Dubai has ranked first among 59 cities in 34 emerging countries with the highest average residential property prices, recording a rate of around $7000 per sq m as of February 2009, said the latest ‘market data’ released by Reidin.com.

Singapore came second in the ranking with an average sales price of $6600 per sq. m., followed by Moscow ($6000), Hong Kong ($5400), Beijing ($4500) and Tel Aviv ($4200), according to Reidin.com, a leading online information services provider.

The rest of the cities in the top 10 include Ljubljana, Prague, St. Petersburg and Muscat. Updated on a monthly basis, ‘Market Data’ has extensive reach that covers Asia, Europe, GCC, Mena, Sub- Saharan Africa, Latin America, with most of the market information sourced from Reidin.com.

The ‘market data’ has been added to ‘Rebis’, a one-stop shop information portal offered by Reidin.com, that gives a bigger picture of the real estate industry by covering the micro and macro environment that stimulate the sector dynamics.

Through ‘Market Data’, users can now access up-to-date real estate sales and rental prices related to the residential, office, retail, commercial, industrial and land sectors.

“The launch of ‘Market Data’ further strengthens the capacity of ‘Rebis’ to provide an accurate overview of the industry for the benefit of real estate professionals, investors and other potential users who want to access the latest market information in the real estate sector across the region and beyond,” said Ahmet Kayhan, CEO, Reidin.com.

“As with the rest of our products, the credibility of the information offered by ‘Market Data’ is unsurpassed and bears the Reidin.com trademark of reliability, which will prove valuable to help players make intelligent decisions based on dependable market data.”

The reliability of ‘Market Data’ also stems from the methodology upon which the information is derived.

Reidin.com revealed that the numbers presented within ‘market data’ are based on the asked price data series from property listings and other portals from over 34 countries, with the selection of listings based on relevant criteria such as city or country coverage, number of properties, available property details, update frequency and cleanness of data.

Within each city, districts are categorised according to six main district types on the basis of concentration of business, land valuation, and access to key locations, among others.

A set of prices is then selected from datasets and the minimum, maximum and average is calculated statistically, rejecting outliers and defining an appropriate price range, Kayhan stated.

In addition to residential property prices, ‘Market Data’ also includes the latest real estate rental rates across the most important real estate destinations.

According to figures as of February 2009, the average rental price for residential units in Dubai Downtown, Central Business District is between $17.54 per sq. m. and $56.41 per sq.m. monthly, while buying apartments in the same area cost from $3444.16 and $9861.17 per sq. m.

By referring to the information provided by ‘Market Data’ and ‘Rebis’, market professionals and users can make more informed choices on whether to rent or simply buy property within the city of their choice, Kayhan noted.

'Our commitment to the growth of the real estate business is driving us to further enhance our products by launching new features that address the ever-increasing need of the market for reliable information.'

'In line with this, we are directing majority of our resources towards incorporating new features based on the evolving requirements of users and further expanding the coverage of our database,' he stated.

'We have high expectations that ‘Market Data’ will be of valuable help to our customers and we are anticipating success for this new feature and