Dubai property 15th most expensive in the world - study

By Tom Arnol Tuesday, 10 February 2009 5:01 PM

With an average price tag of $7,151 per square metre, property in Dubai is the fifteenth most expensive in the world, according to a recent study.

But it is still cheap compared to Monte Carlo where a top-end apartment costs on average $47,578 per square metre – almost seven times as much as Dubai.

Property in Moscow, which came in second place, costs $20,853 per square metre, followed by London at an average of $20,756.

At the other end of the scale, Cairo was found to be one of the cheapest cities in the world, with a high-end apartment there costing an average of only $574 per square metre.

Property research group Global Property Guide collected the data based on the average price of a 120 square metre high-end used apartment in the city centres of more than 110 cities around the world during 2008. The US dollar exchange rate used is that of January 27, 2009.

It is unclear whether the research takes into account the recent slowdown in Dubai’s once thriving real estate market as the global financial crisis has tightened its grip on the emirate.

As availability of credit has dried up, prices have fallen and developers have scaled back projects.

Dubai property prices slumped by 23 percent during the last quarter of 2008, with villas showing a more marked decline than apartments, according to a report published by HSBC last month.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that real estate prices have fallen by as much as 35 to 50 percent in developments such as the Dubai Marina, Downtown Burj Dubai, and the Palm Jumeirah.

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