The annual house price growth in Dubai has softened by 5.6 per cent in October, with the rates declining 1.2 per cent month-on-month – a slight fall of 0.3 per cent compared to the monthly change in October of the previous year, according to a report.

House prices in Dubai are expected to continue declining further until the end of this year and into the start of 2019, said the Dubai House Price Index.

The Index was produced by Property Monitor, a product of Cavendish Maxwell - one of the UAE's leading property consultancies - and developed in response to a need for greater market transparency. It tracks the prices of a selection of apartment and villa/townhouse properties since September 2015.

There is increasing downward pressure on premium properties in particular, and the average transacted price for residential property across Dubai has been moving towards the ‘under Dh2 million ($544,410) mark, said the report.

In October, secondary market transfers for villas outpaced off-plan activity, as has been seen from November 2017 onwards. However, for apartments, off-plan transfers continued to dominate, though the volume of transfers for under-construction apartments declined by 20 per cent year-on-year.

The annual change in house prices registered a decline of 5.6 per cent in October, compared to a 4.6 per cent decline in August 2018. House prices in the three months to October were 3.5 per cent lower than the previous quarter, it stated.

According to the House Price Index, apartment and villa/townhouse prices have declined by 11 per cent and 13 per cent respectively.

The average apartment price stood at Dh1.9 million, with the average villa/townhouse price being Dh4.9 million in October, compared to their prices of Dh2.1 million and Dh5.6 million in September 2015, it added.-TradeArabia News Service