by FSBO 
Thinking of buying or selling property in Dubai? Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates known for luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture and a lively nightlife scene. Burj Khalifa, an 830m-tall tower, dominates the skyscraper-filled skyline. At its foot lies Dubai Fountain, with jets and lights choreographed to music. On artificial islands just offshore is Atlantis, The Palm, a resort with water and marine-animal parks.
The property market in Dubai has been through many ups and downs. Dubai was affected by the 2008 global economic recession. Things were pretty bad only a few years ago, as so many of the foreign investors who had invested millions in Dubai properties had been looking for an exit.
Are you looking to sell your property in Dubai as well? Then it’s important to understand why the real estate market in Dubai was under so much stress. The trigger for the crisis was definitely the subprime mortgage crisis in the USA. That led to a capital flight from Dubai as people became anxious about investing in real estate.
Banks were left with massive losses and the authorities in Dubai were perplexed, unable to stop investors from leaving. There was another reason for the capital flight – it was that much of the growth in the real estate market here was artificially inflated.
That made no sense at all. There was just too much speculative activity in Dubai and once investors realised that they had been taken for a ride, they did the only thing they could under the circumstances – sell off their investments at a discount and leave the Middle East at the earliest opportunity.
So how is Dubai coping up now, over a decade after the 2008 recession? Have the traditional investors in the property market here come back?
Yes and no. foreign investors are still interested in the housing market in Dubai, but there is no rush to buy properties in Dubai as there used to be in the past.
One can say that the interest has mellowed down. The market is a lot more realistic today, and while there is still some demand for apartments and luxury properties in Dubai, it’s not as high as it was in the hay days of the Dubai real estate boom.
Property prices in Dubai have increased by 2% over the last 12 months. Now, this is not an earth-shaking development, but really, when you consider that the prices were on a decline for 7 out of the last 8 years, this is a welcome development.
Who are the biggest overseas investors in Dubai? Britons, as you might have expected, are the biggest buyers of luxury properties here, having invested as much as $2.6 billion in 2018 – 2022
Wealthy individuals from India were big buyers as well. Many Bollywood celebrities and top business executives from India have bought into luxury apartments in some of Dubai’s high rises such as the Burj Khalifa. There is considerable interest in Dubai from high net worth European, Americans, Chinese and Russian investors as well.
To conclude, the market in Dubai has certainly stabilised and the bottom has well and truly been reached. There is no fear of the property prices dropping off any further. The only way is up and that is a good thing indeed for those who are eager to buy luxury apartments in Dubai.
