How far will Dubai go in opening up its property market to foreigners?
There is no suggestion of Dubai becoming a completely open market to foreigners in order to protect local nationals. Restricting foreign ownership of property is by no means unique; plenty of other countries worldwide have such restrictive practices and, by these standards, Dubai has an open market. Yet, you should be aware that Dubai restricts foreign property ownership by identifying certain geographical areas in which inward foreign investment may be permitted. This has the effect of restricting the development of land that can be purchased by foreigners to certain areas, and the limited supply actually available to the developers is likely to continue to cause prices to rise. After all, 85% of the population of Dubai are foreigners!
