According to research carried out by CB Richard Ellis, residential property sales in Dubai have nosedived over the past year, declining by a whopping 45% year-on-year, from 2,649 transactions in Q3 2010 to 1,459 in Q3 2011.
Matthew Green, head of research and consultancy for HSBC Middle East commented that the low number of completed deals, shows that market performance registered a very passive quarter.
Demand among people currently looking to buy property in Dubai is generally greatest for villas, because the supply is limited.
Mohammed Faheem, senior research analyst at CBRE, commented: “Villa properties continue to outperform apartments as the more limited supply and strong demand for high end properties impacts overall performance.
“Despite this, average rental lease rates [for villas] have dropped by 10% year-on-year – around half of the average decline for apartments (19%) during the same period. The most significant fall was in the two-bedroom apartment category at 26%. The lowest drop was for five-bedroom villas at just 2%, reflecting the fundamentals at play and the relative oversupply of small villa/townhouse units in developments in Jumeirah Village and the Mirdiff area.”
