Dubai and Abu Dhabi housing markets show signs of overheating
Average sale prices of residential properties are rising faster than rents in the two sheikhdoms

The United Arab Emirates' real estate market may be "overheating" and rental yields in its two richest sheikhdoms indicate "growing imbalances", according to the central bank.
Average sale prices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai had risen faster than rents, and such deviations could be "used to identify imbalances in the housing market", the central bank said in its 2013 financial stability report.
The average rental yield in Dubai is about 70 basis points below the historical average and those in Abu Dhabi 130 basis points lower.
"[While] recovery of rental prices started at least a few months before the sale prices had bottomed, growth rate of rents was significantly lower than the increase in prices," said the central bank. The discrepancies could indicate an "overheating real estate market", it said.
Home prices in Dubai rose the most in the world last year, according to Knight Frank, raising concern that a bubble may be forming five years after the market crashed.
Residential property prices gained an average 24 per cent in Dubai and 21 per cent in Abu Dhabi, the central bank said.