Dubai traders point-out high rents as the biggest limiting factor

The Outlook Survey of Dubai Traders 2007, which was carried out during the early part of this year, indicated property rents as the biggest limiting factor that affected the trading operations during 2006, and has been expected to remain so, this year too.

Among the respondents, about 87 percent of businessmen said they were hit by high rents last year, and expected the rents to continue to affect their business this year too.

Even, the responses from 452 respondent traders, across all sectors, employment sizes and market-types, cited, high operating cost, high competition, high transportation charges, bad traffic, and difficulty in debt collection, as the limiting factors.

The report stated that today’s businesses are reeling from escalating rentals and transportation charges, which cut into their diminishing profits. To add to this, the housing for expatriates has become a heavy burden, particularly in cases of small traders, who are burdened with high turnover and difficulty in hiring skilled workers. The Marketing Director of DSL Exhibitions, Tessa Morris, has been organizing the Resale and Rental Property Show in Dubai for years now, and said that the increasing rents could indeed hurt the rental prices and business, as the rental rates are the largest component of the UAE inflation.

Posted on 10/12/2007

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