Downturn reshapes Dubai’s property landscape

There is a two-bedroom apartment on the 25th floor of Jumeirah Beach Residence with an excellent view of Dubai’s property market; where it has been and where it is heading.

In February, the apartment’s British owner sold it for Dh1.5 million (US$408,000) to a compatriot, reaping a Dh680,000 profit on what he had paid for it less than two years earlier – a return equal to 44 per cent a year.

Then in mid-March, as the global economic crisis raged on, the apartment’s new owner decided to sell it for a little more than Dh1.43m to a Russian buyer, escaping with a loss of about Dh66,000. That works out equal to a loss of 42 per cent a year.