DUBAI REMAINS POPULAR AS A HOLIDAY HAVEN

Wednesday, 02 Jul 2008

Dubai is becoming an increasingly becoming a popular location for holiday homes, it has been claimed.

Dubai remains popular as a holiday haven The emirate is traditionally perceived as an investment hotspot, with excellent rental returns achievable as a range of tourist and business developments continue on its Gulf coastline.

But Shahid Iqbal, of Investors provident, says that people are increasingly looking to "actually have a holiday home … for themselves" when buying in the Middle Eastern destination.

"The majority of investors that are coming into Dubai at this moment in time are obviously new investors," he commented.

"A lot of people are buying to actually have a holiday home over there and use it for themselves as well as for others for investment."

He said that the climate was one of the main factors why people consider Dubai as a place to holiday and live in, rather than just as an investment location.

"They probably want to get away from the weather - to get away from the UK and get to a better climate. It's definitely increasing.

"They want to get away from the weather here and they always look at it like the grass is greener on the other side."

Demand for property in Dubai currently outweighs supply - and this imbalance should continue well into the next decade, it has been claimed.

Mehdi Amjad, president of Omniyat Holdings, says that the emirate is expecting demand growth to continue - with a new wave of investors from a "completely different demographic profile" set to pour funds into the market over the years ahead.

Mr Amjad was addressing claims that demand and supply would even out by about 2008 or 2009 and that Dubai's population would double in the next five to eight years.

"The whole bubble theory is a bubble that has been burst," Mr Amjad said.

"We keep hearing that the balance between supply and demand will be realised in 2008 or 2009.

"People who are saying that are not actively involved in the Dubai market, but just commenting on it from their ivory towers based on their experience in other markets. We all know Dubai is different. Dubai has His Highness Sheikh Mohammed," he added in an interview with AMEinfo.com.

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