With the end of Cityscape Dubai, Nakheel is planning on another 500 job losses according to “The Independent,” newspaper.
Nakheel, the state-owned Dubai property group that was responsible for the iconic Palm Jumeirah artificial island, is set to make as many as 500 redundancies now that the Emirate’s “Cityscape Dubai 2009″ show is over. Announcements are expected in the next few days, a consequence of fallout from the global financial crisis. Dubai property values have fallen 50 per cent in a year. The company said last night: “Nakheel continues to evaluate its projects and commitments against market conditions and opportunities. In doing so, the company also evaluates its cost base and efficiencies.” Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said Dubai needs to raise another $10bn (£6.3bn) for its economic support fund, to prop up government-related companies. The independent.
I am slowly coming to the conclusion that the governments and news media think all potential readers are morons. According to this ridiculous press release disguised as journalism, Emirates Business says:
More on Dubai Property Prices Rise Thirty Percent!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thinking of buying investment property in Dubai? Look at the foreclosures when they start happening. The amount of loan defaults across the UAE continues climbing and the banks are considering repossessions as a way of balancing their books. With property prices in Dubai down as much as 70%, and thousands more new properties still entering the market place one would have expected a few bargains to be had. But – lacklustre auctions and developers holding vast stocks are keeping prices from properly correcting.
More on Buying Investment Property in Dubai Foreclosures Might Be The Answer
Whatever happened to getting a loan to buy an investment property with? They went out of the window with the world’s financial health when Lehman brothers bit the dust, that is what. The continuing devaluation of real estate around the world is continuing to put pressure on the loan markets and the credit crunch is still affecting property investment markets. The banks are well aware of the likely losses in the commercial property sector that are – as we speak – being announced. So, they are hoarding their money for the time when they must announce more losses and write off more outstanding debts.
Another round of losses in the third quarter shows continuing weakness in the world’s real estate markets. Although property investment in Singapore ticked up slightly in the third quarter, more bad news from major developers and property investment vehicles show continuing declines in prices, sales volumes and profitability. US luxury home builder Toll Brothers posted a Q3 loss of $472.3 million, and GPT group in Sydney, Australia posted a US$995 million loss for the first half of the year.
More on Investing in property – the big boys are starting to hurt badly
To listen to some of the headlines produced around the latest CB Richard Ellis report on Singapore’s property investment market, you could be forgiven for thinking the second coming had arrived.
More on Investment properties in Singapore start selling again
Thinking of investing in property in the UAE? The latest news from the region does not bode well – at least in the short term. Emirates business did a survey of real estate agents in the United Arab Emirates and discovered the consensus was “losses running into high double-digits,” for most agents. I am not quite sure what “losses in high double digits,” actually means, but it does not sound very good to me. Lost 99 dirhams?
Real estate sales in Jordan plummet; Qatar house rents have fallen 35%; Dubai prices fall 17%; Hawaii’s luxury condo market hit by swine flu fears and recession; Hugh Hefner needs to sell a house as financial problems increase.
If anyone was thinking of believing the twisted statistics being pumped out by the governments and newspapers, this is a representative selection of headlines that might persuade you that perhaps, just perhaps, the problems are not all over in the housing markets.
According to the Telegraph, the house price correction in the UK is now over, so everyone can relax. They reference a report by the Centre for Economics and Business research which apparently states, house prices will actually “grow,” between the fourth quarter of 2009 and end-2010 and that, “there is a good chance that they will rise even more quickly, thanks to the unprecedented collapse in new homebuilding.”
With US real estate prices still on the way down, most would-be real estate investors are facing issues if they need to refinance a mortgage on a property they were renting out. The mortgage resets are not exclusive to residential buyers and a lot of investors are facing problems also. Refinancing a mortgage is the big issue currently, because, whatever mis-information might be being spread around by the banks and governments, credit markets remain tight.
