The number of distressed residential property sales in Dubai is rising, as some owners fall behind with payments and some projects are delayed, according to Investment Boutique.

Heather Wipperman, chief executive of Investment Boutique, said: "Not only has the volume (of distress sales) been increasing but I think the level of urgency has been increasing. It is difficult to give percentages of housing stock falling into low premiums (zero to two per cent), but the numbers are rising. A lot of people offering low premiums are also willing to negotiate down. You have people coming and saying zero per cent premium and I will absorb the transfer fees."

Wipperman reports that fourth to eight-floor middle income housing units, costing between Dh10m to Dh40m, owned by single investors, made up most of the residential distressed sales.