Dubai Sale Price Index rises 0.7% in fourth quarter

The Sales Price Index for Dubai (Spid) for residential properties (Spid – All Residential) has risen by 0.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009 as against third quarter, according to Reidin.com.

Launched in partnership with the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (Rera) and Dubai Land Department (DLD), the new service – IndexFocus-UAE – provides the market with a series of indices and data sets that can help improve transparency across the market and help real estate professionals benchmark and analyse residential price trends.

According to the latest information released by the company, the Spid - Villas (base quarter first quarter 2003) rose by 2.6 per cent during the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter. Some of the 10 main districts covered by service include Palm Jumeirah, where SPI - All Residential (base quarter first quarter 2007) increased by two per cent (fourth quarter versus third quarter 2009).

However, the quarterly SPI for both Emirates Hills and Jumeirah Lake Towers fell by 19 per cent during the same period (base quarter first quarter 2004).

The Dubai indices and calculations are based primarily on transaction records from Land department, Reidin.com's online information product for analysing real estate transactions in Dubai) and property listings through its partnership with Rera, using a proprietary moving average median series methodology.

Earlier this month, HC Securities said that the past two months of 2009 recorded month-on-month rental gains of two and one per cent, respectively, underlining the stabilisation trend.

Since rentals, unlike sale prices, are considered a truer reflection of demand-supply dynamics, "the turnaround in November 2009 following none months of successive declines suggests the market is reaching equilibrium", the investment bank said.

Asteco also said the decline in rental rates slowed in the last quarter when compared to the third quarter of 2009, with overall decreases of two per cent for apartments and one per cent for villas.

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