DUBAI // Tenants and buyers in Dubai are now paying the same for a home as they would in New York.
A one-bedroom apartment in Dubai costs between Dh7,500 and Dh13,000 a month to rent, compared to between Dh7,300 and Dh11,900 in New York.
The median sales price of a one-bedroom apartment in both cities is Dh1.9 million. The median is the price at which the same number of properties cost more as cost less.
“London, Singapore and New York are all held up as benchmarks for other cities to compare their own real estate market to,” said Ann Boothello, head of the property department at Dubizzle, the classified website that compiled the new figures from its adverts.
“It’s important to look at how Dubai compares to cities it aspires to be like. Also, in the future Dubai will become a benchmark standard for other cities to compare themselves to, especially after Expo 2020.”
Other recent statistics suggest average rents in Dubai fell by 1 per cent in the past three months, but Dubizzle’s figures show an increase in several areas.
The biggest changes were in Jumeirah Beach Residence, where there was an 8 per cent increase in rents on three-bedroom apartments.
“This shows that families are keen to move to the area now the Beach mall has opened up, with more restaurants and play areas for children,” said Ms Boothello.
For buyers in the same area, prices of one-bedroom apartments rose by 11 per cent and two-bedroom apartments by 4 per cent.
Rents and purchase prices remained the same in Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Meadows and Springs, and Al Furjan.
Two-bedroom property prices in the Greens dropped by 1 per cent and in the Palm Jumeirah by 3 per cent.
Ms Boothello said the relative standstill in the market was evidence that buyers were unwilling to meet asking prices.
“There appears to be a standoff between buyers and sellers at the moment, and that has caused the market to stagnate,” she said.
“Whether that leads to an eventual correction or not, will depend on what policies regulators decide to announce.”
The Dubizzle figures are among a flurry of similar reports as Cityscape, the three-day property exhibition, continues in Dubai. The property company CB Richard Ellis said rents were beginning to drop in Downtown Dubai, International Media Production Zone, Palm Jumeirah, International City and Motor City.
The average 1 per cent drop across the city has been attributed to a flood of new homes coming on to the market: as many as 19,000 are expected to be handed over in the next year.
The website propertyfinder.ae said yesterday the most profitable buy-to-let areas were Sports City, Jumeirah Village Circle and Dubailand.
But Michael Lahyani, the company’s chief executive, said prices were no longer going up. “After a sharp rebound since early 2013, the market is stabilising,” he said.
Dubizzle has 14 million visits a month to its website, 2.7 million of which are related to property.
The site launched an information service in June to which people could submit questions on property issues to be answered by a property lawyer.
It has had about 60,000 unique visits, and Dubizzle plans to expand it from one question a week to 10.
mcroucher@thenational.ae
