The United Arab Emirates' (UAE) real estate market finds its way back to growth amid rising demand for residential and commercial properties in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

In a study on real estate trends in the Middle East published by Citigroup on Sunday, Heidy Rehman, an analyst, said that "Dubai 's real estate contracting has seen something of a mini-revival recently with developers reporting robust demand in certain segments."

"We believe this has been driven by 'unrest capital' from buyers facing geopolitical risk and currency depreciation in their domestic markets, e.g. India, Iran, Pakistan and Egypt," Rehman added.

Due to increasing demand for real estate in the sheikhdom, the UAE's largest developer Emaar Properties from Dubai saw its shares rising by 36 percent since Jan. 1, outperforming the Dubai Financial Market General Index by 14 percent.

Also on Sunday, Dubai's state-owned developer Nakheel said its nine-month profit doubled year-on-year to hit 1.1 billion dirhams (around 300 million U.S. dollars). Nakheel was in the focus of Dubai's near-default in November 2009 when neighboring sheikhdom Abu Dhabi, the UAE's capital, had to bail out Dubai with a 10- billion-dollar loan after Nakheel announced it was not able to pay off an expiring Islamic bond with a 3.52-billion-dollar par value.

Also, Nakheel announced it launched new villa projects on the man-made island Jumeirah, which can be seen from space.

"Private and institutional investors realized that Dubai is the best alternative in the region as the emirate provides security and economic growth, paving the way for home-owners and companies that aim to set up offices in the Middle East," Nakheel chairman Ali Rashid Lootah told Xinhua earlier in the month at the region's largest real estate congress Cityscape in Dubai.

On Monday, the UAE central bank said real estate loans issued by banks in the country grew in the first half of 2012 by over 1 billion dirhams (272.7 million dollars).

Meanwhile, in order to spur growth in real estate, Abu Dhabi's two largest developers, Aldar Properties and Sorouh Real Estate, said in a media statement earlier this month that they were in an advanced stage to conclude a merger of equals as they announced their talks in March 2012. According to reports by the local Emirati press, the merger might be sealed in January 2013. Endi

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