There is a huge disparity between the different market segments in different areas and between lots of landowners and sellers over what the property is worth and what the tenants and buyers think,’ Elaine Jones, chief executive of Asteco said.
‘It is the tenants and buyers that are closer to reality.
Landlords and sellers are not prepared to accept that prices have come down,’ she added.
The panel also highlighted the fact that location is vital for property investors with real estate in good places always faring better. In the long term property close, that is between 400 and 800 meters of Dubai’s newly opened Metro, will benefit in the long term, they said.
During the discussion it was generally agreed that the market is bottoming out although apartments are still behind villas in terms of recovery.
‘Prices have come down 45 to 50% on average in Dubai. If they go down it will be a little further, we're not in freefall anymore.
They won't go 10 to 20% cent further,’ predicted Markus Giebel, chief executive of Deyaar.
Charles Neil, chief financial officer of Landmark Properties, said that while the villa market may have hit bottom, it was a different story for apartments and the commercial sector.
‘We see apartment prices and rents coming down another 3 to 4% and not levelling out until the end of next year. The biggest worry is commercial.
Offices could fall up to 50% in the future,’ he said.
The latest report from Landmark shows that the price of villas in Dubai increased by 8% in the third quarter of 2009.
But apartment prices fell 3% in the same period although the rate of decline is slowing considerably compared with a 17% fall in the second quarter of the year.
But JP Grobbelaar, director of Colliers International, said he does not rate the latest market data that shows prices and rents increasing.
‘I don’t believe the market has bottomed out. We have a way to go before we see a substantiated recovery.
Now there is a false recovery, people are talking the market up. There will be further declines in rentals and prices.
The road to recovery will take a while,’ Grobbelaar said.
