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The UAE real estate market is facing a massive shortage in
residential units - and it will only get worse in the coming years, a
property executive has warned.
Mohammed Khalifa Al-Muhairi, chairman of the committee setting up Abu
Dhabi-based Tasweeq Company for Real Estate Development and Marketing,
said the UAE's housing supply shortage risked hitting 300,000 by 2017,
UAE daily Emirates Business 24/7 reported on Monday.
Speaking at
a seminar about Tasweeq's upcoming inital public offering (IPO),
Al-Muhairi said huge population expansion and massive growth in the
UAE's gross domestic product (GDP) would mean demand would continue to
outstrip supply over next decade.
He said demand for residential units in the UAE is expected to rise to 212,000 by the end of this year, and hit 246,000 in 2009.
Al-Muhairi
said Abu Dhabi's supply shortfall could rise to 83,000 units by 2017,
compared to 29,000 currently, while Dubai's could hit 57,000, from
21,000 now.
The shortfall in the other five UAE emirates could
increase to more than 160,000 in 2017, compared to 56,000 units this
year, he said.
Al-Muhairi is just the latest industry figure to warn about the UAE's housing supply and demand imbalance.
Project
delays due to the rising cost of construction, coupled with the
Emirates' ever expanding population, has resulted in a serious supply
shortfall in the market, sending house prices and rents soaring.
However,
Al-Muhairi's projection of the shortfall continuing through to 2017 is
much longer than many analysts' predictions that supply and demand will
begin to balance out next year when large amounts of housing inventory
comes onto the market.
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