Despite the economic slowdown induced by the coronavirus pandemic, Dubai’s property market witnessed booming sales during the holy month of Ramadan, hitting 9.99 billion dirhams ($2.7 billion), Property Finder reported on Tuesday. 

The volume of transactions also reached a historic high of 4,804, up by 211 percent compared to Ramadan 2020, and 57 percent from Ramadan 2019.

The number of sales transactions is the highest since 2008, when volumes of deals first started being recorded, quashing a popular belief that business activity tends to slow down during the fasting period.

“There was always a myth that the real estate market slowed down during Ramadan and a few years ago we dove into the data and debunked that myth. Ramadan has proven to be a strong time for real estate sales,” said Lynnette Abad Sacchetto, director of research and data. 

Surging demand

Demand for villas, townhouses and flats in Dubai has been picking up since the coronavirus restrictions eased last year. Buyers, many of them first-time homeowners in Dubai, have headed for communities with prime residential units that offer ample private space. 

During Ramadan, most of the properties acquired (60 percent) were secondary/ ready units, while off-plan properties accounted for 40 percent of the sales. 

Buyers snapped up a total of 2,785 secondary homes worth a combined value of 6.89 billion dirhams, while the rest of the buyers acquired 2,019 off-plan units worth 3.09 billion dirhams. 

The transactions included four luxury properties each worth more than 50 million dirhams. Three of these newly acquired assets are on Palm Jumeirah, costing between 70 million and 105 million, while another unit is located in Emirates Hills, with a price tag of 72.3 million. 

Overall, the most popular location for villa and townhouse buyers is Mohammed bin Rashid City, accounting for 17.3 percent of all sales, followed by Dubai Hills Estate (9.5 percent), Dubai Land (8.8 percent), and Al Sheba (4.8 percent) and Arabian Ranches (4.4 percent). 

Among apartment buyers, a clear favourite is Jumeirah Village Circle, which bagged 10.1 percent of all sales transactions, followed by Jumeirah Lakes Towers (9.5 percent), Dubai Marina (8 percent), Downtown Dubai (7.1 percent) and Al Jaddaf (5.9 percent). 

(Writing by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria) 

Cleofe.maceda@refinitiv.com 

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© ZAWYA 2021