By Sophie McKinley
Ever since the UK has removed itself from the European Union, on 24th June 2016, the global economy has been subject to a lot of uncertainty. The pound had hit a 31-year low; as the last time was in 1985 when such rates were recorded. It resulted in a lot of people moving to Dubai in order to purchase pounds at lower prices. Currency exchange was reported to have increased thrice the usual demand. The event turned out to be a shock to the world, leading to a huge worldwide uproar that wasn’t seen in years.
Brexit has affected the real estate market of the UK to such an extent that it has almost become impossible for the developers to get buyers or meet the asking prices. More than half of the completed apartments of London did not sell last year as the oversaturation of luxury properties in the region, has resulted in most of them not getting sold at the asking prices and leading to them getting sold at a loss.
With a large number of properties in London being under construction, there are chances of them to remain on hold for the time being or they might as well fail to attract buyers. When factors such as maintenance taxes add up to the given scenario, the end result might be the investors facing a huge loss.
Initially, it couldn’t be speculated by experts whether Brexit will have a positive or negative impact on the property market of Dubai. One of the most user-friendly real estate market, Dubai, was at high risk of getting affected by such a huge global issue than many other places in the world.
Though Dubai’s property market had initially witnessed a decline in prices, soon after the declaration it did not last long as eventually, the market witnessed good maturation. Dubai welcomed investors and provided them with favorable returns on investments. A lot of investors from the UK are now choosing to invest and buy properties in Dubai, given the fact that investors from the UK are the third highest when it comes to the property market (sunny weather all year round couldn’t hurt either!). As the supply and demand in the Dubai property market have been seen keeping pace with each other, it has currently turned out to be a better alternative for the investors over the shady situation of the UK market.
There has been impressive demand for properties in Dubai in both the new and upcoming developments of the city and also in the existing ones. Also, developments such as The World islands, that had suffered a setback during 2008, have come up with impressive properties and have been able to attract buyers’ interest. Other developments that have been in high demand of late include that of Palm Jumeirah and Emaar Beach Vista. Dubai will be delivering around 55,000 new units this year, in order to cater to the high need for residential properties in the market.