This week we take a look at fuel prices, renovations, Volkswagen, the UAE’s ranking performance and property prices.
Cheaper petrol as world keeps spinning
This week's Blood Moon was supposed to bring about the end of the world, according to an Evangelical Christian movement in the United States. Mankind is still here, however, going about its business, filling cars with petrol and driving here, there and everywhere. For some lower income drivers it probably felt like the end of the world in August when the Ministry of Energy liberalised fuel prices in the UAE and the price of Special 95 jumped nearly 24 per cent. Alas, fears of further rises and a deeper dent in the pocket of consumers have failed to materialise as prices fell around 8 per cent for September. The Fuel Price Committee on Monday brought further cheer when it announced that prices would drop another 8 per cent for October, although diesel would edge up. So, drivers now find themselves paying almost the same amount as they were before the liberalisation. Although tricky, future predictions of the price swings are likely to be more accurate than doomsday forecasts.Ian Oxborrow
Playing the renovation game
In a falling property market, owners need to pull every trick in the book to ensure their home retains its value. Which is why some Dubai property owners are investing large sums into renovating their villas and apartments to make them more appealing to renters or future buyers - a trend we documented in the Money section last week. According to Mohammed Khan, a residential sales and leasing consultant at Better Homes, renovations can add 10 to 15 per cent to the original sale price. That's significant when you consider prices in Dubai's residential property market have dropped by about 10 per cent year-on-year because of fears of a glut of new supply coming in. One owner who invested heavily in his home is the British investment banker Sharaz Hussain. He revealed in our Money article how he and his wife spent six months and 2 per cent of the property cost to overhaul their six-bedroom home in the Meadows in Dubai. He estimates the work added about 15 per cent to the villa's value. Alice Haine
House prices head south
Further to home owners in Dubai looking to play the renovation game to give their property a price boost, a new report from ReidIn on Wednesday confirmed that prices are still falling. And now they are at a level that has even taken the brokers by surprise, having dropped on average nearly 10 per cent year on year. "There is still no sign of a pickup in activity in the marketplace and so the falls have been more than we anticipated," Craig Plumb, the head of research in JLL's Dubai office, told The National. The expected dip in rents due to higher supply hasn't happened, however, and to back up the word on the street that tenants are still receiving hikes, ReidIn reported that apartment rents were up 1 per cent month on month for August. Ian Oxborrow
UAE escapes VW black cloud
The Volkswagen emissions scandal, which began in America, is spreading like a cloud of black smoke bellowing out of a car's exhaust. The company said on Wednesday that along with the 11 million diesel-powered US cars that had been rigged to cheat on pollution tests, almost 1.2m of its vehicles sold in the UK were also fitted with the deceitful software. VW will also recall 120,000 cars in South Korea. And in Australia, regulators have cautioned VW that the company could be fined for Aus$1.1m for each instance in which the bad software might be found. Next up is a massive recall-and-repair effort that is sure to cost tens of millions of euros. The German government has given VW until October 7 to roll out its plan for the big fix. The UAE has escaped being affected. A regional VW spokeswoman has told The National, "We do not offer diesel engines within the Volkswagen Middle East model range." Rob McKenzie
Marked, reported and ranked
Say the word "rankings" and I think of Roger Federer, Andy Murray and tennis. But rankings are becoming a more frequent part of the business world as studies on far reaching topics attempt to put their subjects in numerical order. The UAE fared well in this week's released rankings, the most significant of which was the World Economic Forum's global competitiveness report which placed it in 17th. It was actually down on last year's 12th place, but the nation was praised for its "excellent macroeconomic environment, highly developed infrastructure and strong institutions [which] provide a solid base". Loftier positions were achieved in the Muslim Travel Shopping Index 2015, which had Dubai in first position, and the State of The Global Islamic Economy report, which placed the UAE an impressive second behind Malaysia after recording particularly strong scores in Islamic finance, halal food and travel – it ranked in the top three for each section. Ian Oxborrow
business@thenational.ae
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