UAE. After a decade of finding bargains in real estate markets against the backdrop of a secular weak US Dollar, as well as a regime of declining interest rates, foreign investors in the last year have faced the prospect of sharply higher housing prices in Dubai, as their nations’ currencies have fallen against the US dollar.
In times of a weak dollar market, real estate prices have had greater rates of appreciation, when compared to that of a strong dollar.
Whilst there have been several factors that contribute to the under/over performance in each of these periods, it is clear that USD strength is a major variable in the contribution of returns of the sector.
That could reshape certain global housing markets going forward (explaining in part why global real estate market returns have had significantly higher correlations in the past two years) as the baton shifts from an investor oriented market to that of an end user driven market.
The strength of the US Dollar since 2014 has had significant implications for the attractiveness of Dubai (and even the US housing market) for foreign investors, and has particularly affected markets that have been dominated by foreign investment flows.
Developers have responded by offering an array of incentives via payment plans to cater to both the foreign investor base, as well as attract potential end users from the domestic market.
These macro variables have been the predominant factor behind rising correlations in the world real estate markets, rising from a decade wide correlation of 0.29 to 0.65 in the last two years, as a financial regime in the form of change has caught global investors off guard.
Against the backdrop of lower oil prices, and a rising dollar and interest rates, speculative behavior will likely continue to subside, and transactional activity will remain subdued. This is positive news for the end user as it allows for the allocation of capital formation to an asset class that has historically been for the purposes of housing and longer term stability.
To read the full report click here: http://blog.reidin.com/873-dollars-and-sense.html
About Unitas
Unitas believes in in-depth planning and discipline as a mechanism to identify and exploit market discrepancy and capitalize on diversified revenue streams. The purpose of Unitas is to manage, direct, and create wealth for our clients.
date:Posted: August 18, 2015
UAE. GCC governments understands the urgent need for fiscal-sustainability in the long-term. This urgency, according to Deloitte’s latest report, would be addressed if GCC governments could commit to the domestic implementation of a broad-based Value Added Tax on goods and services.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.
