Prices and rents for homes in the Middle East slumped following the financial crisis of 2008/9. But since then, parts of the Gulf, including some hot spots in the UAE, have registered double digit property price growth.

The market has been helped by money flowing in that might otherwise have been invested in other Middle Eastern countries, but which are in the midst of political turmoil.

But as property professionals descend on Dubai for the annual Cityscape festival of construction and development, how is the region looking as a place to invest and is the current froth likely to fizzle out?

Jonathan Frewin reports.