A third of Dubai's homes may be empty by end of next year

The vacancy rate in Dubai’s residential property market could double to about a third by the end of 2010 as the population declines and new buildings add to a glut of homes, UBS said.

The amount of empty houses and apartments may increase from as much as 15% at the moment, Saud Masud, a Dubai-based analyst at UBS, said in an interview today. About 30,000 homes will be competed by 2011, Masud estimates.

Dubai’s property market was hurt more than others by the global financial crisis and, according to a UBS report on 22 April, and home prices may slump as much as 70% from their peak last year. The market’s collapse followed a construction boom that created thousands of homes just as demand began to evaporate.