Opinion
Hear our experts’ take on the latest developments and trending topics
30 June 2019
Real estate markets and demographics What drives real estate prices – sheer numbers or economic weight? Intuitively, all other things being equal, consistently higher rates of growth of resident population in a region or country will drive up real estate prices by comparison to its neighbours and competitors. The IMF once even advanced a rule that a 0.25% rise in […]
10 June 2019
Effective market research, the lynchpin of successful real estate development and investment, is impossible without reliable data; without it, developers and investors face significantly higher risks.
6 May 2019
Under new International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 9, all GCC banks compliant with the standards are required to break down investment portfolios into pre-defined stages. Accordingly, Stage 2 – referred to as underperforming, where credit risk has increased significantly since initial recognition – warns stakeholders to account for expected credit losses, especially since the classification could lead to business troubles […]
30 April 2019
Why does it matter? Real estate indices generally exhibit a much smoother and less volatile evolution than listed real estate return performance. This is explained by three data measurement issues: the impact of property valuations rather than actual transactions, the aggregation bias of combining results over time, and the effect of financial leverage in listed entities which increases the volatility […]
28 March 2019
New sectoralism implies that the traditional real estate sectors, including residential and industrial, are no longer fit for purpose in the majority of international markets.
6 March 2019
Healthy macroeconomics: What ought to distinguish an economic from a purely market perspective on real estate is as close a focus as possible on why market variables are performing the way they are, as a guide to how much they are likely to change in the future. The starting point, as ever, is macroeconomics. Studies in OECD countries, which now date back […]
31 January 2019
A market in perspective: Economists are a sober lot, generally. Facts alone do not satisfy us. At a macro-economic level, our interests lie predominantly in the relationships between economic indicators, market performance and policy-based decision-making. We are generally wary of speculation, preferring to base our analysis on the links between economic data wherever possible. Identifying the reasons behind the performance […]
1 November 2018
Property Monitor’s Moe Abeidat discusses buying property in Dubai and the factors that influence purchasing decisions. One thing that stood out, amidst our last sprint to publish Cavendish Maxwell and Property Monitor’s Q3 2018 Residential Market Report for Dubai, is how today’s average prices for a villa/ townhouse and apartment, $517,000 and $327,000 respectively, are approximately the same as in […]
1 October 2018
Cavendish Maxwell’s Craig Ross discusses developments in fire safety standards in the UK and UAE. Following my article in August 2017 on the subject of building fires in Dubai, and following the Grenfell fire tragedy in the UK, there have been several interesting developments in both the UK and the UAE, in terms of fire safety standards. While the Grenfell enquiry […]
10 July 2018
Moe Abeidat, CTO at Property Monitor, analyses what sort of impact the latest amendments to residency laws in the UAE will have on the country’s real estate market This May, the UAE Cabinet announced a number of amendments to current residency laws, a move that has created a stir in the country’s real estate market, with a number of […]
2 March 2018
A noticeable shift in trend in the construction sector during 2017 has been a growing awareness amongst clients and consultants of the ageing building stock in the region. Words like refurbishment, retrofit and re-use have become commonplace in meetings, conferences and debates, and the ‘existing building problem’ is the elephant in the room that is conveniently avoided when looking at […]
9 January 2018
Prior to 2010, the UAE had limited fire regulations, the design of towers being dependent on the Building Code, and designer adoption of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and International Building Contracting (IBC) guidelines. Due to recent tower fires, Dubai has been working towards adopting tougher fire regulations. The revisions in the UAE’s 2013 Fire and Life Safety Code […]
