The UAE’s residential property market is likely “close to, or at the bottom” after years of price reductions, according to Steven Morgan, the CEO of real estate advisor Savills.
According to separate reports from Core and Dubizzle, residential sales and rent prices have continued to fall in 2019, although some popular areas have remained stable.
“The residential market in the UAE has been slipping fairly consistently for the last three or four years,” Morgan said. “It feels to me like we must be close to, or at the bottom of, the market.”
Even if he believes that the market may be reaching its bottom, Morgan said he does not believe there will be any significant price increases in the emirate over the next 12 to 18 months.
“However, it’s difficult to see that there will be significant further reductions despite the fact that there is a lot of stock coming onto the market,” he said.
The UAE market, he added, is also facing challenges caused by fierce competition and coming supply.
“Developers have payment plans, et cetera, that make the second hand market quite difficult, because you can buy new stock and have a fairly long payment plan on that,” he said.
Additionally, Morgan said that Dubai needs “to work through the oversupply”.
“There is a lot of supply coming onto the market,” he added. “I see that the government are doing what they can to reduce more supply. We need to digest it.”
Morgan said that the current conditions – which he termed market “challenges” – mean that there are “great opportunities” for investors.
“There are good deals to be had,” he added.
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