land Department web site, sales in the first six months of 2008 alone were over dhs40 billion, while the second half of the year saw sales of around dhs20 billion.
The Middle East has the world’s worst-performing real estate market, with property prices in Dubai down around 50 per cent from their peak and heading lower, Deutsche Bank said in June.
House prices in Dubai suffered the biggest 12-month fall among global property markets, real estate brokerage Knight Frank said in September.
However, the brokerage added that the decline in prices had started to slow.
“The second-quarter drop was only 7.5 per cent compared with a massive 41 per cent slide during the previous three months... while the market still remains oversupplied, transaction volumes have started to increase,” Knight Frank said.
ING Groep’s $150 billion real estate fund has no interest in the region because of overdevelopment, Richard Price, head of the Dutch bank’s Asian property unit said in an interview last week.
Nationals from the UAE executed the highest number of deals in Dubai’s property market.
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