JUST OVER A year after moving to Dubai, Steve found himself moving unexpectedly up the property ladder, taking advantage of a cooling real estate market amid the Middle East war.<\/p>\n
His new apartment is larger and closer to work than his previous residence, but the rent is nonetheless 15% cheaper, he said, using a pseudonym due to Dubai\u2019s sensitivity on the matter.<\/p>\n
When he arrived in Dubai in 2025, \u201cit was really difficult to get a place in this area and the rents had gone up by a lot,\u201d said the 35-year-old, who works in the media sector.<\/p>\n
Dubai\u2019s property market \u2013 a pillar of its economy \u2013 has soared in recent years, buoyed by the arrival of international high-net-worth individuals attracted by the glamorous lifestyle on offer in the emirate.<\/p>\n
But the outbreak of the Middle East war in late February has dampened growth. Targets in Dubai came under fire in the early days of Iran\u2019s retaliation against US allies in the region.<\/p>\n
Even some of its most iconic sites, such as Burj Al-Arab and the Palm Jumeirah, were not spared, dealing a blow to the city whose population is more than 90% foreigners.<\/p>\n
Hostilities resumed in July, following an April ceasefire, but Dubai has so far not been in the firing line.<\/p>\n
But its image as a city that is \u201csafe no matter what\u201d has yet to recover from the blow it was dealt, said a real estate agent, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
Today, the agent said, \u201cwe are in some sort of grey area. I\u2019m getting a split sentiment; people think this has destabilised the region for a long time\u2026 And there are people who say this is the right time to invest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clients have not completely disappeared, the agent said, but the margins for negotiation have expanded.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the war, the market\u2019s shifted from a seller\u2019s market to a buyer\u2019s market,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
British real estate consultancy Knight Frank said \u201cwe have already noted prices ebbing widely across the city\u2019s mainstream market by between five and 20%, depending on location\u201d,\u00a0after having surged by an average of 82.9% since 2021.<\/p>\n
The market has been hit previously, notably during the 2008 economic crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
Property giant Emaar nonetheless announced last month a massive $55 billion (\u20ac48.34 billion) project in the heart of Dubai, hoping to attract some 150,000 residents, signalling its confidence in the market\u2019s ability to bounce back.<\/p>\n
Binghatti, another major developer, said it had sold two luxury apartments in the centre in June, at $54 million (\u20ac47.46 million) and $19 million (\u20ac16.7 million) respectively.<\/p>\n
According to a report by the Betterhomes agency, based on official figures, sales transaction values fell in the second quarter of 2026 by 45% year-on-year, with the luxury sector hit particularly hard.<\/p>\n
But chief executive Richard Waind nonetheless insisted that the situation has improved over the past weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re starting to see demand increase again through June and then into this month, both in terms of buyer activity and buyer deals happening,\u201d he told news agency AFP.<\/p>\n
Demand is mainly driven by Dubai residents, rather than foreign investors, he said.<\/p>\n
But, he explained, this time of year has traditionally been a lull period and projected that investment would begin to \u201crecover and return as we come out of the summer\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JUST OVER A year after moving to Dubai, Steve found himself moving unexpectedly up the property ladder, taking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,200,113,61,975,60,1196,43870,9115],"class_list":["post-568737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-dubai","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-investment","tag-ireland","tag-middle-east","tag-property-market","tag-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}