Continuing to grow in August, prices for residential real estate in Dubai in August are getting closer to historical highs. The average price for the purchase of apartments in annual terms increased by 7.7%, and the average price for the purchase of a villa — 15.8%. Monthly growth was 0.5% and 0.3% for the respective categories in the period from July to August 2022. On average, apartment prices, so far, are 24.7% lower than in peak 2014, and villa prices are 7.3% lower.
In general, 2022, like 2021, shows extremely active growth in both sales and prices of residential real estate. At the same time, sales began to strengthen in the sectors of commercial and industrial real estate, land plots. An important role is played by the ever-growing influx of foreign buyers and investors, attracted, among other things, by easily accessible visas for the purchase of real estate.
It is worth noting that in August, the local market broke a 12-year record in the number of real estate transactions. About 9,720 transactions were recorded, which is 70 transactions higher than in March 2010, when 9,650 properties were sold. The last month of summer 2022 was included in the list of five months with the highest number of real estate sales in the history of Dubai.
The growth trends in real estate sales in Dubai continue to challenge the crisis circumstances that are worsening around the world. Rising interest rates on lending do not prevent the emirate from increasing the number of new buyers on the market month by month. Rising interest rates also do not scare off potential tenants. Perhaps they are abandoning large and elite facilities, but remain on the market, moving into more affordable segments. In the lending market itself, there is a noticeable race of people for fixed-rate mortgages.
At the same time, the market also shows a tendency to slow down and stabilize. August showed the lowest monthly growth in the last 18 months. This slowdown has been happening for several months in a row. Even the locomotive of the market — the villa sector — shows slowing growth. In August 2022, the monthly increase showed only 1.3%. Elite and most popular areas are still holding high rates of development due to the influx of a large number of super-wealthy foreign buyers of real estate, but Dubai as a whole is already entering a trend of more balanced growth.
