Popularity of mid-market residential property for sale in Dubai on the rise

Dubai Marina, Jumeirah Lake Towers, Downtown Dubai, Jumeirah Village Circle and International City were identified as the top searched apartment communities

dubizzle Property reveals that Akoya Oxygen, Mira Reem and The Villa are the top searched villa communities in Dubai, as well as more established upmarket communities such as Arabian Ranches, The Springs,

Increasing popularity** for the mid-market property segment has led to increased mortgage homebuyer purchases

dubizzle Property is being transformed to provide an improved user experience across the platform, the app, Mobile website, and website.

Dubai — dubizzle Property, the UAE’s biggest online property platform has released a report providing insight into the Dubai residential market and recent trends. The findings highlight an increase in popularity for mid-market housing in the city, consequently leading to an increase in mortgaged property purchases.

Top 5 searched villa communities for sale

dubizzle Property receives an average of 3.7 million visits each month. From analysing the data, the top five searched villa communities for sale in 2017 were Arabian Ranches with almost 2 million searches, The Springs with 1.3 million searches, Akoya Oxygen with 1.3 million searches, Mira, Reem Community with 1 million searches and The Villa with 795K searches.

Taking a closer look at the communities, dubizzle has compared the sale prices from Q1 2016* against Q3 2017. The sale price per sqft. for three - to five - bedroom villas in The Springs now average at AED 1,272 per sqft., representing a 6 percent increase compared to Q1 2016.

Following the same trend, sale price per sqft for Mira-Reem increased for three - and four - bedroom villas over the same period. These properties currently average at AED 905 per sqft. showing a 22 percent increase.

At a similar cost to the Mira-Reem villas, The Villa Project by Dubai Properties averaged at AED 983 per sqft., showing an increase of 11 percent for three- and four-bedroom villas. Both the three- and four-bedroom villas experienced a rise in prices by 9 and 13 percent per sqft. respectively.

The current sale price of Arabian Ranches and Akoya Oxygen have decreased, now standing at AED 1,132 and AED 672 per sqft. Respectively. This indicates a respective 3 percent and 34 percent decline during this period, comparing an established vs. newer development.

Top 5 searched apartment communities for sale

The top five searched apartment communities in 2017 were Dubai Marina with 5.8 million searches, Jumeirah Lake Towers with 3 million searches, Downtown Dubai with 2.5 million searches, Jumeirah Village Circle with 2 million searches and International City with 2 million searches.

While Dubai Marina and Downtown Dubai experienced a decrease in sales prices, areas such as Jumeirah Village Circle and International City experienced an increase of one percent and three percent respectively. Overall, the prices in Jumeirah Lake Towers remained unchanged; however, one-bedroom apartments in the same area saw a five percent increase while three- and four-bedroom apartments saw a decrease.

Commenting on the findings, Ann Boothello, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Property at dubizzle, “We can deduce that mid-market apartments are making their way into the Top 5 searched communities on dubizzle by observing search volume data of buyers browsing our property for sale section. The demand for these properties is further proven through our data identifying an increase in price per sqft. in Jumeirah Village Circle and International City. Furthermore, the data shows that apartment communities such as Jumeirah Lake Towers are preferred by young couples or business people, based on the increase and demand for one-bedroom apartments as opposed to larger units.” 

Mortgage trends

Overall, the rise of the mid-market property segment indicates a shift from a predominantly cash-based investor market to one of the mortgaged end-users. The Dubai Land Department has announced an increase over the years as the demand and supply for mid-market housing has been on the rise for the past two years.

As Dubai transforms into a more mature marketplace, dubizzle Property’s user interface is being revamped to allow for a new and improved buyer and tenant property search experience across all devices and apps on iOS and Android.

For more information, please find the tutorial link here.

Notes:

● Price comparisons are median price per sqft. within that community for the respective quarter

● *Increases or decreases are calculated looking at Q1 2016 vs. Q3 2017:

Reasoning: Due to leveling off of the market over the past 2 years, with several more established communities experiencing stagnation in price fluctuations, we decided to do a comparative analysis of current to start of 2016 instead of Y-O-Y to get a better sense of any movement since the time leveling off was observed.

** popularity indicates search volumes in 2017

About dubizzle:

dubizzle is the leading classifieds platform for users in the United Arab Emirates. Since its launch in 2005, dubizzle has become the number one platform for users to buy, sell, or find anything in their community. A community where underused goods are redistributed to fill a new need, and become wanted again, where non-product assets such as space, skills and money are exchanged and traded in new ways that don’t always require centralized institutions or ‘middlemen’.

dubizzle is an OLX company: OLX Group is the world's leading online classifieds platform present in more than 40 countries across six continents. We connect local people to buy and sell used goods, services, cars and properties. We make it fast and easy to buy or sell almost anything through your mobile phone or on the web.

Through brands including OLX, Avito, dubizzle and letgo, OLX Group is the home of online classifieds in high-growth markets. We are the leading destination for buying and selling used goods and services in 35 countries, and the #1 mobile app in our category in more than 22 markets. Globally we estimate that around 11 million items are exchanged through our platforms every single month, giving products a second life and reducing their ecological footprint.

OLX Arabia is actively expanding in the MENA region in Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

For further information, please contact:
Abdallah Touqan
Director of PR, Communications & Events
Abdallah@dubizzle.com
+971 55 9866 891
Grayling PR
dubizzle@grayling.com

© Press Release 2017