UAE-based real estate property agency Betterhomes states that the “worst is over” for Dubai’s property market, owing to a rise in prices since last summer. In its recently-released Residential Property Market Report for Q1 2021, the company outlines positive trends in the property market recovering at a steady pace.
The positive trends contain a 12% rise in the figure of unit deals and a 19% rise in the total value deals in the residential market, as per the Dubai Land Department.
Talking about the report, Richard Waind, Group Managing Director at Betterhomes, said: “Strict travel restrictions, lockdowns and the looming threat of tightening fiscal policies have given plenty of motivation to high net worth Europeans looking to invest in the UAE. We have seen a large number of Europeans who came to escape lockdown, take advantage of or relax in visa rules and extend their stays, with many now looking to buy holiday homes or become residents themselves. The number of transactions record by British, Italian, French, and German buyers increased by 168% since Q1 2020, with luxury villas and apartments on the Palm and other coastal areas being in particularly high demand.”
The main points in the Betterhomes Residential MArket report contain – in terms of residential deals – an 18% cost rise for villa communities in Dubai, owing to rising demand. Adding on, there was a 167% rise in the number of recorded buyers for villas and townhouses, whereas the number of actual deals rose by 72% in comparison to Q1 2021.
According to the report, four-bedroom villa sales twice over Q1 2020, then comes five-bedroom villas with a rise of 83%. The average size of the villas sold declined in Q1 2021 by 6%.
Whereas off-plan deals accounted for more than 70% of the Dubai market in 2019, the pendulum has now “firmly swung the other way”, with secondary market deals making up 66% of the market in Q1 2021, the report said.
In terms of residential renting, the report’s main findings showed that in villa communities, the average built-up area declined by 15% due to lesser villas in the market this quarter. The most preferred unit type in this category was a 2-bedroom townhouse.