Dubai property shows signs of stabilisation, says report

The Dubai residential market is showing signs of stabilisation, the property consultancy Jones Lang Lasalle said today in a report. According to the company's latest quarterly analysis on Dubai, the decline in achieved prices has slowed to 6 per cent, compared to the first three months of the year, down to around Dh950 per square foot. This brings the total decline since the market was at its hight during the third quarter last year, to 37 per cent. The report said asking prices had fallen more quickly, down 24 per cent to around Dh1,000 per square foot, from the first three months of the year, when buyers were demanding Dh1,300 a square foot. "The narrowing gap between asking prices and achieved prices is a further indication that the market is beginning to stabilise, albeit at significantly lower levels of pricing than those seen earlier in the year," said Craig Plumb, the head of research at Jones Lang Lasalle MENA. The number of transactions in the second quarter this year was 845, the report said, compared to 975 in the first one. On a year on year basis, the transactional volume has decreased by 58 per cent. There has also been a lower rate of rental decline, with the average rent for two bedroom apartments falling by 15 per cent during the second quarter, compared with a 22 per cent decline during the first. ngillet@thenational.ae