Mr. Sultan Butti bin Mejren, the department’s director general, was quoted saying that this is a baseless rumour and only serves to encourage the return of speculation. It confuses buyers and needlessly compels them to speed up their purchasing decisions, although not really significant increase of daily sales volumes was reported by trustee offices in Dubai.
Still, the “rumours” had some effect and Dubai Land Department postponed the June 30 registration deadline by four months. Developers and homeowners now have until October 30 to register their property. There is no announcement about upcoming changes in regulations concerning property registration after that period of time.
Back in 2013, the property registration fee was increased to cool an overheating market by making the practice of flipping more difficult.
By the end of the first half of 2015, however, figures from Dubai Land Department’s website show the value of villas and apartments sold in the year so far dropped 46 per cent to Dh10.3 billion from Dh19bn the same period in 2014.
Dubai property prices are currently in a decline mode and strong supply of new units will likely support further depreciation.
A report from the ratings agency Standard and Poor’s last week said that prices could fall by up to 20 per cent this year, but it added developers were prepared for a fall of that magnitude. Usually, by the time a news breaks out in the media, it is already discounted by the markets.
