More than 80 percent of Dubai tenants were forced to pay more rent when they last renewed a contract with their landlord, a new survey has revealed.
MoveSouq.com, a Dubai-based comparison site for home services, said on Wednesday its research showed that 82 percent of Dubai tenants had experienced a rental increase.
The survey, which polled 200 people, showed that those who renewed their lease less than three months ago faced a smaller rate of increase than those who renewed their lease 6-12 months ago.
The proportion of Dubai residents who faced more than a 10 percent increase in their rent costs made up 28 percent of those who renewed their lease less than 3 months ago, compared to 40 percent of those who renewed their lease 6-12 months ago.
The poll also revealed that Dubai residents are still very likely to move homes due to continued rent increases.
Research showed that 63 percent of all respondents plan to move to a new home upon their next lease renewal, significantly higher among those who faced a higher rate of rent increase in the last year.
The survey also said that 81 percent of respondents who faced more than a 15 percent rent increase plan to move to a new home.
MoveSouq.com CEO Bana Shomali said: “This quarter’s results tally with the overall perception in the market that real estate prices are stabilising.
“The data shows that Dubai tenants are still facing rent increases with each renewal, however, we see now that the rate of increase in rental costs has slowed down compared to end of last year. It would be interesting to see how the market will behave in the next quarter, but we expect this trend to continue.”
Earlier this month, Knight Franks said prime residential rents in Dubai flatlined over the last six months of 2014 as the emirate’s real estate market continued to stabilise following strong growth in the previous year.
Its Prime Global Rental Index showed that although rents in Dubai increased by 8.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014 compared to the year-earlier period, zero growth was register between Q2 and Q4.
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