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Dubai: Real estate sales jump 78% to Dh265.5 billion in 2022

Property market sales reached Dh82.11 billion during the fourth quarter as compared to Dh69.42 billion in the previous quarter, reflecting an increase of 18.3 per cent

Dubai property market witnessed strong sales activity last year on the back of higher demand for off-plan properties.

In 2022, the number of sales transactions jumped 61.5 per cent to 97,448 while the total a value reached Dh265.51 billion, an increase of 78.1 per cent over the previous year, according to a note released by Emirates NBD Research.

Referring to the Dubai Land Department statistics, the research note said property market sales reached Dh82.11 billion during the fourth quarter as compared to Dh69.42 billion in the previous quarter, reflecting an increase of 18.3 per cent.

Total number of transactions also grew from 25,468 in third quarter of 2022 to 29,212 in fourth quarter of 2022, indicating an increase of 14.7 per cent.

“The strong finish to the year for Dubai’s real estate industry exceeded our expectations, given the extent of rate hikes over the course of 2022. In the end, 2022 proved to be a landmark year for the property market as record numbers were achieved not seen since 2009,” said Jamal Mattar, research analyst at Emirates NBD Research.

“Rising interest rates and a strong dollar have done little to deter the underlying demand for real estate so far, but these factors have gone some way in influencing the type of property purchasers invest in,” he said.

The emirate’s property sector has substantially bounced back after the pandemic, driven by massive demand from the Russian, Ukrainian, Asian, European and American investors, especially high net worth individuals. It was projected last year that 4,000 millionaires would migrate to Dubai in 2022, the highest in any city. As a result of influx of HNWIs, property prices and rentals witnessed good growth during 2021-22 after the market was hit by the pandemic in 2020.

According to a study released by Betterhomes, Russians were the top investors followed by the British, Indians, Italians and French.

Mattar added that there is little sign of slowing momentum in Dubai’s real estate market in fourth-quarter 2022 despite a 425 basis points rise in official rates since July 2022.

Mattar credited a significant uptick in the purchase of off-plan properties as the main driving force in the second half of the year.

Existing property sales made up the largest chunk of transactions in first quarter and second quarter of last year, seeing quarter-on-quarter growth of 19.2 per cent and 12.7 per cent respectively.

The growth then slowed to 2.1 per cent and 5.3 per cent, respectively in Q3 and Q4. By comparison off-plan sales saw QoQ growth of 9.2 per cent and 5.1 per cent in the first two quarters, before jumping to 31.6 per cent and 25.6 per cent in the final two, it said.

— waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com