Properties In Abu Dhabi Are More Affordable In 2018 For Both For Buyers And Tenants

dubizzle Property, the UAE’s biggest and most visited Property platform, reveals its annual Abu Dhabi Property report, comparing price trends from Q1 2017 to Q1 2018. The report reveals a softening in property prices across the capital, providing tenants and investors with more negotiating power.

With over 90,000 daily visits and around 200,000 live listings at any given time to dubizzle Property, the platform shares insights into the rental and sale market in Abu Dhabi. The report provides transparency of the market in order to empower users to make more well-informed decisions when considering buying or renting a home.

Rental Trends

Rentals across Abu Dhabi experienced an overall decline in the first quarter of 2018, compared to this time last year. Data from dubizzle Property reveals that Al Khalidiyah experienced the largest decline in apartment rentals by 22% YoY, followed by Al Shamkha and Mussafah East (-14%), Al Mushrif (-12%), Al Reem Island (-12%), Al Muroor (-12%) and Al Reef (-11%).  3BR apartments for rent in Al Khalidiyah experienced the largest decrease in rentals by 49%.

Rentals for villas experienced a similar decrease, with Al Raha Beach seeing the largest decline in prices by 16%, followed by Al Mushrif (-15%), Al Raha Gardens (-10%), Al Khalidiyah (-9%), and Al Reef (-5%).

“The rental sector in Abu Dhabi may see further decline into 2018, which can make housing costs for Abu Dhabi’s residents cheaper. Various global and local economic factors have caused residents in the capital to consider more affordable housing options – whether this is moving to newly developed areas, downsizing, or both. This movement naturally has an effect on the rental prices, which in turn provides tenants more negotiating power,” commented Samer Abdin, General Manager, dubizzle Property.

When looking at the most popular areas amongst dubizzle users, Mussafah East, followed by Khalifa City, Al Muroor, Al Shamkha and Al Mushrif were the top searched areas for both apartments and villa rentals.

Sales Trends

Sales prices across the Emirate witnessed similar trends in Q1 2018, with an overall decline in prices in both villas and apartments.

When analyzing apartment sales, Al Ghadeer saw the most significant decline in sales prices with a decrease of 17%, followed by Hydra Village (-9%), Al Raha Beach (-7%), Yas Island (-6%) and Al Reem Island (-3%), and Al Reef (-3%).

Our data revealed that the most popular areas searched for by dubizzle users looking to buy villas and apartments were Al Reef, Al Reem Island, Yas Island, Al Raha Beach, and Al Ghadeer.

This shows that with Al Reef and Al Reem Island being the most in filtered through communities on dubizzle by buyers; both these communities also experience the lowest decline in sale price per ft. Y-O-Y.

Similar sale price trends were witnessed in neighboring emirate Dubai in previous years.

“Authorities in the capital and major developers are investing in bringing new and exciting projects to the market; recently, authorities approved three landmark development and tourism projects to be implemented at Zayed Port. The current softening of prices in the capital signals an opportunity for property investors to enter the market as we see it progress through its real estate cycle,” concluded Abdin.