Buyers shun off-plan units at property show

The property market is now dominated by sellers trying to offload their mostly yet-to-be-built apartments, but the few buyers there are only interested in completed units, brokers at a property show said. Industry executives attending the Property Shopper show in Dubai over the weekend said few buyers were to be seen. The show was intended to bring estate agents and buyers together; instead, brokers were inundated with requests from sellers to help sell off-plan units they had bought in projects that had yet to break ground or were not yet completed.

"Most of the people who came were looking to resell their properties and very few were interested in buying off-plan," Kameel Jabbour, the managing director of Dubai-based New Market Real Estate said. "(Buyers) were concerned about which projects would continue or not, and would only inquire about distinguished properties. Usually during a show we would conclude deals, and in some cases we would also receive payments. But not this time."

Inquiries mainly concerned studios and one-bedroom apartments with a price of between Dh750,000 and Dh1.5m, brokers said. Demand for rental properties, however, remained high. [e-mail]