Many mid-priced gyms in Dubai will disappear, according to the CEO of boutique gym Bare, as the Gulf city will follow global trends in the fitness sector.

Speaking to Arabian Business, Dylan Eiffe said cities around the world have seen gym membership prices drop due to an abundance in affordable gyms. However, Dubai is yet to follow.

“In many foreign cities, there has been an explosion of the low-cost gym, which has significantly reduced the average gym membership price. In London, you can join a similar mid-level gym [as you may do here in Dubai] for GBP 15 (AED65) per month. However, this has not yet happened here [in Dubai].

"Globally, there has been a shift away from mid-priced gyms to either super low cost or high-end gym. At Bare, we are the latter. I’m sure Dubai will follow suit where will see many of the mid-level mainstream brands disappear, but this is yet to happen,” said Eiffe.

Dubai has the world’s second most expensive gym membership charge at $119.20 after Tokyo at $127.20, according to the annual 2018 'Mapping the world's prices' report by Deutsche Bank, which highlights the cost of living in around 50 major cities.

Eiffe said that while rent in parts of the city may be high, it is not the reason behind the high membership prices. He said a high speculative investment attitude in Dubai by ‘emotional investors’ is the reason behind expensive gym fees.

“I don’t think it’s the rent. Dubai rents are no more that say London, Hong Kong or New York, for example. I would say it’s down to… highly speculative investment attitude in Dubai. Emotional investors like the idea of owning a gym. And new entrants have ambitious expectations as to the market and the price people are willing to pay.

Investors and entrepreneurs see existing gyms in Dubai, see how much they’re charging, and assume that their project will do well. Dubai investments and projects can often be well-backed, meaning these facilities remain open a lot longer than they might abroad. In Dubai, you will see many gyms opening, and you’ll see many also closing,” he said.

In June last year, GymNation co-founder Frank Afeaki said many consumers in Dubai are not prepared to pay a high fee for a gym membership. He had started the affordable fitness centre in Dubai with co-founder Loren Holland after finding it hard to justify spending up to AED 5,000 on gym memberships.

“For every one person that is prepared to pay the high prices, there are twenty who are not. Most residents find gym prices in Dubai to be prohibitively expensive, and the fact that a third of all GymNation members are first time gym goers, is testament to the claim,” he said at the time.

Both Afeaki and Holland have been part of low-cost gym chains in Australia (Crunch Fitness) and the UK (Xercise4Less). GymNation charges as little as $34 compared to the $119.20 average monthly rate of many gyms in Dubai.

However, Eiffe believes the price of Dubai gym memberships will eventually drop.

“They will drop. The clear split to either low-cost or high-end gyms which we see in the big global cities has already begun. However, as with the Dubai real estate market, over-speculation means that it will take time for the gym market prices to adapt, and the fitness industry to change.

Expanding on my point above, Dubai will eventually follow the big Western cities with a split away from mid-market gym brands, to either low-cost or high-end. Many of the mid-market ‘big box’ gym brands we are familiar with in Dubai will - I’m sure - disappear or re-brand to conform to these trends,” he said.

Founder of TK MMA Fitness gym, Tam Khan, said in 2018 that highly priced memberships are related to the standard of living that Dubai residents are used to, particularly those in attractive areas such as DIFC, JBR and Dubai Marina.

“You can’t have normal blood and sweat gyms in Dubai. It’s not the same as cities such as London. People want and expect high service because that’s the lifestyle they know here. And in order to do that, [gym operators] have to charge higher prices. If a gym is cheap, people will wonder why. They’ll think it’s too cheap to be true,” he said.