First Quarter of 2015- Dubai one of the worst performing property markets

According to a recent report, during the first quarter of 2015, Dubai’s real estate sector performed badly since the average price of houses decreased by approximately 4%.

More specifically, Dubai was ranked 53^rd amongst the 56 property markets that were included in Knight Frank's Global House Price index which evaluates the annual price growth of property. The countries that performed worse than Dubai were China, Cyprus and Ukraine. Ukraine marked a 15.5% drop while Cyprus and China recorded a smaller decline of 8.2% and 6.4% respectively. Based on the index, Dubai’s annual price growth dropped by 6.1%.

Nevertheless, the statistics revealed that during the previous quarter Ukraine’s annual price growth fell even more, while Dubai dropped of 4.6%.

Dubai’s real estate market has been amongst the most unstable over the last ten years, fluctuating constantly. Following the 2008 real estate crash, where prices were at their peak and crashed, the value of property climbed again and is now dropping.

Hong Kong, Turkey and Ireland were the three countries that marked the most increase regarding annual price growth. Hong Kong was ranked first with an increase of 18.7%, while Turkey and Ireland proceeded with an increase of 18.6% and 16.8% respectively.

Additionally, the index revealed that seven out of the ten leading countries ranked according to annual price growth of property are European countries.

The Global House Price index increased by only 0.3% until March 2015, which in fact is the least it has increased out of the last three years.

The Global House Price index takes into account the GDP of the countries included in the evaluation since more developed countries like the US or China have a greater impact in contrast to smaller countries like Malta.

Even though larger markets such as China, France and Japan are all going through a slump regarding the price of property, a larger number of smaller markets are experiencing small yet stable increases.

Three-thirds of the countries evaluated by the index either remained stable or marked a positive annual price growth during the first quarter of 2015. Three years ago, less than half of the countries recorded stability or an increase.