Wednesday July 22 2009

"I believe that the market is in a phase of fragile stabilisation,'' said Mohanad Al Wadiya, Managing Director of Harbor Real Estate Brokerage and Editor-in-Chief of the Harbor Report.

"It is hard to say exactly when we will see an improvement but the general consensus is that this will be in 2010, although the pace and magnitude of Dubai's economic recovery and its real estate industry will be largely dependent upon the global economic recovery and world economic events," he added.

The Harbor quarter report, which will be released by end-July, suggests that even though there have been many positive changes, with governments implementing monetary and fiscal policies, companies restructuring and improving their balance sheets and larger corporations considering merger or acquisition, it will still take several more months to see solid and sustainable improvements.

"When our first quarter report was issued, the general mood was very sombre. Today it is evident that even though the market is stressed, it is certainly not getting any worse, and that in itself is good news. We are starting to see signs that the changes made by governments and corporate institutions to combat the recession are slowly but steadily taking effect. With economists in Japan, China, the US and even Europe talking about 'green shoots' or early signs that a return to economic growth is now on the horizon, it looks promising that we will see things picking up in 2010 ,'' said Al Wadiya.