Community Areas More Popular In Dubai

Property experts have been seeing a shift towards rentals and buying in community development areas, such as Discovery Gardens and Dubai Marina over the last two months. It seems community-style developments such as Jumeirah Beach Residence, Dubai Marina and Discovery Gardens are becoming more popular among tenants and buyers. With many people looking to relocate to Dubai from Abu Dhabi, due to a lack of supply in the capital, developments which are ready, like Dubai Marina, and offer easy access to facilities and main roads are increasingly popular, analysts say. For residential sales, the highest demand over the last two months has been for the Marina Emirates Living district. The price range between Dh2 million and Dh3 million has seen the highest number of transactions and, in terms of number of bedrooms, two bedrooms have been the most popular," Liz O'Connor, director, residential sales and leasing at Better Homes, told Gulf News.

Without around 20 to 25 per cent deposit, people are finding it difficult to get on the property ladder. Dubai's Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Rera) are due to release the new and improved rental index which is forecast to reflect the recent drop in rental rates, across Dubai. The first rental index released at the end of last year caused chaos among tenants as it showed average rental rates based on pre-financial downturn figures. However, rents have been falling, dependent on the location and this is thought to be the basis of the revised index. Jumeirah Lake Towers, Jumeirah Beach Residences and Dubai Marina are the top picks for tenants at the moment. Vacant space is the ultimate unutilised resource," said Andrew Delport, chief operating officer at Gowealthy real estate brokers. Dubai real estate website propertyfinder.ae has created top ten lists for rental and purchasing hotspots, based on online site interest in February alone. Both lists contain Discovery Gardens and Dubai Marina.