The Dubai real estate market remains one of the most popular in 2022. High demand for real estate drives up prices, which attracts more and more investors. That’s a kind of a golden vicious circle, the movement of which is so interesting to observe now. The owner of Address Property real estate agency in Dubai, Alexey Slauta believes that the activity of the local market will only grow, and explains to the reporter of realting.com what caused such a rush.

Total revenue from real estate sales was about $16.9 billion in 5 months

The Dubai real estate market remains one of the most popular real estate markets in the world. A favorable tax system, constantly developing cities and infrastructure and a strong reputation attract property buyers from all over the world. Of course, higher demand causes prices to increase. According to analytical data from various sources, the cost of premium housing from January this year has increased by more than 30%, the medium-priced segment — by 35%, and in the low-priced segment by over 15%. Now the average price per square meter in Dubai is almost $3,000. In the second quarter of 2022, the average price has reached $280,000 for an apartment and $1,000,000 for a villa

Just imagine: the total real estate revenue in 2021 was more than $41 billion, which is 110% more than in 2020. In 2022, the total revenue from real estate sales amounted to about $16.9 billion in 5 months. And it starts to seem like neither global inflation nor the unstable economic situation in the world can affect the high demand for real estate in Dubai — the number of buyers is growing even more.

One of the trends of 2022 is the increasing demand for buildings under construction. Last year about 60% of the total number of transactions accounted for the previously owned housing segment, now more and more buyers are interested in the construction apartment buildings.

«For buyers there is no time to think twice, but interesting projects are still on sale»

The owner of Address Property real estate agency in Dubai, Alexey Slauta believes that buyers’ interest in Dubai will not decrease in the near future, but on the contrary, it will grow. And the rising prices are not a problem here at all.

— How can you characterize the situation in the Dubai real estate market now?

— Over the past few months, the situation in the Dubai real estate market has changed a little. There is no rush among buyers, prices have stopped rising daily, and the number of offers has increased slightly. The point is that summer is considered a low season: buyers go on vacation, few tourists arrive here because of the intense heat, and investors at this time slow down their activity. As a result, there is a relative lull in the market now. However, if you think that during this time buyers have more time to think over their purchase, this is not the case — the most interesting projects in Dubai are sold in half an hour. 

At the same time, all agents agree on one thing: from late September to December, the Dubai real estate market expects another burst of activity. Most agencies already have a list of pending applications from Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians who are planning to move to Dubai in early autumn. There are many reasons for this interest in real estate, not only vacation ending. The main one is possible growth of the Russian ruble by the end of the year. People just want to keep their savings and choose a proven way for years — investing in real estate. 

However, it is not only investment opportunities that attract buyers to the Dubai real estate market — more and more applications are coming in for apartments or houses as a place for their own residence. People move and relocate their businesses here, and as a result, we see an increase in demand for commercial real estate as well. Therefore, there are really a lot of requests to buy or rent a space for stores, beauty salons, warehouses or offices.

— Over the past few months, the cost of rental housing has increased by 30% — what do you think is the reason for it?

— The cost of rental housing in Dubai has really increased, but I would not associate it with the previous months. In my opinion, just in the summer, the growth of rental prices slowed down a bit, because of the decrease in tourist flow. But if we compare the cost of apartment renting in December last year and now, the price has really gone up by at least 30%. And it is not the limit, because this fall Qatar will host the FIFA World Cup, which is not far. It is planned that 70 new flights will be launched between Qatar and Dubai during the championship.

The media wrote that Qatar had already run out of hotel rooms for this period, and many fans have begun to rent apartments and hotel rooms in Dubai. An increase in the already high demand soon will lead to an even greater increase in prices for rental housing. And this, in turn, will encourage investors to buy real estate, and therefore the cost per square meter will grow. This is the forecast for the nearest future.

— Are there any restrictions on buying or renting real estate? Or any other important restrictions for foreigners in Dubai?

— There are no restrictions on the purchase of real estate — anyone who has money for it can still buy an apartment in Dubai. However, there are delays in opening accounts for Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian companies — it now takes much longer. Banks’ security service now thoroughly checks applications for involvement in any sanctions and refuses to open an account in controversial situations. By the way, one of the largest banks Emirates NBD has suspended account openings for Russians since July 16. 

All this, of course, affects the buyers of real estate, because to buy a house or apartment you must have an account at a local bank.

— What should a person who first came to the Dubai real estate market know?

— You need to understand that not all real estate that is being sold here is profitable. Demand greatly exceeds supply, especially in the medium-priced segment. It is still possible to find cool projects, and buy an apartment cheaper than at the stage of construction, but you can’t find such a project by yourself just by looking through the ads on the Internet. The only option to buy real estate in Dubai profitably is to contact a specialist who values their reputation.

Do you want to buy an apartment in Dubai? Go to the Property in Dubai section and choose the option that is right for you.