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UAE retail rents fall first time in a decade Gulf Round-up

Dubai: Retail rents in Dubai and Abu Dhabi dropped for the first time in a decade in the first quarter of this financial year, a report has revealed.

According to a retail rent index by property consultancy CB Richard Ellis, the cost of leasing a new store fell by 11 per cent in Dubai and 3.5 per cent in Abu Dhabi in the first quarter compared to that in the same period last year.

Mark Morris-Jones, CBRE’s senior director for retail and industrial property for MENA, said this was the first reduction in rents in 10 years and reflected the decrease in retail sales caused by the global economic downturn.

Rental rates remained at 400 Dirhams ($108.9) a square foot in Dubai, while 280 Dirhams a sq ft in Abu Dhabi.

“Demand is fuelled by their expectations of business and how they expect to do in terms of sales,” Mr. Morris-Jones said. “And if their expectation, given the way the market is in the moment, is that they are not going to do so well, they are not going to have a demand for retail property.”

In the past eight months at least four malls have opened in Dubai.

Saudi Arabia’s health authorities have advised the old, the infirm, pregnant women, and children not to perform Haj this year in view of the global swine flu pandemic.

A workshop on precautionary health measures to prevent the spread swine flu during Haj and Umrah was held in Jeddah on Tuesday which was attended by Saudi Arabia’s Health Minister Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, experts from World Health Organisation (WHO) and other international agencies.

The members noted with satisfaction the precautionary measures taken by the country to prevent the spread of the virus among pilgrims during the Haj season.

“What the health authorities in the Kingdom are doing to prevent the spread of the disease by far surpasses what is being done anywhere else in the world,” the Minister said. – PTI

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