Dubai's real estate market has recorded more than 2,400 sales transactions worth AED4.73 billion ($1.2 billion) in August, of which 31.6 per cent were off-plan deals, according to the UAE real estate portal Property Finder. 

 

A total of 1,189 mortgage transactions worth AED10.4 billion ($2.8 billion) were registered last month, it stated. 

 

August typically has been a slow month for Dubai real estate when compared to the rest of the year, but last month did better than July registering a 2.2 percent growth. 

 

According to Data Finder, the real estate insights and data platform under the Property Finder group, August witnessed a rise of 11.3 per cent in real estate transactions compared to last year. 

 

"In previous years, the summer months were typically slower for real estate transactions in Dubai because of the summer holidays. This year, due to the Covid-19 situation, many residents chose not to travel," remarked Lynnette Abad, Director of Research & Data at Property Finder. 

 

"This, coupled with pent up demand and attractive pricing drove transactions higher.” 

Abad continues to say, “If we only look at secondary market transactions, August 2020 had 22.4 percent more transactions than August 2019 which coincides in what we saw in our search and demand data during the crisis," she stated. 

 

The top areas for overall sales transactions in Dubai during August 2020 were Town Square, Jumeirah Village Circle, Dubai Marina, International City and Business Bay. 

 

"If we look at only off-plan transactions, the top areas were Jumeirah Village Circle, Business Bay, Palm Jumeirah, Arjan and International City. For Secondary property, the top areas for secondary sales transactions in Dubai were Town Square, Dubai Marina, Dubai Land, Downtown Dubai and Dubai Sports City," explained Abad. 

 

Another trend to note is change in demand from smaller units to larger units. Since the start of the pandemic, the ratio of sales transactions for 1 bedroom units has fallen by over 10 percent and for studios by more than 34 percent. 

 

The ratio of transactions for 3, 4 and 5 bedrooms has increased by 9 per cent, 20 per cent and 15 per cent respectively, she stated. 

 

Abad pointed out that since the crisis began, the search demand for larger units and number of bedrooms had increased significantly and the present sales transactions further validate this data.

 

“In addition, looking at proprietary Property Finder search trends we are able to get insights into market sentiment. The top searched rental keywords in the month of August were ‘new units’ and ‘chiller free’," she stated. 

 

"This shows us a trend of what the average person is looking for, which are brand new units due to the large amount of completed supply and chiller free units to save on extra costs. The top searched sales keywords were  ‘furnished’, ‘upgraded’ and ‘payment plan’ which shows consumers are looking to get the best bang for their buck," she added.-TradeArabia News Service