Global woes stall Dubai real estate recovery

Dubai's housing market will witness further delays in its recovery path and plummet another 10 percent, as it faces a slowdown amid renewed global financial woes and European sovereign debt crisis, a Reuters poll showed on Monday. Home prices and rents in the Gulf emirate has already plunged nearly 60 percent from its peak before the global financial crisis. Residential property prices in Dubai will fall 70 percent from a peak in the third quarter of 2008, according to the median estimate of ten banks, investment firms and research institutions. "Although we have witnessed better volumes and slight increase in prices at few property transactions, the overall sector is still facing oversupply and lack of volumes/investor interest, which acts as a headwind against price increase," said Harshit Oza of Beltone Financial. All but one of the 10 respondents said the renewed global economic concerns and euro zone crisis will further delay recovery of Dubai's property market. The lack of confidence on Dubai real estate continues to weigh. Respondents in the poll saw no chance of a recovery this year. They gave just a 37 percent of property market recovery in 2012 and a 70 percent chance in 2013. Prices in Dubai will plummet by another 10 percent, an average of eight respondents showed. The findings matched those of a poll in April which showed that existing supply and additional new units would push Dubai's house prices down by 10 percent. Global markets were rattled in 2009 when Dubai announced a $25bn debt restructuring of conglomerate Dubai World . A real estate collapse followed, putting an end to an historic building spree in Dubai. Dubai's property market is oversupplied by about 25 percent, a median of eight respondents showed with two saying the emirate has nearly half too much supply. Two respondents said house prices in Dubai have already reached a bottom. Seven said they expected prices to reach a trough in 2012, while others said 2013. In percentage terms, the Dubai housing market crash is set to be more than double the size of the fall in the US. Oversupply in Dubai has forced developers to cancel and delay projects worth $170bn up to August, a Citigroup report showed.