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i enjoyed your read Stylin, a couple of points though there is a daily drop limit in Dubai of 15% not free fall. The last major IPO (Dana Gas) and all the planned ones are open to foreigners but they do need to make all stocks open to foreigners similar to what Doha did a couple months back.

emerging markets are gambles, take our friend, Comrade's home market, its general index went up over 300% last year and was the world's highest yielding market, although it didn't make too many newspapers.

fayz wrote:i enjoyed your read Stylin, a couple of points though there is a daily drop limit in Dubai of 15% not free fall. The last major IPO (Dana Gas) and all the planned ones are open to foreigners but they do need to make all stocks open to foreigners similar to what Doha did a couple months back.

emerging markets are gambles, take our friend, Comrade's home market, its general index went up over 300% last year and was the world's highest yielding market, although it didn't make too many newspapers.

I received 675 shares of Dana Gas. My friends received just over a thousand shares. I don't know of anyone who got anyting over 2000 shares. All the ones that received 1750 shares or so of Dana Gas payed 5000 Dhms. to get them. Those who payed more did not get more. This was the first IPO in Dubai that I registered for. Looks like Doha is a step ahead of Dubai then.

i think crash may be too harsh a term to use..

but yes.. prices will stabilize now since so many projects have finally completeded and a lot of initial investors are looking to sell their properties at premiums.. however.. the supply has become much more than the demand.. so lots of sellers are reducing their sale prices..

but whats really suprising is that rental rates have only been increasing.. the change in property purchase rates hasn't had much of an effect on the rental rates.. cuz tho demand for purchase is not that much.. the demand to rent is very high still...

i think Dubai's economy has become way too strong to let the property market 'crash' just like that.. im sure they expected a stablization peroid in Dubai too.. and must be well prepared for it.

for investors who'd like to see a cool article on how to survive a real estate market downturn check out http://www.dubaipropertyboom.com/articles.php

dpb wrote:i think crash may be too harsh a term to use..

but yes.. prices will stabilize now since so many projects have finally completeded and a lot of initial investors are looking to sell their properties at premiums.. however.. the supply has become much more than the demand.. so lots of sellers are reducing their sale prices..

but whats really suprising is that rental rates have only been increasing.. the change in property purchase rates hasn't had much of an effect on the rental rates.. cuz tho demand for purchase is not that much.. the demand to rent is very high still...

i think Dubai's economy has become way too strong to let the property market 'crash' just like that.. im sure they expected a stablization peroid in Dubai too.. and must be well prepared for it.

for investors who'd like to see a cool article on how to survive a real estate market downturn check out http://www.dubaipropertyboom.com/articles.php

We have a lot of expats working in Dubai that are making money. Each new Building that comes up has at least 200 Units in it on average that are $250K U.S.D. on up these days. I am wondering how many expats we have here in Dubai these days that are making over $5000 a month to be able to afford one of these places? Locals live in Villas and the are labor job workers have their own accomodation which we won't get into.
The jobs section does not have that many jobs available for people who want good paying jobs in Dubai. Currently there are more units popping up then there are people moving into them or high paying jobs popping up in Dubai which is why the Classifieds section of the Real Estate is only getting thicker and thicker by the day or week. I have two units I tried to sell, they all tell me that the unit prices are going down because there are so many units available on the market for people to choose from so in order for my units to sell they have to be below market price to attract the buyer to buy my unit over another unit The other problem is that people are having trouble selling their units because there is no financing available these days except for maybe Emaar. So the Buyer has to fork out all the cash up front or go through a nightmare to try and get financing at over 7%. If the building is not up and finished no bank will finance. If the owner of a flat can not fork over all of the money of the flat by hand over time then he or she defaults on the flat

We have a lot of expats working in Dubai that are making money. Each new Building that comes up has at least 200 Units in it on average that are $250K U.S.D. on up these days. I am wondering how many expats we have here in Dubai these days that are making over $5000 a month to be able to afford one of these places? Locals live in Villas and the are labor job workers have their own accomodation which we won't get into.
The jobs section does not have that many jobs available for people who want good paying jobs in Dubai. Currently there are more units popping up then there are people moving into them or high paying jobs popping up in Dubai which is why the Classifieds section of the Real Estate is only getting thicker and thicker by the day or week. I have two units I tried to sell, they all tell me that the unit prices are going down because there are so many units available on the market for people to choose from so in order for my units to sell they have to be below market price to attract the buyer to buy my unit over another unit The other problem is that people are having trouble selling their units because there is no financing available these days except for maybe Emaar. So the Buyer has to fork out all the cash up front or go through a nightmare to try and get financing at over 7%. If the building is not up and finished no bank will finance. If the owner of a flat can not fork over all of the money of the flat by hand over time then he or she defaults on the flat



Good Post.

You have echoed my postings on here, but with a slightly different perspective.

I read many posts on here asking about expat packages etc etc mainly including salaries.

The concensous of opinion is that 20k dhs a month and above is brilliant.
Obviously we all have different perceptions of what we think is a maintainable salary to match a sustainable way of life in terms of how we choose to live.

This is where probably where my views differ greatly to many expats. This is however, only ever relative in terms of our own wealth and circumstances. I can only speak for myself but i dont consider anything like 20k Dhs a month to be considered a good wage, some of us earn that in a week.

So if i were to apply the same critera to say an expat that considers him or herself well off, with that sort of money irrespective of how much value the job benefits are, it doesnt in my humble opinion make a way of life sustainable to move oneself on, merely it allows oneself to remain and maintain a current reasonably good standard of living.

Sadly those that poo poo'd the idea of buying property in Dubai back subsequent to May 2002, have to some extent eat humble pie. I can remember expats who thought the were the dogs nuts blagging in the bar "all this will go wrong, the Shiek can take it all away, it will never amount to anything, its just a flash in the pan", blah blah".

People like myself that are savvy to seeing a good deal with an element of risk loved it. I can remember May 15th 2002 very well, when walking into an empty Emaar sales office and being asked which ones did i want at almost give away prices, geeez i was like a kid in a sweet shop.

Had all those expats back then instead of bad mouthing something actually had the Confidence and money to do what i did, there would be many more wealthy expats than there are at present. My point here is that they couldnt.

This is because the ability to do what i did was limited to them. However good an expats life is within reason, i firmly believe they didnt and havent got the ability, due to lack of earnings. Lets assume an expat moved to dubai in 2000 on a salary of 25k Dhs. Lets also assume a resonable but not swish standard of living. Now lets assume he saved 10k Dhs a year. By this summer 2006, that person would not even have accumulated enough money/savings to even put a deposit down.

I am fortunate that i dont need to borrow any money to purchase any of my properties, whether it be UK or Dubai. To be a serious player in any property markey you have to have seious means to start playing the bricks and concrete game.

I do not wish to belittle or offend you in any way, but your reasons about your 2 properties and others like you is fairly par for the course in any established property market, and is music to my ears.

As a true developer i got in at the beginning, dumped off what i didnt want at the crest, and will ultimately buy back at a loss to people like yourself. A few weeks ago i went over to JBR to see if any bargins about, the sales guy said "ohhhh yes we got these one beds @1.3 million Dhs". I nearly wet myself laughing. I will wait 12/18 months when people like yourself have found the end of artificially high prices are gone, due to supply increasing as demand dwindles. I will guarantee i will get those appartments for the original sale price of 500k Dhs, and i wont pay one diram over. At a rental of 50k dhs a year i will do very nicely thank you

There will sadly be some serious casualties in the next 12/24 months, with huge losses. In 2004 there were many wanabee's that thought they were smart jumping on the gravy train, they are all going to loose a lot of money.

It's nice to know you did well. Since you have been in Dubai for some time you obviously know the market a bit better then someone from the outside. I live and work in Taiwan at the moment and had wanted to move out to Dubai along with my wife and daughter. I went there several times to look at income opportunities but every time I looked at things I found that things in Asia were better. While Taiwan does not offer the blue skies and beauty of nights that Dubai does along with the White sand and clear beaches, the economy here is built from the local people and not from the government. The wealth here is also among the local population and not among the government officials or a few locals like in Dubai. Working in a city of 4.5 Million people on an island that has 24.5 Million people is pretty good as the numbers play a perspective in business. Taking just 10% of the total population with money gives us a good 4-5 million people with money That alone is more then the whole population of the Emirates. 70% of the Emirates is foreign labor and with the cost of things in Dubai being so high many people these days don't seem to have extra cash to spend on things in town. I was told that my two Saba Tower Apartments would fetch 85-95K a year rented out as they come furnished from the developer by several agents that said they could rent them out for me, so the option to rent them out does exist still for me by keeping them and renting them out.. I still though do not see that many job opening in Dubai for foreign expats from the U.S. or Europe with good paying salaries. The cost of living in Dubai now is quite high and the government is now talking of imposing VAT Taxes in the last couple of days newspapers. Rent is very high as well for businesses, so renting a shop and opening up a business is just as difficult here in Dubai. I have been looking at Shanghai as a better place to invest in. The popiulation of Shanghai alone is over 24 Million people, if 10% have money that is over 2.4 million people alone in Shanghai with money not to mention the rest of the business men and tourists that come into Shanghai from different parts of China and abroad. If I couldn't get a job making over 30,000 Dhms. a month in Dubai I would not move to Dubai being fluent in English, Chinese and Arabic it would be a waste to work for anything under that. One needs to see security in an economy before one moves to another place and with 70% of foreign labor coming from the Philippines, India and othe countries that doesn't show lots of buying power in Dubai for its economy as all those people earn little money and are sent home upon completion of their jobs or visa ending.

Ah you bought in Saba tower - that explains all.

The problem with Saba tower 1 and 2 is most who bought, thought they were getting a "sea view", sadly all the sea facing appartments now have a lovely rear view of JBR. The last i heard there was going to be an attempt by the residents to sue Emaar.

The Marina View side really only is good for looking at the Shiek Zayeed Road afer the Bayside Residence is built. Wherever you buy, "the view" is all important. Thats why mine have a clear view of the sea, palm island and the Burj a Arab

This is why the resale values are not good for you. You should be able to get 85/90k a year for rental, but i dont believe even that will last long term.

By the way, i dont live in dubai i am just a frequent holiday visitor.

If you bought off plan and didn't view the plot or the whole plan of the Marina then this was the problem.

Hello

Yes, this is normal, if you have more houses than buyers, and that is what we tell already a view year to every one.
Dubai is booming but that is also ,Portugal/Spain/Bulgaria/Turkye/Greece/Slowakia and many more countries in the World.
The investors are mostly from the Middle East / Russia and Asia in Dubai, but more and more people from the World spent there money in Old countries like Portugal, new a big Island near Alcarve and a big island near Marbella Spain, project groups from Russia and EU are working on it.
On this moment projects in Moscow and Saint Petersburg provit around 40%+year.
Germany land and houses near Dutch border up to 20%+year, and than we not talk about the new EU states there it is booming on this moment in Tallin and others, also Bulgaria Sunny Beach Black Sea big booming.

Dubai and UAE, that is not a secret that the real estate market will go down, the banks already warn for this last year.

BUT I LIKE DUBAI, it is for me the best place, but I was already in 1977 in Dubai starting Jebel Ali.

Hi guys,

I am new to Dubai and am looking at a property in JLT. I am thinking of purchasing a unit at about 5% premium of the original price. Its for own stay and long term investment since I am planning to stay in Dubai for at least 5 years or more.

Will it be a bad move and should I rent a place first before deciding to purchase the unit? Will the prices go lower in the months to come?

I am currently in a project in Jordan until end of June, so I have a couple of months to think it over.

I am a seasoned stock market player, made and lost money in asian stock markets. I sort of noticed that these players in Dubai are a lil naive. So was thinking of making a quick buck from the IPOs of EITC. Do you think this share will rise due to speculation from investors?

dodgeek wrote:Will it be a bad move and should I rent a place first before deciding to purchase the unit? Will the prices go lower in the months to come?

There's some commentary about property prices in Dubai already levelling off but I recently was looking at properties and it seemed to me that prices were still heading up. I think the new property law announcements may have had an effect.

I am a seasoned stock market player, made and lost money in asian stock markets. I sort of noticed that these players in Dubai are a lil naive. So was thinking of making a quick buck from the IPOs of EITC. Do you think this share will rise due to speculation from investors?

Foreigners could only buy EITC (ticker is DU) after listing. Price doubled on Saturday when it listed and followed the market trend down and up yesterday and today. In the past couple of years most UAE IPOs have listed high and gone down. DANA gas was an exception I think - it kept rising for a week or two after listing.

thanks for your feedback sharewadi.....

will keep that in mind. Prop prices here can be really funny. For the same tower that I was looking at..... 4 real estate agents gave me 4 totally different prices...ranging from 5% up to 30% premium! I guess u have to shop around to have a good feel.

Some real estate agents are still trying to fleece potential buyers...so beware...