Dubai – Mubasher: Standard and Poor’s (S&P) has revealed a negative outlook for the real estate sector in Dubai after property prices suffered big declines in 2017.

These low prices weakened the entire sector, putting more pressure on national developers in the emirate, S&P said in a report released Tuesday.

This price correction will continue well in 2018 and 2019 and will not reach stability before 2020, S&P's primary credit analyst Sapna Jagtiani said. However, with the 25 million expected visitors, Expo 2020 will push up the real estate market in Dubai.

Despite that, the market continues to face a dangerous “oversupply”, whose consequences could appear following the end of the planned major event in 2020, Jagtiani noted, stressing that the geopolitical tension, such as the political dispute between Qatar and the Arab Quartet, may affect investors’ morale.

“Given the evolution of the market and the various mitigating measures market participants have taken, we do not expect the massive price drops that we saw in 2009,” the analyst concluded.

In June last year, several Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, and Bahrain, cut transport and diplomatic ties with Qatar. Since then, the situation has eased slightly but tensions persist.