Dubai expats in trouble

Around 70 per cent of all UAE expatriates who own UAE property are now in negative equity, and would lose money if they attempted to sell their home now, according to a recent survey...

A poll conducted by market research company Real Opinions reveals that around 40 per cent of all UAE expatriate property owners claim to have purchased property in the UAE and 22 per cent state they have purchased a home off-plan with further payment installments outstanding before the unit is completed.

Dan Healy, the CEO of Real Opinions who conducted the survey commented, "This is the second stage of research to better understand what impact the global economic crisis is having upon the UAE. The property industry has had a meteoric growth in the UAE over recent years and we wanted to assess the price difference from when owners bought property during this growth and the current realistic market price they would expect to receive.

"Seven in 10 now believe they are in negative equity and this presents unprecedented and unexpected implications for these expatriate owners in the relatively short history of the UAE expatriate real estate market. For those who sold prior to this recent downturn have made significant gains which have been well covered in the media, but for those who bought close to the top of the market it appears to be a different story."

Source: www.homesoverseas.co.uk/news