DUBAI, 9 August 2007 — One of Dubai’s leading private property developers has predicted that demand for homes and offices in Dubai will continue to exceed supply for the next few years, and said forecasts that demand will cool down in 2008 and 2009 were not based on reality.
Mehdi Amjad, president and CEO of Omniyat Holdings and Omniyat Properties, said he imbalance between supply and demand in Dubai’s buoyant real estate market is expected to continue well into the next decade with the sector anticipating a new wave of investors from a completely different demographic profile.
Speaking in response to increasing speculation about supply and demand figures for the emirate, Amjad argues that with the expected doubling of Dubai’s population in five to eight years, massive demand for property will continue. “The whole bubble theory is a bubble that has been burst,” Amjad said.
“We keep hearing that the balance between supply and demand will be realized in 2008 or 2009. People who are saying that are not actively involved in the Dubai market, but just commenting on it from their ivory towers based on their experience in other markets. We all know Dubai is different. Dubai has Sheikh Mohammed,” he said.
Amjad said Dubai is aggressively targeting population growth, and that will lead to growth in demand for real estate. “The government is building a city for five million people whereas today we have fewer than two. Quite simply, this means that whatever is supplied now will not be enough and won’t be for many years to come,” he added.
