According to Saud Masud, an analyst at Swiss Investment UBS, over-supply and population decline makes Dubai one of the riskiest property markets for investors.

Masud believes that when recently unemployed expats prepare to leave the emirate when the school terms end, the reality of the impact of the global recession will be felt.

He said: ‘In my view Dubai’s property risk profile appears to be one of the highest in the post war era and while one may debate the potential support factor from Abu Dhabi the fundamental oversupply and population dynamics risks are very much there.’

Masud described the scale of Dubai’s real estate collapse as being on a par with Hong Kong’s housing crash at the start of the decade and boom and bust cycles in other markets such as Singapore and Ireland.