Dubai steps up efforts to revive property market
The owner of a five-bedroom penthouse overlooking Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah is looking to sell. And like many others leaving the emirate’s struggling economy, he is willing to offload his property at a deep discount. “The client is willing to let it go for Dh7m ($1.9m),” said a broker asked to find a buyer for the distressed property. Prices for such luxury duplexes reached Dh6m to Dh17m during the market peak in 2014. But demand has plummeted as Dubai’s services- and tourism-oriented economy suffered the double blow of the oil price collapse in 2014 — just as the supply of apartments, offices and hotels surged — and escalating geopolitical tensions. Turmoil across the sector, from plunging prices to late-paying developers pressuring cash-strappedcontractors, has prompted Dubai’s authorities to act to get a grip on a market that has an outsized impact on sentiment. As well as forming a committee to balance supply and demand, the government has turned to two of its most senior officials to take over ailing state-owned companies. Mohammed al-Shaibani, head of Dubai’s state holding company, last week took over the chairmanship of Nakheel, the Palm’s developer. His appointment follows that in December of Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum. The head of Emirates airline replaced Abdullah al-Habbai as chairman of two companies with development units owned by the emirate’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.
Tags : INTERNATIONAL