Dubai property bubble finally popping?

[mfyahya]

http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Rea.../10259283.html

Fears over widespread job losses are creating panic in Dubai's property market as developers and brokers are laying off hundreds of staff as part of cost-cutting measures due to the slowdown in sales
...
While Lloyds TSB has stopped loans for purchase of apartments and dropped its loan to value ratio on villas in the UAE to 50 per cent, earlier this week HSBC doubled its minimum salary requirement for a personal loan from Dh10,000 to Dh20,000 (USD5400).
Adding to the gloom, UAE stocks fell sharply on Wednesday as the Dubai Financial Market General Index slumped 5.48 per cent and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange Index tumbled 5.66 per cent, shattering investor confidence further. UAE markets have lost more than Dh90 billion in capitalisation in the past four days.

Despite the massive run up in real estate prices in the last several years, rental yields were always around 8-12% here. There's still a housing shortage. Hopefully things are about to change.

All those laid off staff have one month to find another job, or pack up and leave before their employment visas are cancelled. They won't be spending their rainy day savings in the local economy.

[metalman]

Re: Dubai property bubble finally popping?

http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Rea.../10259283.html

Despite the massive run up in real estate prices in the last several years, rental yields were always around 8-12% here. There's still a housing shortage. Hopefully things are about to change.

All those laid off staff have one month to find another job, or pack up and leave before their employment visas are cancelled. They won't be spending their rainy day savings in the local economy.

global unemployment jan. 2010: 500,000,000.

[GRG55]

Re: Dubai property bubble finally popping?

http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Rea.../10259283.html

Despite the massive run up in real estate prices in the last several years, rental yields were always around 8-12% here. There's still a housing shortage. Hopefully things are about to change.

All those laid off staff have one month to find another job, or pack up and leave before their employment visas are cancelled. They won't be spending their rainy day savings in the local economy.

Dubai is hot and humid, just like Florida without the alligators. Just like Florida in one other way too...

Dubai Speculators Quit as Lending Drought Bursts Desert Bubble

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The classified ads in Dubai read like an obituary for a real-estate market that until a few months ago seemed immune from the global credit crisis.

A Turkish investor, who identified himself as Sebat, took out 10 bright yellow ads in the Nov. 25 edition of Gulf News, the United Arab Emirates’ biggest newspaper, with the headline: “DIRECT FROM OWNER DISTRESS SALE!!!” Sebat said he used to be able to buy four or five properties at a time and sell them the next day for a profit of as much as 5 percent.

“There is panic in the market,” said Sebat, 52, who wouldn’t give his full name because he’s juggling 60 properties.

The property bubble in the desert emirate, home to the world’s tallest building, most expensive hotel suite and largest manmade islands, is bursting as scarce credit and slumping oil prices have international investors scurrying to dump assets. That may shatter Dubai’s goal of creating a sustainable economy by building the Persian Gulf hub for finance and tourism, forcing it to depend on oil-rich neighbor Abu Dhabi for financing.

“Dubai is more precarious than it has ever been,” said Christopher Davidson, author of “Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success” (2008, Columbia University Press). “If the property industry collapses in Dubai, it will be finished... [If??? :rolleyes: ]

An associate of mine in the Gulf mentioned to me that he'd seen an ad in the Gulf Daily News offering an Arab owned luxury flat in London's Knightsbridge, across from Harrods, at a distressed price. Couldn't recall ever seeing an ad like that...

[don]

Re: Dubai property bubble finally popping?

Caught the end of a Dubai real estate discussion yesterday on the radio. They said that down payments had gone from 5% to 50%. That would do it.