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PropGuy
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Gulfnews: Fair valuations in realty mooted
An independent body must come to Dubai to give fair valuations of properties based on quality and investment, an industry expert said on Sunday.
With property prices in Dubai rocketing in the last couple of years and only just beginning to level off, prices are still out of reach of the majority of the population.
While initially it was the speculators who triggered the astronomical rise in real estate values, developers also played a role. Prices eventually touched such a high that the only way to go was down, the expert said.
"Dubai needs to come back down to earth in terms of valuations. An independent body needs to come in and valuate based on cost, quality, comparatively, and [on the] amount of investment. Earlier, people paid two per cent deposit and tomorrow they [would] flip it. And the flipping went on. The banks were financing maybe 200 per cent of the real value of the property," Datuk Azahari Kamil, chief executive of the Asian Finance Bank, told Gulf News.
Only 48 per cent of people in the UAE would spend extra income on property and 17 per cent are concerned about paying their mortgage, a recent report by offshore insurance firm, Zurich International Life (Zurich) stated.
Around 500 people from around the country took part in the survey.
Over half of the respondents still believe property values in the UAE are still too high.
With prices dropping, however, people still can't buy without the much-needed mortgages.
The report also indicated that 27 per cent of those questioned in the UAE have property as a current investment.
Analysts have also said that mortgages won't be easily accessible in the market until property prices in Dubai come down to mid-income levels.
An independent body must come to Dubai to give fair valuations of properties based on quality and investment, an industry expert said on Sunday.
With property prices in Dubai rocketing in the last couple of years and only just beginning to level off, prices are still out of reach of the majority of the population.
While initially it was the speculators who triggered the astronomical rise in real estate values, developers also played a role. Prices eventually touched such a high that the only way to go was down, the expert said.
"Dubai needs to come back down to earth in terms of valuations. An independent body needs to come in and valuate based on cost, quality, comparatively, and [on the] amount of investment. Earlier, people paid two per cent deposit and tomorrow they [would] flip it. And the flipping went on. The banks were financing maybe 200 per cent of the real value of the property," Datuk Azahari Kamil, chief executive of the Asian Finance Bank, told Gulf News.
Only 48 per cent of people in the UAE would spend extra income on property and 17 per cent are concerned about paying their mortgage, a recent report by offshore insurance firm, Zurich International Life (Zurich) stated.
Around 500 people from around the country took part in the survey.
Over half of the respondents still believe property values in the UAE are still too high.
With prices dropping, however, people still can't buy without the much-needed mortgages.
The report also indicated that 27 per cent of those questioned in the UAE have property as a current investment.
Analysts have also said that mortgages won't be easily accessible in the market until property prices in Dubai come down to mid-income levels.
