Dubai's real estate market seems to be going through a upswing in the last quarter of 2012. The mini-revival in Dubai’s real estate contracting is driven by ‘refugee capital’ from buyers facing geo-political risk and currency depreciation in their domestic markets, such as India, Iran, Pakistan and Egypt, Citibank says in an analysis.
The Dubai property market has seen something of a mini-revival recently with developers reporting robust demand in certain segments, according to the latest MENA Construction Project Tracker report of Citibank. Prices across mainly residential verticals, particularly for the villa markets have seen rising prices.
The report believes that while this lends some support to the market, it points out that the development activity is centred on specific buildings rather than large-scale projects. Similarly, the report feels that while Abu Dhabi has awarded some mega-projects but its pipeline lacks growth.
The bank also reports in a pickup in the new contract awards across the UAE. In the year to end September, $21.4 billion worth of projects have been awarded. This is 83% rise over the same period in 2011. This increase in awards has been driven by a few Abu Dhabi mega project awards, including $6 billion in petrochemical projects, a $3 billion for the nuclear power project and a $2 billion infrastructure project.
sourced from Business Benchmark Online
