Dubai is currently planning on launching a real estate performance index to enable global investors to track and benchmark the real estate performance, Emirates 24/7 reported quoting  the Dubai Land Department (DLD) Chief.

“While we have certainly made good progress over the past two years, we recognise that further initiatives are required if Dubai is to achieve its goal of delivering a more transparent market,” Director-General of DLD, Sultan Buti Bin Mejren wrote in JLL’s Global Real Estate Transparency Index, 2016.

“The most significant of these lie in the area of performance measurement, where the current lack of a real estate performance index is a major constraint for institutional investors seeking to benchmark the performance of their assets,” Bin Mejren added

“The DLD is actively looking to create such an index. We are confident that such an index will be in place by the time of JLL’s 2018 survey, supporting a further improvement in Dubai’s transparency,” he continued.

The index is likely to be created in association with a specialist index provider.

Dubai retained its place as the most transparent real estate market in the Middle East and North Africa region according to the consultancy’s GRETI survey, recording a 10 per cent improvement in its score over the past two years.

The emirate has recorded an improvement in 15 of the 28 areas covered in the global transparency survey, while witnessing the greatest advancement in the area of market data, where the DLD can have the most direct impact on transparency.

Accordingly, this has moved Dubai closer to the top of the ‘Semi-Transparent’ category, where it sits on a par with Tier 1 cities in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and all four of the fast-growing MIST economies (Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey).

“More open sharing of data is seen as a key component in the implementation of Dubai’s smart city strategy,” Bin Mejren stated.

DLD has previously introduced a number of new initiatives over the past few years, including DLD Investment Map, Rental Increase Calculator, Brokerage Ranking, and Service Charge Index.