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Is confidence returning to the property market in Dubai?
Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) has confirmed that Dubai will move ahead with 220 residential property projects this year.
“We have 220 projects that are going on. We have evaluated projects and those are moving forward,” confirmed Marwan Bin Ghalaita, the chief executive of RERA.
In 2010 RERA cancelled 202 projects, but this year there have already been a total of 115 new property developments launched in Dubai and more are expected, although RERA stated that only ten of the previously cancelled projects had begun construction.
“Any project that is not good for investors will not go on. We are evaluating all the projects now,” Bin Ghalaita added.
In May 2007 Sultan Butti Bin Mejrin, Director General of the Dubai Land Department, set up RERA to regulate property developers and estate agents in Dubai. Until then there was no protection for investors even in cases where construction hadn’t even started.
“In the last six years, we have introduced ten laws and by-laws. Dubai is still leading the Middle East countries and the department is working to improve Dubai‘s position globally,” Sultan Butti Bin Mejrin commented.
RERA has also been tasked with restoring confidence to the property market in Dubai, where the economic downturn caused property prices to plummet by as much as fifty percent.
However, confidence does seem to be returning to Dubai as there have already been 1,647 real estate transactions recorded this year.
Feedback from real estate agents operating in the emirate has also been positive in recent months.
“It will be interesting to see whether Dubai’s property market will continue to recover in the short term. We may find that confidence will be affected by the cancellation of high profile projects such as the Tiger Woods Dubai and Nakheel Tower [a one kilometre-high skyscraper project] which continue to hit the headlines” added Adam Smith, market analyst for Ocean Villas Group.
