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Dubai’s real estate market is strongly recovering from its lowest levels, with buyers snapping up more than $19.8 billion worth of properties across Dubai for the whole of last year, the latest data showed.
A total of 35,400 transactions valued at 72.47 billion dirhams were recorded in 2020, according to Dubai’s official sales price index Mo’asher, an initiative by the Dubai Land Department (DLD) and Property Finder.
“To date, we have been headed towards a V-shaped recovery, and when we look at the numbers, from the lowest numbers we had in May (which had 1,452 transactions), the market had recovered by almost 270 percent,” a statement said.
Out of the thousands of real estate transactions last year, more than half (21,044) were for secondary or ready units, while 14,356 of those deals were for off-plan properties.
The market hit its lowest point in April and May 2020, after the COVID-19 lockdown was imposed. Buying activity has been picking up since Dubai reopened the economy and brought back some sense of normality.
Secondary residential properties were particularly on high demand, with sales in the segment peaking in November with 2,179 transactions and in December with 2,579 deals, representing the highest in six years and nine months.
“Despite the drawbacks on the market in the lockdown, including restricted movement and market conditions, 2020 as a year performed better than expected in terms of numbers,” Property Finder said.
“There was a significant rebound in the real estate market after restrictions eased, and people wanted to improve their home lifestyle. With attractive housing prices and the lowest mortgage rates we have ever seen, it was inevitable,” said Lynnette Abad, director of research and data at Property Finder.
The data provided by Property Finder and DLD did not indicate if last year’s total sales exceeded the transactions recorded in 2019.
Other research reports had pointed out that, compared to pre-COVID-19 levels, the market last year was still subdued.
Analysts have expected further declines in sales prices and rents this year, as the market has yet to bottom out.
(Writing by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria)
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