One of the world’s largest and influential newswires has strongly endorsed the bright prospects of the Dubai property market that opened to foreigners in 2002, a first in the Arabian Gulf region. This led to a construction boom and in 2004, a total of 70,411 units were launched mainly by government-backed entities like Emaar, Nakheel, Dubai Properties, Mizan, Tatweer and DIFC. In 2009 and 2010, a total of 76,000 units entered the market. By 2010, one-sixth of the 66 super-towers — measuring 200 metres or higher — getting completed globally, was located in Dubai, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH).

A property expert says a mind-boggling 190 skyscrapers were built in Dubai between 2000 and 2015. Today, Dubai is at 13^th position in the world for cities with most skyscrapers, with 493 – ahead of San Francisco, Houston, Singapore, Beijing, Frankfurt and Kuala Lumpur.

Thomson Reuters, a British news service founded in 1851, says the region’s powerful property market is on a steady course and prices are expected to rise modestly over the coming years.

Revealing details of a poll of housing analysts it conducted, it says it confirmed the market stand of property prices remaining affordable in the coming years.

The economy, according to the Dubai Land Department (DLC) has bounced back sharply from the coronavirus pandemic and has spilt onto the real estate market, with a continued increase in sales.

Based on the survey of a dozen leading property analysts, the newswire said the emirate’s house prices were forecast to rise 3.0 per cent in 2021 and 2.5 per cent in 2022, compared with 1.1 per cent and 2.8 per cent expected three months ago.

This modest outlook stands in stark contrast to other property markets like Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where record-high house prices were expected to rise in double digits this year.

Faisal Durrani, partner-head of Middle East Research at Knight Frank, one of the world’s largest estate agencies founded in London in 1896, said: “Prices overall are still about 36 per cent down from their last peak in 2014, so relatively speaking we are still a long way off from the previous peak. Definitely the market has started to bottom out in certain pockets. At the top end of the market, we are probably seeing a quicker recovery than elsewhere. For some, like apartments, we are not expecting price rises as quick and as fast as has been the case for villas.”

At the top end of the market, we are probably seeing a quicker recovery than elsewhere.

In the Reuter’s poll, nine of 11 analysts say activity in the housing market in Dubai would rise in the coming year and two said it would stay the same. None expected it to decline. Five said a sharp upturn in the economy was the biggest upside risk to the housing market outlook over the coming year.  Three chose job growth as upside risks, two cited effective handling of the pandemic and one cited an increase in affordable homes.

On an affordability scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is extremely cheap and 10 is extremely expensive, analysts returned a median of 4, rating Dubai housing in the inexpensive bracket. A clear majority of analysts, nine of 11, said affordability would either stay the same or improve over the next two to three years. Only two expected it to worsen. “Next year, we are currently tracking almost 64,000 units due to be completed. And if that figure materialises it would be the highest level of completions since the 2009 global financial crisis,” the survey inferred.

Property Finder Data & Research says until September 2020 up to 48,015 residential units were completed in Dubai. However, construction completion does not necessarily translate into handover of the homes. There has been a total of 10,670 units completed this year. Apartments accounted for a major chunk of the inventory in 2019 at 33,548 units, villas/townhouses numbered around 4,612 and serviced apartments at 5,622. According to construction schedules, Jumeirah Village Circle (JVC) will see the highest number of projects (23) completed until Expo 2020 Dubai starts. This will be followed by Mohammed Bin Rashid City (MBBR) with 15 project completions. It should be noted that the master community of MBR City also includes Dubai Hills Estate and Meydan. Dubailand and Business Bay will also see a lot of activity, with 12 projects apiece likely to be completed.