#Dubai homes badged “affordable” as downturn continues | FT Property Listings

Dubai homes badged “affordable” as downturn continues | FT Property Listings:

While there are still ATMs in Dubai that dispense gold bars, homes there are less gilt-edged. The largest city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was recently declared the world’s third most affordable for prime residential property.

According to estate agent Savills, prime property in Dubai averaged $600 per square foot in June; of the world’s major cities only Kuala Lumpur and Cape Town were cheaper. 

A combination of poor economic data, property market reform and oversupply saw prices in Dubai fall to almost 30 per cent below their 2014 peak at the beginning of this year, according to online property portal Bayut.

A slide in oil prices in 2015 sent Dubai’s wider economy into a protracted slowdown. Tensions with Iran and the UAE’s regional embargo on Qatar from 2017 reduced trade and compounded the city’s problems. Further, a new 5 per cent sales tax at the beginning of 2018 harmed Dubai’s attractiveness as a tax-free centre.