Office prices in Dubai continue to decline at fast rates. This is due to vast oversupply of available offices across many areas in Dubai.
Jumeirah Lake Towers currently has around 20% occupancy levels despite very competitive pricing. To make the situation worse for would-be landlords, there is a huge amount of supply of office units to be completed in the next two years. While this represents bad news for landlords, it represents terrific opportunities for existing and start-up businesses.
Lowering the cost to businesses will ultimately benefit the local economy and the population. This represents a particular opportunity for start-up businesses that can potentially afford office space to aid their business operations. This would have been out of the question 2-3 years ago where office space was amongst the most expensive in the world and stories of businesses hiring hotel rooms as office space was common.
Dubai rental prices have seen a huge drop over the past year, however office prices in Dubai continue to be some of the highest in the world.
There are still many Dubai offices for rent as supply continues to outstretch demand in the commercial real estate arena. Business Bay is a huge development focussing predominantely on offices for rent and as more buildings come onto the market in 2010, there will be more and more offices left empty.
Despite this oversupply in the market and the sharp fall in office rents in Dubai it is still surprising to read that office space in Dubai is still sone of the most expensive in the world with the Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC) being the most expensive.
At least the drop in office rents is now allowing more start-up and SME businesses to take office space in some of the more prestigious addresses in Dubai whereas previously they would have been forced to take up office space in less desirable locations.