Motor City prices closest to 2014 peak

Dubai: Dubai’s mid-market communities are leading in the race to head back to mid-2014 value peaks — Motor City leads the pack, followed by Dubai Production Zone (formerly IMPS) and then comes that perennial favourite of the value-seeking investor, International City. In fact, current Motor City values are just 5 per cent off from their peak, according to data from the consultancy ValuStrat.

The gain in values is also apparent to an extent at The Greens, Discovery Gardens and, among high-end locations, the Downtown, Lakes and Victory Heights have been beneficiaries. But market watchers are not rushing to suggest that a full-blown recovery is now underway.

“We can expect more locations to join this trend during 2017, resulting in a gradual broadening of recovery that could result in persuading more potential buyers in making purchase decisions,” said Haider Tuaima, research manager, ValuStrat. “Price growth is expected to be soft during 2017.”

Interestingly, sales in November saw a significant spike compared with the monthly average prior to that. It was led by more developers revving up their off-plan launches, while ready property sales also held their own.

“In 2016, only a third of the planned residential units were completed and the general sentiment was favouring buyers more than the sellers,” said Tuaima. “This year, citywide property prices were, on average, mostly flat.

“This is not to say that all locations and asset classes performed in similar fashion — apartments performed better than villas and mid-affordable locations performed better than the high-end. Several factors drove this trend, two of which rely on new stock coming online coupled with the general sentiment of the market.”