The Brexit vote will only have a limited impact on British investment in Dubai' real estate market, reports said on Monday.

That was because a significant percentage of British investors work and reside in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and therefore do not generate their income in pound sterling, according to a report by global real estate advisory firm JLL.

Data from the Dubai Land Department suggests that British nationals are the third largest group of investors in terms of nationality in the city's property sector, JLL said.

In another report also issued on Monday, Dubai-based property research firm Reidin said the sterling remained at 30-year lows. Over the last 35 years the pound has systematically devalued against the U.S. dollar.

"However, this decline in the currency levels has not hindered the ability of residents to invest in assets abroad, particularly in real estate assets in Dubai," the Reidin report said.

With over 200,000 British nationals living in the UAE, a major oil supplier, expatriates from Britain represent the biggest group of Westerners living in the Gulf Arab state.

The majority of British expats in the UAE live in Dubai, which has a total population of 2.5 million people, more than 80 percent of which are foreigners.

Due to the slump in the price of oil, real estate prices have declined sharply in the UAE. In the second quarter of this year alone, property prices in Dubai slipped by 6 percent, real estate advisory firm Cavendish Maxwell said last week. Endit

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)