DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Dubai’s property scene is displaying no signal of cooling off, as 2024 is on observe to be one other file yr by way of gross sales figures and property values, in line with native actual property companies.
Growing demand for property, particularly within the luxurious house, is boosting costs not simply of houses, however of every little thing else within the metropolis — simply because the United Arab Emirates is predicted to emerge because the world’s high wealth magnet for the third consecutive yr.
For Hussain Sajwani, chairman of Dubai property big Damac, that spells each good and dangerous information.
“What considerations me a bit of 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 every time there may be a lot demand, and particularly when proficient individuals, common individuals are coming, they create extra demand,” Sajwani instructed CNBC’s Dan Murphy from Riyadh on Tuesday.
“So as we speak, to get a seat in a faculty is tough … 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 straightforward to search out methods and means when there’s a steady inflow of individuals to town.”
The newest 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 line with locally-based brokerage agency Elite Advantage 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 yr,” the agency’s report launched on Sept. 10 wrote, including that the expansion is due partly to the “speedy absorption of recent stock.” Round 80% of the models launched since 2022 have already been offered, the report estimates.
Aerial view of cityscape and skyscraper at sundown in Dubai Marina.
Lu Shaoji | Second | Getty Photographs
“The Dubai property market is doing extraordinarily properly, and I feel we will proceed to do properly, as a result of the demand in Europe is wonderful,” Sajwani stated. “All people needs to go to Dubai, from the taxi driver to the waiter to the businessman … Dubai now could be attracting a whole lot of not solely rich individuals, however a whole lot of proficient individuals. And it is rising in a unique stage from pre-Covid.”
The Damac founder famous the best way by which the Covid-19 interval supercharged Dubai’s reputation as a spot to reside: whereas a lot of the world remained in lockdowns, the emirate inspired tourism and attracted new residents with the assistance of visas for distant employees and entrepreneurship.
“Dubai as we speak is a worldwide metropolis, by all means, and attracting a whole lot of expertise and a whole lot of companies, we will 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 buyers needed to default on their money owed. Requested if he was nervous a few comparable cycle repeated itself, Sajwani expressed confidence that the system was completely different now.
Requested if Dubai is extra steady now, Sajwani replied: “100%.”
“One of many key cause for that’s that the laws the Dubai authorities introduced in after [the] ’09 or ’08 crash has been excellent laws. Very, very strict on builders, on clients, and on zoning,” he stated. “In order that regulation helps — not everyone simply can come and enter the market and simply launch a mission … There may be very strict escrow, so the client’s cash may be very a lot protected, and that is what makes the market very environment friendly.”
