The ongoing financial crisis has hit Dubai hard and the rather silly approach being taken by the authorities is to pump out press release after press release claiming that there is not a problem. We have gone through phases with these press releases. First – there was no problem and Dubai was immune to the downturn. Then, Dubai was affected, but only slightly, next up – OK, Dubai has a problem, but we are now at bottom.
Or 9% !!!!!!!!!!!!!! or 30%!!!!!!!!!!
More bad news from Dubai. According the the Financial Times, Property prices in Dubai only jumped 7 percent in one quarter as “demand revived” and “lending conditions eased.” Quite who is expected to believe this sort of nonsense is beyond me.
Over $25 million worth of property was sold by Colliers International at a large Sydney auction recently. Many of the buyers appeared to be private investors looking for a safer haven for their retirement savings than the fickle stock market or abysmally low money market rates.
Colliers International have just released their “Dubai Q4 House Price Index for Dubai. According to the HPI, “the house prices in the emirate dropped by an average of 8% between October 2008 and December 2008. Despite this drop in prices the index indicates a year-on-year price growth of 59% between Q4 2007 and Q4 2008.” The index shows that the overall average price level is back down to Q2 2008 levels. Colliers says the index “will help investors benchmark investment values over a period of time.”
More on Dubai Property Prices Fall Massively – But Colliers International says “just a little”
Finally the Wall Street melt-down has cooled down Perth’s overheated office market. Desperate mining and resource companies are trying to sub-let unused office space to pay the bills as the usual angel investors focus more on their margin calls than investing in new projects.