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Dubai House Prices to Fall in Fourth Quarter

DUBAI — Dubai house prices will start to fall in the fourth quarter, ending a housing boom that pushed prices up by 43 per cent in the first three months of the year, Colliers International said.

“It is clear to us that the landscape has changed since the end of September,” Ian Albert, regional director for Colliers International, global real estate advisers, said on Wednesday in a report.

Developers in Dubai have cut jobs and reviewed projects as they brace for a slowdown in demand across the region and as access to credit dries up. The price of villas in Dubai tumbled 19 per cent in October from September, HSBC Holdings Plc reported on November 12.

Citigroup Inc. economist Mushtaq Khan said in a report last month that the “Dubai dream” may be over. House prices leaped 43 per cent in the first quarter from the previous three months, 16 per cent in second quarter and 5 per cent in the third, Colliers International said. It didn’t give a specific forecast for the fourth quarter. “The deceleration in the rate of growth seen in the first three quarters is attributable to the demand-supply dynamic of Dubai, but since the end of September a new factor, namely a shortage in liquidity caused by the international financial crisis, has impacted the market,” Albert said. Last month, Emaar Properties PJSC, the Middle East’s largest real-estate developer, said it was reviewing recruitment policies.