Dubai’s Prime Property Market is Booming with USD 10 Million-dollar Sales

Dubai had the highest number of “super-prime” home purchases within the first five months of 2021, outperforming its own sales record since 2015. Twenty-two homes worth over USD 10 million (AED 37 million) each found its perfect buyer. The total value of these transactions achieved AED 2.8 billion (USD 770 million).

Despite a series of challenges throughout the residential market in 2020,, the premium real estate segment saw a significant growth. Citing Faisal Durrani, from Knight Frank Middle East, Dubai appears to be “in the midst of a spectacular post-Covid rebound in luxury homes sales”.

The year-on-year statistics of sales transactions for super-prime homes, namely properties valued at USD 10 million and above, shows the following dynamics: 3 properties were sold in 2019, 5 units sold in 2020 and 22 homes were sold in 2021 (in the same period between Jan-May).

A major part of the abovementioned transactions were dedicated to residences on the Palm Jumeirah, where one of the most expensive homes sold for USD 30.3 million  (AED 111.25 million) in June 2021 for a villa in One 100 Palm.

The amount of foreign investors interested in Dubai’s property market has, and always will be large and this year is no exception. Global buyers still prefer Dubai for real estate investment, as the city provides an exceptional level of luxury living with plenty of well-designed homes with waterfront locations to choose from.

What’s more, Dubai is among the front-runners who have coped best with the pandemic. Thanks to safety measures being strictly observed and an extensive vaccination programme duly rolled out, the city has unlocked its borders for foreigners to travel freely very quickly. Now the city is taking decisive steps to go back to normalization after an intense lockdown.

By last and by no means the least, ultra-prime homes in Dubai come far more affordable compared with some of the leading cities world-wide. That is, one million dollars will give 5 times more real estate than a buyer who chooses to purchase in London, New York or Singapore.

Following the Trend

Dubai’s super-prime real estate sector is soaring in pace with global uptrend for this specific market. As it is revealed in Knight Frank’s research, Dubai is only the second after London in terms of transaction volumes by June, 2021. As for London, the city follows a trend for improvement, which began with a 3% growth in sales last year. Traditional competitors, New York and Hong Kong fell by 48% and 27% respectively in 2020, which allowed London to leapfrog into first place. With 45 super-prime deals in the British capital totaling over USD 1,12 billion (AED 4,11 billion) within the last six months until May 2021, London still leads. 

Following the trend of growth in the market for 10 million-dollars deals, the premium segment becomes more active as well. Its buoyancy is perfectly confirmed by an increasing number of solid launches, introduced by industry leaders in May and June this year. The positive sales performance seen from luxury projects such as Lamborghini Villas, Royal Atlantis and Elie Saab Villas saw a huge success and shows the thirst for premium properties amongst buyers. 

The high levels of transactional activity and the demand for prime housing, registered in the first half of the current year, allows us to predict that Dubai’s market is poised for a strong year.