The UAE witnessed a general slowdown in the real estate market across all its emirates during the first half, thanks to the cumulative effect of falling oil prices and the resulting cuts to government budgets, according to Asteco, the Middle East’s largest full service real estate company.
Dubai experienced a slow first six months, but for different reasons, with developers slowing the pace of project completions and handovers due to the forecasted oversupply of residential properties in the market, which prompted a slight drop of around two and one per cent respectively on rental rates for apartments and villas, said Asteco in its special Cityscape report on September 6.
The property expert said Dubai sales market was likely to bottom out by the end of 2016. A trend towards affordable development persists with increase in single-unit buyers expected in 2017 it added.
