Dubai's version of the Cityscape real-estate exhibition starts Tuesday amid few signs that the emirate's oversupplied property market is recovering, while a darkening global economic backdrop is seen further constricting industry investment and the launch of new projects.

"The real estate sector in general and in Dubai in particular has been operating in a constrained post-crash mode for the past two or three years," said Chiheb Ben-Mahmoud, executive vice president at real estate consultancy Jones Lang Lasalle. "Although the current turmoil puts to some extent the Dubai risk in a favorable perspective, it remains nonetheless true that uncertainty in general is not good for business and investment."