Dubai among top 10 cities for most expensive residential property

Dubai is among the top 10 cities globally when it comes to having the most expensive residential real estate in the world, a new report has found.

The emirate ranked 10th on the list, with Monaco leading worldwide, the report by Core Savillis stated.

Dubai’s prime market is seven times more affordable than Monaco and “remains an attractive property investment”, it said. The emirate has seen a “wide growth range” across prime areas such as The Palm, Burj Khalifa, Emirates Hills and Dubai Marina.

Although softening for almost two years, the prime segment continues to indicate further contraction in prices, Core Savillis said.

“The overall market has marginally edged upwards over Q1 2017. The mainstream areas are witnessing a gradual recovery, initiated since Q1 2016, while prime areas continue to lag in performance.

“Even so, transaction volumes continue to be steady across most prominent residential districts with many witnessing double digit year-on-year rise, largely driven by the growing off-plan market,” the report added.

In terms of real estate investment in Dubai in 2016, the market saw a year-on-year contraction in the total number of investors – mainly by non-regional buyers.

“A strong dollar continues to affect the traditional buyer nationalities such as Indians, British and Pakistanis as their currencies have devalued significantly over the last year. In a few instances, this has led to the repatriation of funds as occupiers and investors have looked to cash in on the favourable exchange rates, ” the report said.

“Domestic economic headwinds faced by the two top international nationalities in Dubai – India due to currency demonetisation and the UK due to prolonged uncertainty caused by Brexit, have cast a shadow on their overall transaction figures in 2016.

“Nonetheless, Dubai continues to be the most mature real estate investment destination in the region with a diverse pool of investors from over 136 countries,” it added.

David Godchaux, CEO of Core Savills, said: “Although it is difficult to establish an average prime price for Dubai in the past 10 years (given the large variety of products in districts with fundamentally different drivers), we took a closer look at individual areas and noticed that some developments have outperformed top cities in the world such as The Palm.”

TOP 10 CITIES WITH THE MOST EXPENSIVE RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY

Price league: Dhs per square metre

	Prime	10 year prime price growth (in local currency)	Ultra Prime
Monaco	Dhs165,729	180%	Dhs400,710
Hong Kong	Dhs156,521	111%	Dhs469,165
Tokyo	Dhs116,890	13%	Dhs165,328
London	Dhs70,455	70%	Dhs180,940
New York	Dhs66,852	45%	Dhs243,790
Shanghai	Dhs61,248	248%	Dhs103,680
Paris	Dhs47,637	32%	Dhs135,705
Moscow	Dhs46,836	26%	Dhs186,945
Singapore	Dhs40,832	75%	Dhs55,643
Dubai	Dhs24,419	–	Dhs44,435
The Palm		238%
Dubai Marina		61%
Burj Khalifa		-12% (since Q2 2010)
Emirates Hills		45% (since Q1 2012)

Source: Savills World Research and Core Savills Research