Dubai’s residential market sees record growth in Q1 2022: CBRE

Global commercial real estate services and investment firm, CBRE Group, has reported that the total volume of transactions in Dubai’s residential market reached 7,865 in March, up 83.4 per cent from a year earlier. These details were published in CBRE’s recently released ‘Residential Market Snapshot – April 2022’.

Over this period, off-plan sales increased by 94.6 per cent and secondary market sales by 76.1 per cent. Total transaction volumes in the year-to-date to March reached 19,009 –  the highest total ever recorded in the first quarter of the year, the report stated.

The report also showed average prices increased by 11.3 per cent in the year-to-March 2022. Over this period, average apartment prices increased by 10.0 per cent and average villa prices by 20.2 per cent. As of March, average apartment prices in Dubai stood at Dhs1,118 per sq ft and average villa prices stood at Dhs1,267 per sq ft. Compared to the highs witnessed in late 2014, these rates per square foot are 26.2 per cent and 12.3 per cent below the peak, for apartments and villas respectively.

CBRE stated that in the apartments segment, Downtown Dubai  recorded the highest average sales rate per square foot at Dhs2,021. Whereas in the villas segment of the market, Palm Jumeirah recorded the highest average sales rate per square foot at Dhs2,910.

Average rents in the 12 months to March increased by 13.1 per cent, with average apartment and villa rents increasing by 11.7 per cent and 22.5 per cent respectively. As of March, average apartment and villa rents stood at Dhs80,000 and Dhs238,441 per annum respectively.

In the rental market, the highest average annual apartment and villa rents respectively were found in Palm Jumeirah, where asking rents on average were Dhs197,482, and in Al Barari, where asking rents on average were Dhs801,940.

Taimur Khan, head of research – MENA at CBRE in Dubai, said: “Despite the continued increase in the cost of financing and further tightening of payment plans, we have yet to see this impact transactional activity in Dubai’s residential market. In fact, the total number of transactions in March reached 7,865, up from 5,598 a month earlier. As a result, this has been the strongest first quarter on record for Dubai in terms of residential transactions. While average prices and average rents continue to increase, we are seeing a moderation in both sales and rental growth rates in the villa segment of the market.”