Huge surge in demand for Dubai villas as residents upgrade amid pandemic

Demand for ready to move in villas and townhouses in Dubai has witnessed a growth of over 500 percent since May this year as residents choose to upgrade their living situations, according to Ari Kesisoglu, president of Property Finder.

Despite the economic uncertainty caused by the continuing coronavirus crisis, Kesisoglu told Arabian Business that the recovery in the emirate’s real estate market began in July.

That month, the market witnessed the highest sale of secondary villas and townhouses recorded in the history of the UAE since the property market opened up to non-GCC nationals.

Ari Kesisoglu, president of Property Finder

October recorded a 57.1 percent increase in property sale transactions and 70.4 percent increase in value of transactions on the previous month.

Kesisoglu said: “Each month has witnessed record-breaking numbers, and that speaks for itself – people are investing in the market, and the majority of sales are for ready-to-move-in-units, which implies that a lot of residents are upgrading their living situations, despite the current environment.”

He added that 665 secondary or ready-to-move-in villas and townhouses were transferred in October, a 7.2 percent increase on the second highest month, September, at 605 transactions and 34 percent higher than the third highest month ever, July, which recorded 496 transactions.

“We believe that this surge in numbers is a result of the movement restrictions imposed due to the pandemic,” he said. “Our homes now act as our workplace, our children’s’ educational facilities, our toddler’s play school, our new favourite diner – people are spending more time at home now than ever before, and this is what is leading to the investment in bigger, more spacious and multi-functional homes.”

The top areas for secondary (ready) villa/townhouses in October were Nadd al Sheba (11.8 percent), Town Square (7.8 percent), International City (6.7 percent), Arabian Ranches (6.4 percent) and Dubai Hills Estate (5.9 percent). Thirty-nine percent of the transactions were for four-bedroom units, 34.7 percent for three-bedroom units and 14.8 percent for five-bedroom units.

According to data from Property Finder, the search trends show reveal the top five locations for consumers searching for villa/townhouses were Dubai Hills Estates, Arabian Ranches, Palm Jumeirah, Damac Hills and Mohammed bin Rashid City.

Keywords such as ‘upgraded’, ‘pool’ and ‘furnished’ were the top three keywords in October.

Overall for October, 1,013 villa/townhouses were transferred in both the off plan and secondary market. A total of 2,031 apartments were transferred with 1,128 in the secondary market and 903 in the off-plan market.