Dubai and Abu Dhabi now more affordable for expats

The declining rents in Dubai and Abu Dhabi have made the cities relatively affordable ones for expatriates compared to others around the globe, the latest Mercer Cost of Living Survey has found.

While Dubai ranks 55 on the list of most expensive cities, Abu Dhabi is only slightly more expensive with a rank of 50, which it shares with Frankfurt in Germany, the survey said.

It also threw up a few surprises: displacing Tokyo from its traditional spot at the top of the list, Luanda, Angola's capital, has emerged as the world's most expensive city for expatriates. Tokyo came in second, while, in another surprise, another African city completed the top three – Chad's capital ?Ndjamena. Moscow was in fourth position followed by Geneva in fifth.

The rear was brought up by Karachi, which the survey found to be the least expensive city for expatriates to live in.

The Mercer survey covered 214 cities across five continents and measured the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

"While across the UAE, the cost of living has remained relatively stable, we are seeing that accommodation costs have continued to decrease in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, driving down the overall cost of living for expats," said Dr Markus Wiesner, who heads Mercer's Dubai office.

He said Mercer increased the number of cities surveyed this year from 143 to 214, which means that the cities cannot be compared with their previous rankings.

For the first time, the ranking of the world's top 10 most expensive cities includes three African urban centres: apart from Luanda and Ndjamena, Libreville in Gabon comes in at seventh place.

The top 10 also includes three Asian cities: besides Tokyo in second place, Osaka at six and Hong Kong jointly ranked eighth. Moscow, Geneva and Zurich, which shares the eighth spot with Hong Kong, are the most expensive European cities, followed by Copenhagen at 10.

Read the full article here

Residential property market in dubai sees first annual real estate price rise

‘Despite the stability that the market appears to have achieved, a number of concerns remain. There will be significant oversupply in the market by the end of the year so it is anticipated the index will experience fluctuations in value going forward,’ said Ian Albert, regional director at Colliers International.

‘What will be important to watch is how much of that supply matches the end user demand for community oriented developments,’ he added.
Average residential property prices in Dubai rose by 2% in the first quarter of 2010 compared to the same period last year, according to the latest house price index to be published. Prices have now risen 4% since the last quarter of 2009 creating confidence that the downturn which resulted in price falls of 50% in some locations is now at an end. It is also the first annual increases since the emirate’s property market collapsed towards the end of 2008.

The average house price in the first quarter of the year was AED1,061 ($288.85) per square foot, compared to AED 1,022 ($278.23) in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to the report from Colliers International.

Apartment prices in the emirate rose 6% in the first quarter compared with the previous three months and villa prices increased 2% while townhouses were down 4%, the house price index showed.

Prices have now returned to 2007 levels, but the report warns that a large number of new units due for release could have a negative impact on the real estate market and even bring prices down again.

The report estimates that 41,000 residential units will flood onto the market in 2010 mostly in the low to middle income segments and demand is not expected to match the growth in supply, creating downward pressure on property prices.


Read Full Article Here

Dubai Rent Guide

XPRESS helps you explore the city's hotspots, showing you what's where, how much it costs, and why you do or don't want to live there.

Tenants can now decide where they want to live, what sort of home they wish to rent and how much they’re ready to pay. According to Jones Lang La Salle’s April 2010 Residential Market survey, the total number of freehold residential stock released in Dubai is 278,000 units (both villas and apartments). This includes the 5,000 units that were launched between January and March 2010. Future supply by the year-end is expected to increase that number by a further 22,000 units. With such a vast over-supply in the market, the time is ripe for tenants to have their pick of the best.

published: gulfnews

Dubai Properties Development

Dubai is the newest in luxury property, with amazing, buildings and prestigious developments. Power House Dubai Properties offer feature prime locations in Dubai and are likely to provide an excellent property investment opportunity. Dubai is the best in every conceivable comfort and amenity, if a country could be five star Dubai would be it.

Dubai gives a uniquely desirable lifestyle with its superlative shopping malls, restaurants, cafes, sports facilities and entertainment complexes. Dubai is definitely the city of the future. Within the next five years there is an estimated shortage of 40,000 units, leaving a forecast figure of 150,000 new residents left unable to buy. As a buyer of property in Dubai you have the option to transfer your property during the payment period at low fees.

Power House Dubai Properties provides unmatched property services throughout dubai. We have experienced team of real estate professionals stand ready to assist you with any real estate requirement.

Palm Jumeirah to leave an indelible impression

The master plan of the three Palm developments. The Palm Jumeirah consists of a tree trunk, a crown with 17 fronds, and a crescent-shaped island with an 11km breakwater.

Dubai : The Palm Jumeirah is the first in the Palm trilogy of artificial islands in Dubai, on which major commercial and residential infrastructures are being constructed.

The island was reclaimed by Nakheel, a property developer that has hired Belgian and Dutch dredging and marine contractor Jan De Nul and Van Oord — some of the world's specialists in land reclamation — for the prestigious project.

The other islands in the trilogy include Palm Jebel Ali and the Palm Deira.

Each settlement in the Palm Jumeirah is set to be in the shape of a palm tree, topped with a crescent.

These will have a large number of residential, leisure and entertainment centres.

The first two islands' reclamation comprised approximately 100 million cubic metres of rock and sand. The creation of the Palm Jumeirah began in June 2001. Shortly after, the Palm Jebel Ali was announced and its reclamation work began too.

The Palm Deira, which is planned to have a surface area of 46.35 square kilometres, was announced for development in October 2004.

The construction was originally planned to take 10-15 years, but that was before the impact of the global credit crunch hit Dubai.

The Palm Islands are artificial peninsulas constructed using sand from the bottom of the Gulf.

The sand is sprayed by the dredging ships onto the required area in a process known as rainbowing.

Special effects

The outer edge of each Palm's encircling crescent is a large rock breakwater.

The breakwater of the Palm Jumeirah has over seven million tonnes of rock. Each rock was placed individually by a crane, signed off by a diver and given a GPS coordinate.

The Jan De Nul Group started working on the Palm Jebel Ali in 2002 and commenced work by the end of 2006.

The reclamation project for the Palm Jebel Ali included the creation of a four kilometre peninsula, protected by a 200-metre-wide, 17 kilometre circular breakwater.

Around 210 million cubic metres of rock, sand and limestone were reclaimed.

There are approximately 10 million cubic metres of rock in the slope protection works.

The Palm Jumeirah can be seen from the International Space Station.

It consists of a tree trunk, a crown with 17 fronds, and a surrounding crescent-shaped island that forms an 11 kilometre breakwater.

The island itself is five kilometres by five kilometres with an additional 78 kilometres added to the Dubai coastline.

The Palm Jumeirah has already created 4,000 residences in a combination of villas and apartments.

Residents began moving into their Palm Jumeirah properties at the end of 2006, five years after land reclamation began.

This signalled the end of phase one of the island's construction.

This includes approximately 1,400 villas on 11 of the fronds of the island and roughly 2,500 shoreline apartments in 20 buildings on the east side of the trunk.

Published: Gulf News May 16, 2010