Dubai rents begin to soften, even in affordable localities

THE IMPACT OF RECENT CRACKDOWN ON ILLEGAL SUBLETTING IS YET TO SHOW

- BY MANOJ NAIR Business Editor

Over the past two months, more locations in Dubai are seeing rental prices decline — including in some of the city's more affordable residential communities.

This trend is evident even for studio and one-bedroom units, despite the recent crackdown on subletting and partitioning by Dubai authorities and landlords.

In International City — a longtime hub for subletting — rents have remained flat over the past two months. Current asking prices for one-bedroom apartments range from Dh48,000 to Dh55,000, according to listings on Bayut. Studios are listed at around Dh28,000 to Dh29,000, though leasing agents say lower-priced options are also available.

1% decline over 2 months