Property sales in Dubai near Dh100b mark

AUGUST SEES STRONG RECOVERY IN OFFPLAN, MORTGAGE-BACKED DEALS

The recovery in Dubai’s property market cannot get any better — total sales are closing in on the Dh100 billion mark for 2021 — with August numbers the best in 12 years.

By end August itself, value of sales rocketed to Dh88.12 billion, thanks to deals worth Dh14.97 billion, well ahead of the most optimistic forecasts put out at the start of the year.

This year, end-users and first-time buyers are leading the turnaround. Mortgagebacked deals too are on the rise as residents with long-term plans switch from renting to actually buying a home.

But the biggest plus — from a developer standapoint — based on the August transaction numbers put out by Property Finder is that offplan sales too are making a strong recovery. If this lasts for another six months at least, worries about unsold apartments clogging up the city’s property market will prove largely unfounded.

Full-scale launches

Now, the talk is that by November, developers will start getting back with full-scale launches in Dubai after giving it a miss for the whole of 2020. In fact, the forecasts were that a recovery

will be seen only by 202324. In fact, sales during June and in August were the highest monthly sales in a decade.

The number of Dh1 billion daily deals registered at Dubai Land Department too are rising. The belief among end-users is that if they delay any longer, property values will start increasing and they would have missed out on a good opportunity.

Renewed interest

“Every day I get at least 10 calls from brokers wanting to know whether I plan to sell any of my properties on the Palm or Dubai Hills,” said one of the biggest investors in the city.

“I tell them, politely, why should I sell now when the market is only beginning to pick up? For five years, these properties were quoting below their sale value. Now, the fun is starting.”

Dubai’s property market watchers are waiting to see how quickly it can get past the Dh100 billion sales figure mark in the coming weeks.