85% believe real estate sector woes will get worse

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PROPERTY VIEWS: A majority of Arabian Business readers believe the real estate sector will continue to struggle in the global slowdown, according to the results of an online poll. (Getty Images)

A large majority of Arabian Business readers believe the worst is yet to come regarding the global economic situation's impact on the real estate sector in the Gulf, according to the results of an online poll.

More than 80 percent of respondents see things getting worse before the recovery comes with more than 60 percent of those fearing a major property price correction is just around the corner.

The views come as major UAE developers cut jobs and announced the scaling back of some of their projects as the global economic crisis continues to impact in the region.

On Monday, Palm developer Nakheel admitted it was reviewing a number of projects and would scale back work on some of them while Emaar, the Gulf Arab region's largest property developer by market value, said last week it was reviewing its jobs policy in light of the global financial turmoil.

Their comments followed the announcement by Dubai-based Damac that it was cutting 200 jobs and Omniyat Properties which also said it was cutting back, with 60 jobs thought to be lost.

And the results of our poll suggest people believe more job cuts and project announcements are still to come.

Sixty-three percent of respondents said investors needed to be prepared for a major price correction in the real estate sector while another 22 percent thought more companies would be forced to cut jobs as the slowdown continued.

Just 10 percent of people who voted thought the worst of the economic crisis was over for the region's property sector and that the recovery would now start.

A further five percent agreed that things would not get any worse for real estate developers but cautioned against plans to invest in a property.

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