China has confirmed that it has detained two Canadian men in what appears to be retaliation for the arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer.

The US Senate has passed a resolution stating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Theresa May’s hopes of getting EU leaders to help her push her Brexit deal through parliament have been dealt a severe blow as she prepares to return home and face her party.

The UK’s big four auditors will next week face an unprecedented move to limit their market share and allow smaller rivals to gatecrash their self-confessed oligopoly as regulators shake up a sector rattled by a string of corporate collapses.

Mike Ashley has been rebuffed by Debenhams after he offered a £40m loan to bail out the struggling department store amid speculation it had “zero chance of survival”.

 

Brexit uncertainty has pushed a key measure of the housing market to a six-year low, according to surveyors.

Shares in Superdry have plunged by more than a third after it issued its second profit warning in less than two months – blaming mild weather for a potential £22m hit to its bottom line.

REAL ESTATE • TOP STORIES

Dubai property prices drop 7.4% YoY in Q3 FY18

Dubai- property-GBO

Prices for Dubai’s residential real estate sank 7.4% in the third quarter of 2018 from a year earlier, with the drop accelerating from a 5.8% fall in the second quarter

The United Arab Emirates central bank stated in a report that prices have been falling quarter-on-quarter almost continually since the start of 2017 because of a worsening supply/demand balance.

The central bank quoted the REIDIN residential sales price index, which showed prices falling 2.5% from the previous quarter in July-September. 

Residential real estate prices in neighboring Abu Dhabi, the other big emirate in the UAE, dropped 6.1% percent YoY in the third quarter after a 6.9% slide in the second quarter. One factor which is weakening the demand for real estate is subdued employment growth in the UAE, especially among white-collar workers who might buy homes.

Most jobs in the wealthy oil-exporting country are held by foreigners.

Total employment grew just 0.6% from a year ago in the third quarter—the slowest rate in over four years—after a 1.2% growth in the second quarter, according to the central bank. In the first nine months of 2018, employment grew at an average rate of 1.6% against a 2.6% increase in the same period of 2017.

The central bank figures showed employment in sectors including construction and real estate continuing to expand, partly because of Dubai’s preparations to host the Expo 2020 world’s fair. Employment in some sectors that generate large numbers of white- collar jobs, such as services, fell in the third quarter, which in some cases was their fastest rate for several years.

The UAE government last week initiated an effort to bolster white-collar numbers by announcing a scheme to offer long-term visas to wealthy property investors, senior scientists and entrepreneurs.

However, eligibility for the visas is tightly restricted and they do not offer a path to UAE citizenship, so analysts said the scheme might do little by itself to change employment or real estate market trends. 

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