In Dubai, the unprecedented influx of expatriate residents has proved the most si gnificant driver of demand for freehold housing. Annual population growth has hovered around an average of 10°/o for the last five years, and with a suggested 882,000 new jobs likely to be created under the Dubai Strategic Plan 2015, there is little chance of this growth rate slacking - estimates point to a total population of 1.9 million by 2010.

This huge demand has consistently outpaced the speed at which new residential properties have been completed. This has kept prices high, and given forei gn investors a major incentive to invest not just in property from Dubai's primary developers - Nakheel, Emaar and Dubai Properties – but also to undertake their own developments.

Estimates from EFG Hermes suggest that demand for residential units is in the range of 40,000-50,000 per year, with an increase of 270,000, to 530,000, by 2010.

Yet with such a large number of units coming onto the market at any given time, and with so many different locations, types and styles of property, successful investment remains a challenge. You need the right information to choose between competing projects - information that has been carefully analyzed and projected well into the future to avoid nasty surprises - as well as access to properties that have been carefully scrutinized prior to sale.

Landmark Properties' Freehold Residential Division specializes in providing exactly this kind of service.

> Next : Forward Planning Key to the Maturing Rental Property Market