Spotlight is now on middle segment

If I was given a dirham for every time someone asked me how the housing market was doing since the start of the year, I would have been able to buy a property on The Palm during boom time by now.

Well, that's not quite true, but nevertheless what everyone wants to know is whether we are starting to see improvements in the market.

Obviously people have been scared. Being forced to sit tight while watching the unlucky ones leave the country has not been easy and many have had to make cutbacks of their own.

But there is the growing feeling that people are becoming tired of being afraid and are ready to step back out into the sunshine. This is great news for the local economy as true recovery has to start with positive sentiment in the market place - people like you and me who choose whether or not to spend our hard-earned cash.

Confidence, or a lack of it, is one of the driving factors that prolongs any recession, and when consumers find their way back into the market place it is a major step on the path to recovery.

If everyday people are ready to venture back into malls and restaurants, then action in the housing market and wider economy always follows - as we have seen in this case.

We are seeing very early signs of a recovery. Yes, there are still significant challenges ahead and the road will be a long one, but the last few months have been characterised by renewed activity in the real estate sector.

This interest has been evident in transactions as well as the responses to the initiatives we have taken as a company over the last year.

Buyers are becoming bolder and many of the distressed sellers, who were a sad feature of the market while it was going through its big price correction, have disappeared.

It is still a buyers' market out there as things can't improve that quickly, but the sector has moved away from panic stations and into a more mature mode.

Most of activity that we are seeing is coming from the middle segment of the market rather than the luxury sector but, again, that is not unusual in the current situation. Additionally, finished developments are still attracting more interest than off-plan developments. That is also to be expected although we should see that as regulations governing the administration and best-practice of off-plan buying and selling are refined, and more confidence comes to the market place, this sentiment will filter to all property types.

Linda Mahoney is CEO of Better Homes LLC.