Downtown and Palm weather soft trends

It seems that Dubai’s priciest locations are starting to weather the market conditions better. Transaction values at the Downtown, the Palm, Emirates Hills and Jumeirah Islands seemed “immune” from negative trends during the fourth quarter, according to a new update from ValuStrat, the property consultancy.

In fact, Palm and Emirates Hills did see some big ticket purchases during the period, with a seven-bedroom villa at the latter going for Dh18.92 million to be the costliest deal during December.

But there were year-onyear declines elsewhere, such as at Arabian Ranches (by 2.4 per cent), The Meadows (4.3 per cent), Dubai Marina (5.1 per cent), Jumeirah Lake Towers (7.5 per cent) and International City (4.5 per cent), ValuStrat data shows.

“The main trends of 2017 were the rise of off-plan launches and their impact on the wider residential market,” said Declan King, Managing Director and Group Head for Real Estate. “High profile successes in the new homes sector came at a price for the existing secondary market, with price falls recorded in both sales and leasing rates for many established locations.”

On rents, compared to the same period last year, rents were down 13.2 per cent for apartments and 12.3 per cent for villas at the end of 2017. “Landlords have become more accommodating in reducing rents for existing tenants approaching lease renewal,” the report notes.

But as per the official Dubai rental index, “a clear majority of freehold areas saw no change”.