Online Property Auction Launches in UAE to Attract Foreign Buyers

Real estate consultants Asteco Property Management is to launch an online property auction website in a bid to lure more international investors to the United Arab Emirates.

Asteco, which has been operating in the UAE since 1985, said it had signed a deal with US based LFC International Real Estate Brokerage to offer the service.

‘The real estate market in the UAE, particularly Dubai, continues to draw a significant amount of interest from institutional and private investors from overseas,’ said Elaine Jones, chief executive officer of Asteco Property Management.

‘Furnishing these financiers with the opportunity to invest in local property through a safe, secure and transparent online auction will undoubtedly make it more convenient and therefore even more popular,’ she explained.

Dubai’s property sector was hit hard by the economic downturn of 2008 with properties in some locations seeing prices fall by up to 60%. The market is starting to show signs of a recovery and interest from foreign buyers, which had all but disappeared, is now returning.

Indeed, figures from the Dubai Land Department shows that foreign buyers bought real estate worth AED22 billion in the first half of 2012.

Foreign buyers are dominated by Indians who bought 2,153 properties valued at AED3.751 billion while Pakistanis came second with a total of 1,814 properties worth AED1.713 billion. British investors bought a total of 1,564 properties worth AED2.529 billion, Iranians bought 1,057 properties worth AED1.515 billion and Russians bought 694 properties at a total value of AED1.438 billion.

Saudis, Americans, Canadians and Jordanians were also prominent investors in Dubai's real estate market, the figures showed.

‘The real estate sector performance is moving from strength to strength over the past two years. The market has been attracting more foreign investors, which reflects the solid national economy and its excellent growth potentials,’ said Majida Ali Rashid, chairwoman of the Real Estate Investment Promotion and Management Centre.

Sultan Al Akraf, senior director of the real estate registration services at the Land Department, said that the figures reflect ‘an ongoing upside trend and a positive growth in the real estate market performance in the emirate’.