Dubai registered a 116.3% increase in real estate transactions in January 2022

The year 2021 witnessed an astonishing amount of real estate transactions in Dubai, having broken a 12-year record, largely driven by the demand among foreign real estate investors and the luxury property boom. That being said, the upward trend of the local property sector continues in 2022, as from the beginning of the year until 11 February the city has already registered an astonishing AED 23.29B (USD 6.3B) in sales transactions, according to Dubai REST.

As the data shows in the new report by ValuStrat, January sales volumes increased by 116.3% compared to the same period in 2021. This means the ValuStrat Price Index has already reached 77.1 points, which is up 1.1% since December 2021 and 17.8% higher in contrast with January 2021, demonstrating the ongoing growth of the local real estate market. Not forgetting that January 2022 witnessed a total of 16 transactions priced over AED 30M (USD 8.1M), including a villa transaction worth AED 87M (USD 23.7M) in Palm Jumeirah, which confirms that the ultra-luxury property market continues to flourish in Dubai.

Furthermore, villas in Dubai still remain popular, as demand for spacious properties with a range of amenities persists among local and overseas property buyers. As a result, villa capital values rose by 2% monthly, whereas apartments witnessed a slight growth of just 0.4%. The top performers in terms of villa sales on an annual basis were Jumeirah Islands (39.1%), Arabian Ranches (38.5%), The Lakes (36.3%) and Jumeirah Village Triangle (34.4%). It is worth noting that villas situated in Palm Jumeirah were first to have exceeded their price peaks of 2014, and Emirates Hills is likely to follow the lead, with villa capital values being just 12% below the same peak 8 years ago.

Moreover, as stated by ValuStrat, the best areas in terms of annual apartment performance include Palm Jumeirah (20.9%), Jumeirah Beach Residence (17.1%), the Burj Khalifa (12.1%), as well as Jumeirah Lake Towers (9.5%). At the same time, Business Bay witnessed the highest amount of purchased off-plan properties (12.8%), with Sobha Hartland (9%) and Dubai Harbour (8.5%) following the lead. Business Bay also led in terms of the sales of ready homes (8.4%), whereas Jumeirah Village Circle and Al Furjan recorded 8.1% and 7.2% respectively.

Meanwhile, in January, Emaar Properties continued to lead the real estate sales in Dubai (22.5%), beating Nakheel (7.2%), Dubai Properties (5.5%) and DAMAC Properties (5.4%). Emaar’s strong performance is attributed to the real estate market recovery, demand for off-plan residences and the successful launch of a number of high-end projects, including Dubai Hills Vista, Beach Mansion, Elie Saab Villas and others. Last year (2021) was also a success for the company as it recorded AED 1.02B (USD 277M) in sales turnover, compared to AED 359M (USD 97.7M) in the identical period in 2020.

During this year (2022), Emaar expects further growth in demand among investors and real estate end-users as it has a number of projects nearing completion in its portfolio, particularly in the sought-after Dubai Creek Harbour area. These include The Grand, Address Harbour Point, Harbour Gate and 17 Icon Bay, among others, which are scheduled for completion in 2022, according to Dubai REST. Emaar Properties has already announced the launch of several flagship projects this year, such as Rosewater in Dubai Creek Harbour, which offers a range of apartments and penthouses, St. Regis Residences in Downtown Dubai, a branded residential development with 5-star amenities, and luxury townhouses in Talia in The Valley.