JLL Group, the world's leading real estate investment and advisory firm, has released its Q2 2015 Abu Dhabi real estate market performance report covering office, residential, retail and hospitality segments. The following is a summary of the highlights of the Abu Dhabi real estate market:

Office segment

<Office inventory totaled approximately 3.2 million square meters of gross leasable area (GLA) in Q2, with new deliveries in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi International Airport and Capital Centre adding 48,000 square meters of GLA. An additional 140,000 square meters of GLA is expected to enter the market during the year.

Residential Projects

No major projects were delivered during the current quarter, keeping the inventory of residential space at approximately 244,000 units. However, approximately 5,000 units are expected to enter the market by the end of 2015,

For residential segment sales, prices remained stable during the second quarter of 2015 following year-on-year growth of 25% during 2013 and 2014. As prices strengthened, there was continued downward pressure on transaction volumes due to declining trends.

Rents in the residential segment remained stable during the quarter. Despite weak demand growth, residential projects that have been declared complete for the time being remain stable and vacancy rates remain minimal within quality programs.

Retail Real Estate

<The retail real estate inventory stands at approximately 2.6 million square meters of gross leasable area (GLA) with the only project that has been delivered being Al Shamkha Mall which added approximately 43,000 square meters of leasable retail space. Around 54,000 sqm of leasable retail space is expected to enter the market by the end of 2015, mostly in the form of non-mall retail space within mixed-use projects. Retail rents remained stable during the quarter and this is expected to continue in the short term. The supply of retail space is expected to increase significantly from 2018 onwards as major regional mall projects are delivered. Demand for new malls will be supported in part by new growth in population and tourism.

Hotel sector

The second quarter of 2015 saw the soft opening of the 318-room Burj Al Sarab. The only notable change in the full-service apartment segment was the grand opening of Danat Residence in early April. Dudley commented: "Although there has been a steady increase in tourist arrivals over recent years, the positive increase in demand has been largely offset by new supply entering the market, which has impacted performance. "But the pace of new supply projects is now slowing as demand continues to grow quarter after quarter."