Chris Saul's Blog

Sunday January 18, 2009

Property Baffled

I took a quick look at property prices in our area, expecting to see that they'd dropped massively, but was surprised to see that the value of our place appears to have gone up over the last couple of months.

This makes no sense, in light of all the articles in the press and the general 'feel' of what's going in Dubai at the moment.

Are these 'list prices', with sellers potentially offering big discounts, people in denial, or investors simply holding on to properties they bought in cash - cash that they are happy to have sit around in an empty apartment till things improve?

I had a cold call from an estate agent today, asking if I wanted to sell. We don't, but it's almost tempting to pretend that we do, just to get a feel of what the real situation is out there. With rents elsewhere supposedly dropping slowly, I'm wondering if we'll see any of our neighbours cashing in and moving out?