DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Dubai’s property scene is displaying no signal of cooling off, as 2024 is on monitor to be one other report 12 months when it comes to gross sales figures and property values, in response to native actual property corporations.
Rising demand for property, particularly within the luxurious area, is boosting costs not simply of properties, however of the whole lot else within the metropolis — simply because the United Arab Emirates is predicted to emerge because the world’s prime wealth magnet for the third consecutive 12 months.
For Hussain Sajwani, chairman of Dubai property big Damac, that spells each good and dangerous information.
“What issues me a little bit bit in Dubai is that [it’s] turning into an costly metropolis, and I’ve stated this prior to now, that Dubai [is] going to be [an] costly metropolis. As a result of at any time when there may be a lot demand, and particularly when proficient individuals, common persons are coming, they create extra demand,” Sajwani informed CNBC’s Dan Murphy from Riyadh on Tuesday.
“So as we speak, to get a seat in a faculty is troublesome … and naturally, the enterprise goes to lift costs, and inflation [is] going to be excessive, so Dubai goes to be an costly metropolis,” the chairman stated. “And I hope [the] authorities discover methods and means. And it isn’t simple to seek out methods and means when there’s a steady inflow of individuals to town.”
The most recent Dubai property market numbers inform a narrative of burgeoning demand. In July of 2024, property gross sales reached 49.6 billion dirhams ($13.5 billion), a 31.63% improve from the identical interval in 2023, in response to locally-based brokerage agency Elite Benefit Actual Property.
“The primary half of 2024 alone noticed over 43,000 property transactions valued at roughly AED122.9 billion, marking a 30% improve from the earlier 12 months,” the agency’s report launched on Sept. 10 wrote, including that the expansion is due partly to the “speedy absorption of latest stock.” Round 80% of the items launched since 2022 have already been bought, the report estimates.
Aerial view of cityscape and skyscraper at sundown in Dubai Marina.
Lu Shaoji | Second | Getty Pictures
“The Dubai property market is doing extraordinarily effectively, and I believe we’ll proceed to do effectively, as a result of the demand in Europe is superb,” Sajwani stated. “All people needs to go to Dubai, from the taxi driver to the waiter to the businessman … Dubai now’s attracting lots of not solely rich individuals, however lots of proficient individuals. And it is rising in a special degree from pre-Covid.”
The Damac founder famous the way in which by which the Covid-19 interval supercharged Dubai’s recognition as a spot to stay: whereas a lot of the world remained in lockdowns, the emirate inspired tourism and attracted new residents with the assistance of visas for distant staff and entrepreneurship.
“Dubai as we speak is a worldwide metropolis, by all means, and attracting lots of expertise and lots of companies, we’ll proceed to develop,” Sajwani stated.
Dubai has skilled a risky boom-and-bust cycle prior to now, most notably throughout its 2008-2009 disaster interval, when the emirates’ property market crashed, and quite a few traders needed to default on their money owed. Requested if he was apprehensive a few comparable cycle repeated itself, Sajwani expressed confidence that the system was totally different now.
Requested if Dubai is extra steady now, Sajwani replied: “100%.”
“One of many key motive for that’s that the rules the Dubai authorities introduced in after [the] ’09 or ’08 crash has been superb rules. Very, very strict on builders, on prospects, and on zoning,” he stated. “In order that regulation helps — not all people simply can come and enter the market and simply launch a undertaking … There’s very strict escrow, so the shopper’s cash may be very a lot protected, and that is what makes the market very environment friendly.”
