Overall market sentiment to improve – says JLL

In its 2018 Year in Review report, JLL notes that the UAE market performance will heavily depend on the impact of investments and regulations.

Last year, the UAE government had announced a number of relaxed regulatory controls to further drive economic diversification and stimulate weakened market demand.

The introduction of a new 10-year residency visa and a 5-year retiree visa were launched to encourage investment and retain human capital in the emirates, in turn reversing the current downturn in market conditions, stated the JLL report.

“Overall market sentiment should improve in the long run as the new visa regulations and economic stimuli will provide a boost to the UAE’s real estate market,” said Craig Plumb, the head of research at JLL Mena.

“However, the benefit of these initiatives is unlikely to have an immediate impact and 2019 is expected to remain a challenging year for most sectors of the real estate industry,” he stated.

“The residential and office sectors have the most potential upside from these new initiatives launched to stimulate demand,” added Plumb.

The consultant maintains that while there are concerns of supply increasing ahead of demand over the coming years, however completions are expected to be much lower than the projected deliveries.