Dubai Property Prices Slip To 2010 Levels

Increasingly affordable property prices in Dubai are fuelling significant growth in sales activity as residential values drop towards those last seen after the global economic crisis a decade ago. New figures released by real estate experts ValuStrat show that the average price per sq ft in the emirate this year averaged AED911, just AED13 above those from 2010. "With increasingly affordable secondary market house prices, August saw a significant growth trend in sales activity over the previous months as well as when compared to August last year. Since the lifting of movement restrictions, home sales transaction volumes in Dubai continued what looked like a V-shape recovery trend," ValuStrat said in its latest research note. The real estate sector was already battling sluggish market conditions long before Covid-19 arrived. But the pandemic, in combination with the postponement of Expo 2020, has added further uncertainty, characterised by projects being delayed, and both values and rental yields reflecting the unfavourable climate. ValuStrat added that all properties it monitored in Dubai saw monthly capital values decline by as much as 1.9 percent, an example of which was apartments in Jumeirah Village Circle. Due to reduced project launches by developers, August’s off-plan home sales declined 25.2 percent when compared to July.