Dubai’s full-year real estate transactions hit 1.6 million

Dubai registered a record 1.6 million property transactions last year across market segments, an almost 17 cent jump on an annual basis, according to the Dubai Land Department.

The surge in deals comes as the emirate’s property market continues to strengthen on the back of robust economic momentum.

The overall number included real estate deals from investments, mortgages and sales transactions to rental contracts recorded last year, up from about 1.3 million transactions reported in 2022, the Dubai Media Office said.

Total value of the deals reached Dh634 billion ($172.6 billion), with the number of transactions hitting 166,400 in 2023. This marked an annual growth of 20 per cent in terms of value and 36 per cent in respect of volume.

New real estate investments climbed 55 per cent to almost Dh412 billion in 2023.

The proportion of non-resident investors climbed to 42 per cent of the total new investors, data showed.

The results indicate the “strength and versatility” of Dubai’s economic performance that will help the emirate achieve its Dubai Economic Agenda D33 goals, said Marwan bin Ghalita, DLD’s acting director general.

Launched in January last year, D33 aims to double the size of Dubai’s economy, with a target of reaching Dh32 trillion by 2033 and establishing the emirate among the top three cities in the world.

Dubai’s property market has rebounded strongly from the coronavirus-induced slowdown, helped by government initiatives such as residency permits for retired people and remote workers, and the expansion of the 10-year golden visa programme.

The emirate’s residential market recorded its highest quarterly price rise in a decade in the third quarter of last year, a ValuStrat report showed.

The consistent increase in the emirate’s population is also supporting growth. Dubai received 100,240 residents in 2023, which pushed the number of residents to 3.65 million, Dubai Statistics Centre data showed.

Last year, a total of 38,059 female investors contributed Dh90.5 billion through 46,725 investments, the DLD said.

Nearly 7,449 Gulf investors accounted for 10,441 investment deals valued at Dh30.75 billion last year.

Dubai’s economy expanded an annual 3.3 per cent in the first nine months of last year, carrying momentum from the first half of the year when gross domestic product expanded 3.2 per cent on an annual basis, according to official data.

The proportion of non-resident investors climbed to 42 per cent of the total new investors, data shows