Abu Dhabi has 40,000 empty apartments, more than Dubai
Posted on 11 November 2010 with 3 comments from readers
Official data from the Statistics Centre of Abu Dhabi has revealed that at the end of July the UAE capital city had 40,000 vacant apartments. A brief check today of the Propertyfinder.ae website showed that Dubai has 11,201 apartments for sale and 8,035 for rent.
Dubai therefore has less empty flats right now than Abu Dhabi. The Propertyfinder.ae website is not an official source but multiple property listings roughly compensate for the properties not listed, so it is a reasonable proxy with nothing better available.
Shock discovery
However, the oversupply of apartments in Abu Dhabi is a shock as the Propertyfinder.ae website does not list these empty properties. It shows 1,207 apartments for sale and 1,250 for rent in Abu Dhabi.
This discrepancy may well be down to government ownership. Apartments owned by state entities are not likely to end up being advertised on a real estate website, and may also be old and largely redundant units.
The SCAD report was one of the biggest ever commercial and statistical studies ever conducted by the government and established that the emirate has 382,000 housing units of which 40,000 are empty.
Whether this is truly an oversupply is not clear from the study. If the apartments are in 1970s and 80s buildings that are close to being torn down then this is not a very significant finding, and many buildings in Abu Dhabi are of this vintage.
Rents falling
Rents have fallen by more than 25 per cent in the UAE capital over the past year, albeit from some of the highest rentals in the world. And if the supply of property in this market proves higher than previously thought this could accelerate the process of decline.
These are of course completed apartments. The oversupply situation in Dubai is much greater than Abu Dhabi if the upcoming 65,000 units are considered, and these are by their very nature new properties ready for occupation.
Oversupply is what is preventing a recovery in the UAE real estate market as fundamentals like the oil price, trade and tourism are now positive. But given the amount of oversupply this turnaround is likely to take some time and the market could well get worse before it gets better.
3 Comments posted by readers:
If Abu dhabi has more than 40,000 available units, then why the h*** you think I will pay 5000 Dhs for a creepy,tight studio in Khalidiya. I dont think Mate! The problem gets bigger when you have to pay just 2 cheques for a whole year!!
if abudhabi has 40.000 available flat units, is very good so maybe i can get one flat 3 bathroom , and standard price, not very high price
if abudhabi has the mentioned no; flats vaccant,pls provide us a 2 bedroom flat for resonable price.its very hard for us still in one room in a villa ,paying 35000 per annum