Dubai
It’s not the mid-market freehold clusters in Dubai that are getting a lift — even the priciest locations are up, with Burj Khalifa and Downtown properties seeing value gains in the last month. While the Burj may have benefited from investors picking up on some favourable deals, the Downtown has seen new launches coming in lower than the current averages.
Downtown units saw gains of 5.2 per cent in March, which puts the location 19 per cent off their 2014 peaks, according to ValuStrat. In contrast, three locations — International City, Motor City and Media Production City — remain less than 5 per cent off the peak. (More than 50 per cent of the expected supply this year is focused in four locations: Dubai Land (19 per cent), Dubai Silicon Oasis (17 per cent), International City (8 per cent) and Dubai Sports City (7.5 per cent).
Also last month there were declines of 0.6-2.5 per cent in Jumeirah Village apartments, Dubai Marina, Jumeirah Lake Towers, the Palm Jumeirah apartments, Burj Khalifa, Jumeirah Islands, the Meadows, and Al Furjan villas.
As for the best yields, currently Dubai Sports City, Remraam and Dubai Production City offer the best — at 7.1, 6.9 and 6.7 per cent, respectively. And asking rents this (first) quarter are now effectively back to the same level as Q1-13, according to ValuStrat.
Meanwhile, the consultancy, which has brought out an office index tracker, reckon Barsha Heights offices had the highest increases, while Business Bay’s took a dive.
