Yallacompare’s Consumer Confidence Index Q2 polled 1,347 UAE residents on the state of their finances. It found that 38.6 percent of residents are paying more rent, with 21 percent paying more for same place. 19.8 percent are paying less to rent out the same property now than they were last year, while 34.9 percent are paying the same.
That might seem surprising given that recent studies suggest that apartment rents in Dubai and Abu Dhabi fell in Q2 by as much as four percent compared to Q1. And according to Cavendish Maxwell, the vast majority of agents expect rents to decrease by a further five percent in Q3.
So why the discrepancy between the market and what people are paying? Some people are taking advantage of good deals to upgrade, with 10 percent of residents moving to a bigger home. But the majority (66.5 percent) of UAE residents are still in the same homes as they were 12 months ago. More broadly, rent surveys are based on new listings, which doesn’t take in to account the people who aren’t moving, unlike this survey.
But that still leaves the question of why are over a fifth of residents paying more to stay in their current home?
In this edition of Inside AB, Bernd Debusmann and Jeremy Lawrence ask why residents perhaps don’t realise that they are in a good position to negotiate, given the market conditions. And they outline the legality of how and when to renegotiate your rental contract to get a better deal.
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(Source: Arabianbusiness.com YouTube channel)
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