Dubai Developer Bans Home 'Flipping'

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Dubai-based developer Emaar Properties has banned real estate agents from "flipping" homes before completion in order to create more stability in a market some still consider fragile.

A strong recovery in the Dubai property market following the crash in 2009 has led to several investors purchasing and quickly reselling unbuilt properties to earn speculative profits.

Emaar, Dubai's largest real estate developer, said estate agents were purchasing properties to later sell to end-users.

"Therefore, Emaar has asked the real estate agents to not resell off-plan properties until the unit is completed and handed over," the company said in a statement. "This is also aimed at providing more stability to the real estate market and to minimize the adverse impact due to heavy speculative practices."

Individual investors will not be affected by the ban and are still allowed to buy and sells homes before they are built, Reuters reports.

Dubai property prices have recovered about 20 percent, due in part to foreign investment, after falling more than 50 percent in the economic downturn. However, analysts have voiced their concern of the possibility of another bubble burst and the need for regulation.