Millhouse

It was here:

More than a third of Abu Dhabi homes are vacant - Emirates 24|7

Hardly the finest piece of researched journalism, nor the most reliable of sources. But, I'll still believe it

al dente

The National definitely had it as a headline, but it is no more. E 24/7 will do. They have a proper tabloid whiff for the story and not so much self censorship

iggle

I can confirm this.

Also if you look at Sun, Sky & Gate at night, you don't see many lights. Now obviously some have owners who are out. But i think the most are empty. Another view is the car park, which outside of level G is empty.

Meow

The landlords surely? The decisions rest with them.

TheShed

I have a feeling that some chickens are finally coming home to roost.

Falling demand proves boon for tenants as rents ease in Dubai | GulfNews.com

and in the last two weeks we have had a number of calls at home from property bandits offering us cheaper apartments at home and today I had two leeches call at my office to offer cheaper DIFC office space.

Maybe the exodus is starting to get noticed.

Millhouse

or the tenants who pay.

Meow

Quite. Landlords who charge high rents and tenants who are willing to pay them.

There are bad agents and there are good agents but AED 10,000 difference in rent is not going to make a massive difference to the agent's cut. I find it curious how people lazily blame them all the time. They really aren't powerful enough to drive markets in the UAE!

TheShed

I would normally, but the ones at home came to our door (need to complain to security) and the commercial agent got me listening by claiming she was calling from DIFC. Anyways, my point is that these people are really hurting for business so just maybe, we'll start to see things drop to sensible levels.