UAE real estate market shows major shifts in 1st half of 2012, Bayut Reports

August 6, 2012 - Abu Dhabi real estate sector slowed down during the first four months of 2012. Abu Dhabi property registered 26 points in Jan, where 33,465 unique buyers searched for its properties. In April, the numbers dropped to 28,561. For Dubai real estate sector however, it was a much better time as it showed a spike with 158,469 unique buyers looking it up during the same month. The figures were even more impressive for Dubai in March when it registered its best performance as 159,816 prospective unique buyers searched for Dubai properties on Bayut. These observations are based on the findings of 690,850 unique buyers interested in properties in Dubai & Abu Dhabi on Bayut during the first four months of 2012.

Within Abu Dhabi in Q1, both Al Raha Beach and Al Reem Island kept gaining and losing points on Bayut's popularity index but the latter emerged as the overall top searched community as 8,196 prospective unique buyers looked it up on Bayut during the first three months as opposed to 7,468 of Al Raha Beach. While apartments in Shams Gate District and Marina Square remained two of the highly demanded properties in Al Reem Island, both developments were affected by oversupply which lead to an overall 4% decline in property prices in Q2, causing a minute fall in the value of property in Abu Dhabi. Jones Lang LaSalle report released earlier also spoke of the same notion, owing the fall in prices to oversupply and low quality construction.

On the other hand, Dubai, which outperformed other realty sectors around the globe as per Knight Frank Prime Global Cities Index, has continued to do better with several of its communities registering noteworthy figures on the board. The same notion is reverberated in Merrill Lynch's report as per which Dubai is "one of the best GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) cities" for setting up a business. Citing the immense potential held by the retail and tourism sector of Dubai, the US investment bank reported that job creation would boost the active population of Dubai by 6.1 percent which would greatly benefit its real estate sector over the next eight years with good prospects for high quality constructions. All of these indicators point towards the fact that this is the time to invest in Dubai.

Apparently, the general buyers feel the same way as a spike was noticed for Dubai in Bayut search trends as well, where high-end areas performed better than the others. While Dubai Marina claimed the first spot amongst best performers within Dubai throughout Q1, several other developments kept shuffling their spots on Bayut Dubai Buying Search Trends. At the end of Q1, total 69,351 unique visitors looked for properties for sale in Dubai Marina. Downtown Dubai was the second most looked up development in Jan with 9,119 unique visitors. In February and March Jumeirah Lake Towers JLT occupied the second spot with 7,951 and 13,426 unique visitors respectively.

In relation to the numbers registered by communities in Dubai, Abu Dhabi developments did not perform that well. Abu Dhabi properties have been the longstanding second most searched listings on Bayut.com that gained on Dubai real estate sector when the global economy crunch struck in late 2008. The recent developments show that the trend is shifting in Dubai's favour once again as Abu Dhabi's popularity index fell from 26 points in January 2012 to just 14 at the end of April. The fall in value of property in Abu Dhabi is dwarfed by fall in its rentals. As per Bayut News, Abu Dhabi rents showed a 15% decline owing to the looming problems of oversupply which was hinted in Jones Lang LaSalle Q1 report for Abu Dhabi. This situation will further be aggravated when 9,075 more residential units, which are scheduled for completion, will be added to Abu Dhabi market during Q2 and Q3.

This steep fall has just as well been depicted on Bayut Rental Search Trends for Abu Dhabi. What began as a satisfactory year for Abu Dhabi with 53 points on popularity index in January 2012 quickly turned bad as the market suffered a blow of straight twelve points. By the end of April, Abu Dhabi only managed to score 41 PI points. In February, its popularity index fell by 5 points but in March, the rental market sustained by losing only a single point and recorded 47 score on Bayut's PI. The biggest setback, however, came in April for Abu Dhabi rental market when it fell to 41 by losing six PI points in a single month.

In comparison, rental trends observed on Dubai however are much more stable for the residential market. REIDIN monthly index indicated a rise in the rental value of both villas and apartments in high-end areas of Dubai with the likelihood of it increasing even further during the later half of the year. Search Trends for Dubai Rentals show a stability in ranks for the top most searched developments in Dubai. During Q1, while the number of searches increased for the top five searched developments in Dubai, there however was no change in their rankings on Bayut Rental Search Trends.

While the overall Q1 search trends showed a downward trend for Abu Dhabi's market, Dubai real estate sector has picked up. Based on the buying and rental trends, the number of buyers interested in renting and buying properties in Dubai is steadily increasing. Trends for Abu Dhabi indicate a consistent fall that may as well continue in Q2 and Q3. Buying and selling trends for Dubai show a competitive market on the rise between different developments within the city, hinting towards a more uniform recovery across the city state.

About Bayut – As the prime UAE & Dubai real estate portal, the site offers a range of services not just for the investors and real estate agents, but also for general buyers and sellers. With an aim to help people make better investments, Bayut is actively operating a blog, forum and a news section to educate investors and buyers, address their queries and issues and keep them updated about the latest news and events. As an expansion of its services and property listings (that are miles long), it is also offering a range of other products and tools.