Should I buy property in Dubai now or wait?
This is a dilemma for many potential buyers. Caution suggests a wait-and-see approach might deliver a bargain in a market correction. Many people who did not buy Dubai property two years ago are already feeling sorry for not investing then.
Now the question is: Have prices now leveled off? Or will they go up further? There seems no reason to believe that prices will stop rising, although perhaps not as rapidly as in the past two years. The argument for waiting longer only holds if there is a market correction coming in the near future.
The problem with real estate downturns is that they can be elusive. They do happen eventually, but that could be five or ten years away – particularly for a carefully strategised and planned economy like Dubai. Moreover, in that time somebody living in Dubai will have paid a fortune in rent as they definitely are rising every year. Indeed, this rent could have been much better spent buying property.However, with the outlook for equities and bonds not too bright for 2007, it is hardly surprising that many choose bricks-and-mortar as a solid investment. House prices are also still at very reasonable levels by international standards. A similar home in a top sports complex in London would be around 3 or 4 times as much!
