#Dubai’s Record Rental Surge Is Slowly Starting to Moderate - Bloomberg

Dubai’s Record Rental Surge Is Slowly Starting to Moderate - Bloomberg

After more than two years of soaring rents, there’s finally some good news for tenants in Dubai.

While rents continue to increase at eye-popping levels, the rate of the surge is finally moderating in some of the city’s most popular neighborhoods, according to CBRE Group Inc. Rents had climbed to record rates following an influx of newcomers to the Middle Eastern financial and business hub.

The average rental rate climbed 20.6% in the year through September, slightly lower than the 21.7% growth registered a month earlier, according to the real estate adviser. Over this period, the average leases for apartments and villas rose 20.7% and 20.1%, respectively.

In September, the average annual rent for a villa reached a record 322,750 dirhams ($87,870), and while those prices are likely to climb further due to limited supply, they’re not expected to rise as quickly as they have been, according to Taimur Khan, CBRE’s head of research. That’s mostly due to tenants dodging price increases by moving to the edge of the city or fighting eviction notices in court, he said.