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Interest returning to Dubai property market - agent
Buyers are coming back to the Dubai property market in search of good deals that have seen some walk away with 15 percent off the asking price, according to one of the longest-running real estate companies in the UAE.
Figures collated by Better Homes show that the number of unique visitors to its website increased by 15 percent in March this year compared with four to six months ago.
Increased interest in newly completed builds and resale properties saw one agent carry out an “unprecedented” 16 viewings in just one day last week, said Ryan Mahoney, managing director of Better Homes.
Even at the peak of last year's real estate boom just two or three viewing per day was the norm, he said.
“There’s a lot of shopping around, people are interested in buying and want to have a look at what’s going on, and viewing per transaction has dramatically increased,” he added.
Mahoney was speaking to Arabian Business following the launch of a new online initiative called “Make an Offer” aimed at encouraging buyers to put in bids for properties regardless of the asking price.
Since the campaign was launched two weeks ago 30 “real offers” have been made each day, with buyers going through to transaction securing up to 15 percent off the asking price, Mahoney revealed.
“The properties prices are already very low, with a market price of 25 to 30 percent less than six months ago in many cases, and in some 40 to 50 percent lower,” Mahoney said.
“What we are saying to buyers is make the offer today and get tomorrow’s price – rather than thinking ‘I’ll wait until the price comes down and then go for it’,” he added.
Dubai’s property market started to slow in August last year and slumped to an all time low during the winter months, when Better Homes saw enquiries dry up.
However, in the first week of March the company experienced its highest levels of enquiries during the past five months, Mahoney confirmed.
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Comments 1-10 of 10
Posted by salman, dubai, uae on 19 March 2009 at 23:25 UAE time
i feel very strongly that you will see the bottom in this summer . do not haste and buy now. price should fall 15 to 25 % more. wait until all is handed over and rent fall then you will see the true price and the real value. sellers sell now as soon as possible
Posted by Saiyed, Abu Dhabi, UAE on 12 March 2009 at 10:38 UAE time
This information is for all who are looking to rent to buy property in Dubai. On 15th Febraury i went to discovery gardens to rent a 1 BHK flat and it was for AED 70K in 4 Cheques...Now i checked the same is AED 60K in 4 Cheques. In less then a month its come down 10K and i am sure that it will come down to AED 45k or 40K by end of May 09..So just hold on and get the best deals when the property is at ROCK BOTTOM.
Posted by BRYAN, new york, usa on 11 March 2009 at 23:02 UAE time
The increase in traffic represents the curious people to see how low properties have dropped, not an interest to buy, anyone would be insane to buy now
Posted by Dubai Owner, Dubai on 11 March 2009 at 18:42 UAE time
First SR...if you read my passage you will see that I state that I do not "need" to sell but anyone who is interested in selling their property probably "wants" to sell whenever they can achieve their price. There is a big difference between "need" and "want". I consider myself fortunate that I do not have to unload property in this environment. The real losers could be those who bought property between May & October of last year. They probably overpaid compared to today's prices.
To Doug...you say "welcome to the free market". How is a "free market" when real estate companies refuse to do business with you? Again, I consider myself fortunate because I am not "distressed" financially, emotionally or in any other way. Markets go up and down. Dubai has been very good to me and my family and regardless of what happens over the next few years, that opinion will not change. But in all my years buying and selling real estate in the States & UK, I have never, ever had a company refuse to list my property because of their opinion the price was too high. Guess what? My asking price is ALWAYS too high, but if you own a quality property that differentiates itself from the rest of the pack, there is always a buyer out there.
Posted by Brandaid on 11 March 2009 at 14:11 UAE time
This wouldn't be a promotion for your "make us an Offer" promotion would it? This promotion sounds like a fire sale to me, a desperate one at that. The market is plumeting, only a few cashed up fools are buying a few distressed properties, but they are moving on the market too early. The market will continue to fall for the next six months at least. Ryan is just hoping he can do anything to slow the spiral, but in a company whose existance is based on property sales commissions, they are in terrible trouble...the lay offs will continue at Better Homes
Posted by SR, Dubai on 11 March 2009 at 13:41 UAE time
My questions are;
If you do not want to sell it next week or next 6 months, why bother listing in the first place??
On what basis do you calculate your selling price vis-a-vis BHomes?
Posted by Doug, Dubai on 11 March 2009 at 13:38 UAE time
"It is ridiculous that a real estate company would refuse to list a property because their opinion is it will not sell."
No it's not, it's called good business. Real estate agents don't exist to make you money, they exist to make themselves money.
With all your talk of insisting there should be some sort of government regulation, you sound suspiciously like one of those investors who feel it is their right to make a fortune out of their property, rather than a possible privilege. Welcome to the free market!
Posted by IncidentFlux, Ajman, U.A.E. on 11 March 2009 at 13:15 UAE time
Unless ArabianBusiness.com carried out this survey themselves, its just another useless bogus press release mascarading as a news story, which is what got us in this mess in the first place.
Posted by Tehsin Asghar, Dubai, UAE on 11 March 2009 at 13:14 UAE time
The problem is that these views and couple others in last few days are very biased. Its natural, if you are running a shop of real-estate, you will talk it up, as you can't take it up. They believe If there is one positive report every other day the market will come back. How funny and kiddish. I think the focus needs to be more on real steps rather than creating hype. Dubai has lost so much just because of hype.
Posted by Dubai Owner, Dubai on 11 March 2009 at 13:13 UAE time
You mention Better Homes being one of the "leading agencies" but I can tell you they are the worst of the worst and a part of the sinking prices.
Better Homes will not list properties that they deem to be "too expensive". They are helping to drive property prices down further by putting fear into home owners and telling them Dubai will keep going down and if you want to sell you must drop your price. But there are many owners out there like myself who are not distressed and we do not need to sell in the next week, month or 6 months, but we want to list our properties and find out if there is any interest, possibly sell at a lower price but not list the property for a lower price at this time. Better Homes won't do it. Even if your property has a unique location, view, layout, whatever, something which might justify a higher price, Better Homes DOES NOT CARE!
Tell me this Better Homes....if you keep telling owners to drop their prices, where is the bottom in the Dubai real estate market? If someone has a specific type property in mind but cannot find it on your website, how are you helping the market by not listing properties from owners who do not want to just "dump" their properties at low prices? How are you helping yourselves by losing potential properties? How are you helping Dubai???
Here is my proposal that will probably not be adopted but should be....
There should be a data base maintained by RERA which list every secondary market property that is for sale in Dubai. Owners should be able to list the property with only 1 agent but any agents can sell the property. If the listing agent sells the property they earn a 3% commission. If another agent sells the property the listing agent earns half the commission while the selling agent earns the other half. This is a simple straight forward way to do business. The dodgy agents will not have anyone list with them and will be lucky to make a sale. If an overseas buyer rings an agent and tells the agent exactly what they are looking for the agent can search for the property and properly help them. Right now the agent may end up ringing all the different companies to find out what they have for sale. Owners know that most agents are not good which is why properties are listed sometimes with 20+ companies. The current system does not work. It is ridiculous that a real estate company would refuse to list a property because their opinion is it will not sell.