The real estate market was the first sector to be hit by the fallout of the global financial crisis in 2008, with dramatic drops in sales volumes and prices as credit lines dried up.

Now, as the economies of the GCC recover, demand for residential and commercial property is picking up across the region, with just one or two exceptions.

The rebound is being led by the UAE, which has seen residential property prices jump by about 30 per cent over the past year. Rents in Dubai, the most buoyant market in the region, are up about 50 per cent year-on-year. New office stock has also been successfully absorbed, with demand for prime space increasing as companies begin to invest again.

The laggard markets are Bahrain and Qatar. The former is still wrestling with civil unrest, which is sapping appetite for real estate and weighing on prices. The latter, meanwhile, is oversupplied as the market has failed to keep pace with project completions in the past couple of years.

The near-term outlook for the property sector is broadly positive with the market in the early phases of an upswing. Even in Dubai, prices are about 25 per cent off the 2008 peak.