Loud mosque affects house prices in Meadows and Springs
Posted on 24 January 2011 with 6 comments from readers
Home owners in The Meadows are pointing the finger at a very loud new mosque near to Meadows 4 as one cause for the 12 per cent fall in house prices in their community in the fourth quarter of last year.
Before the mosque opened this was a very quiet multi-cultural community with no long early morning calls to prayer. Now life has become rather different, with a regular loud intrusion not typical of Dubai.
Environmental intrusion
Perhaps this is just an over-zealous young muezzin, trying to make an impression on the community. Perhaps it is an attempt to drive out non-muslims, although that would take a lot of doing as they represent the overwhelming majority.
However, this is clearly impacting on local villa prices which are falling much faster than in other areas of New Dubai. Local residents are not asking for a church or temple to be sited near to the mosque, merely for a volume more appropriate to a multi-cultural community and supportive of house values.
Many ArabianMoney readers are also investors in Dubai property and have shown great patience and fortitude in the face of the recent market downturn but it appears that for some the loud intervention of a local mosque is the last straw.
Rents also falling
The biggest losers are probably UAE national investors, many of whom are landlords and are now also seeing their rental income eroded as these villa prices fall. Of course, there is a market for religious tenants for whom the call to prayer is an essential part of their daily routine but it does limit the market, and potential investment return.
Clearly there is little that can be done about the global financial crisis locally or the supply of property now available in the market. But keeping the housing market as friendly as possible to the maximum number of buyers and tenants would make good sense for local business and is something that can be managed locally.
6 Comments posted by readers:
Well timed article, we recently decided to move from this area (meadows village) when our rent renewal comes in April. The dramatic increase in volume is a contributing factor however unrealistic price expectation and lack of payment flexibility are by far the biggest drivers in our decision to move.
We have heard that most LL would rather have the villa stand empty than meet the market. I guess when you have as much dough as these LL, fifty grand loss is nothing and fair enough (wealth envy).
I was speaking with a friend of mine who is a local broker and he told me that while villa and apartment prices have fallen the local community fees in that JLT area have not. As of now it looks like only the investors have taken the hit and fall while the local government still collects the same excessive fees. If you keep the fees in mind along with the rent and now add a little noise is one more reason for the prices to keep tumbling down.
I think a good business to operate now in Dubai would be selling double panel glass windows for houses. If done properly one can not hear a sound from the outside. I had them done hear in Taiwan on my last house and I couldn’t hear a guy outside my window even if he were dying lol..
For Muslim it’s a good opportunity to get the villas close to the mosque…
Really I don’t think it will affect the prices cuz muslims coming from Europe or other parts of the world are more than happy to hear early morning calls.
That’s a great thing for us and looking forward to get a villa in this area of Dubai.
It’s a terrific news!!!
Oh yes – the noise premium is a reality , ( just as the view premium is )
There are few gated communities in Dubai which offer the option of a really peaceful , yet centrally located place to. I would pay more to be as far away from any kind of noise as possible, and Arabian Ranches is my #1 pick for he place to live.
Yes I can understand the house price issue But how do you get the noise turned down with out demolishing the place, there has to be some sort of regulator or authority to beable to control the decibels. any views would be helpful, otherwise we would have to move .
Ed Note: the noise stopped a couple of months ago after another article in The National on this subject.
Note from the Editor: We have received several more comments on this subject but we are closing comments as this article is now out-of-date.
The mosque apparently did reduce its volume this summer. The same estate agents that reported the noise have reported a 20% rise in villa prices in The Meadows, although this no doubt has more to do with the Arab Spring and demand for villas in pleasant communities than the sound from the mosque.
Kindly note also that this is a business website and we do not normally include articles that can be interpreted as religious – indeed in this article the issue is the noise reported by the estate agents and that could just as well be the bells of a church, it is not about religion. We apologize for any offense caused to anybody by tackling this subject.