Dubai's real estate brokerages doubled their earnings to Dh3.23 billion ($879.5 million) in the first half of 2025, riding the momentum in the emirate's robust property sector.
The 99.4 per cent year-on-year surge in earnings from Dh1.62 billion in the corresponding period of 2024 was driven by 42,181 transactions completed in the first half of the 2025, the Dubai Media Office said on in a statement on Sunday.
More than 6,700 new brokers registered with the Dubai Land Department through the January-June period, boosting the total by nearly a third to more than 29,000, according to government statistics.
“Dubai’s real estate brokerage sector recorded a remarkable performance in the first half of this year,” the DMO said.
Dubai's property market, which bounced back strongly from the Covid-driven slowdown, has maintained a sharp growth trajectory since.
Government measures such as residency permits for retired and remote workers and expansion of the 10-year golden visa programme have boosted foreign investment flows into the emirates property market over the past few years.
The robust momentum in the UAE’s economy, the Arab world's second largest, driven by the government's diversification efforts have also support the real estate market activity.
This month, a new scheme was also launched to help Emiratis and UAE residents, who do not own any freehold residential property in the emirate, get on the property ladder.
Under the initiative, first-time buyers will have priority access to new homes from participating developers as well as existing inventory, discounts or limited-time offers on the sales price of off-plan units, flexible payment plans and “improved” mortgage options with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees.
The DLD expects 5,000 more investors to enter the market this year following the initiative.
Last week, the DMO said that the volume and value of real estate transactions in Dubai rose sharply in the first half of the year, amid the entry of more than 59,000 new investors into the market, according to DLD data.
In a recent report, property consultancy Knight Frank showed that more than 51,000 homes were sold in Dubai in the second quarter of 2025, which was a year-on-year increase of 22.8 per cent, marking a quarterly record amid strong demand from buyers.
Total home sales surpassed 94,000, putting the market firmly “on track to exceed” 169,000 transactions recorded in 2024, it added.
On Thursday, Abu Dhabi's Masdar City and the DLD teamed up to allow the former's free zone companies to own properties in Dubai, in a bid to boost real estate investment across the UAE.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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