Expo 2020 to have limited impact on UAE's real estate in 2014

The direct impact of holding the World Expo in 2020 for UAE's real estate will be limited in 2014, said real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) in a report on Sunday. The report titled "Top Trends for United Arab Emirates (UAE) real estate 2014" is the first of its kind which takes some of the euphoria the emirate of Dubai has witnessed since it won the Expo 2020 bid in November, 2013. Although the real estate prices went up by up to 30 percent in 2013 and are poised to climb further, two potential problems, excessive price expectations and excessive potential new supply, will require careful management in the short term; therefore, the impact and benefits of the six-month Expo 2020 should be felt over a long period of time rather than this year, according to JLL. Prices for properties started to go up before Dubai won the Expo bid, due to the sheikhdom's growing role as a safe haven in the Middle East for trade, tourism, logistics and manufacturing. While there was strong interest from private investors "from over 120 nations," there had been so far limited investment interest from Western institutions in the Dubai real estate market, said the report, adding the direct impact of the Expo 2020 gain was also limited this year. The emirate was also busy reviving stalled projects, such as the residential district Al-Furjan (formerly the lost city), the man-made palm island and hundreds of individual residential and office towers across the emirate.