Recent comments from Standard and Poor’s have damped down hopes of an early recovery in the UAE property market, as analysts from the leading credit ratings agency predicted decreased values for the second half of 2011.
Tommy Trask, Credit Risk Analyst at Standard and Poors stated in the report “Despite property price falls of up to 60 percent in some markets – in the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain for example – between late 2008 and 2010, we expect capital values and rents to continue their largely downward slide in 2011.”
The report went on to state that they expected to see property developers in the Middle East continuing to reduce the number of new developments in the short term, preferring instead to focus on sale and management of existing stock lines throughout the region.
Interestingly, Trasks’s report went on to predict a shift in emphasis away from the luxury end of the residential market, and more towards middle range urban projects.
The report is further evidence that the road to recovery in the UAE property market will be long and protracted.
