Prime Dubai office rents remain stable

Prime office rents remained stable across Dubai in the first quarter of 2012, while secondary locations and buildings continued to witness decreases in rent and occupancy, Knight Frank has said in a new report. Its Dubai Office Research Q1 study said supply in the emirate's commercial office market had continued to exceed demand resulting in city wide vacancies in the broader market above 50 percent. Knight Frank estimated that Dubai had about 63 million sq ft of current completed office stock on the market. "Tenants are taking advantage and consolidating and upgrading their accommodation and we expect this trend of trading up to continue throughout 2012," Knight Frank said. "Broad rental levels continue to be under pressure, but prime locations with best in class accommodation have reached their low point in this cycle," it added. It said, however, that Dubai remained the pre-eminent business destination in the Middle East, saying it should "capture the majority of international corporate regional expansion and new business". Knight Frank said tenant incentives were available in the form of rent free periods and/or fit out periods. These broadly reflected a 12-15 percent discount to headline levels, the report said. Last month, Dubai was ranked 12th by Knight Frank in its list of the world's most expensive prime office rents. Rents of $76.22 per square foot per year being commanded in Dubai were almost double those in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the figures showed.