The year 2010 could see a 300 per cent rise in home finance in Dubai over the previous year, as mortgage activity in the emirate’s real estate market has started to pick up. Property and rental prices are down to 2007 levels and in some cases even lower, which is helping queries to come thick and fast. Activity increased so much in February that Showkat Wani, senior mortgage advisor at John Charcol Middle East, says he had to come to his office at weekends.
Most real estate consultants agree that the residential market in Dubai is stabilising. According to Jones Lang LaSalle, the average sale price per square foot of residential property in Dubai dropped just two per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009 to AED882, compared to AED901 in the previous quarter of the same year. Apartment rents in the fourth quarter of 2009 were down 39 per cent over the same quarter in the previous year, but up three per cent over the previous quarter of the same year. [Read More]
