Dubai property is hot investment

Customers brows the selection of property advertisements posted at the Better Homes office in Dubai. Lauren Lancaster / The National

Dubai’s real estate market is becoming an attractive proposition to a multitude of international investors.

According to data from the Dubai Land Department (DLD), released by its Real Estate Research and Studies Department, total investment transactions for the first half of the year reached Dh57 billion from 26,000 investors made up of 149 different nationalities.

Leading the property investors were buyers from the GCC, contributing Dh22bn to Dubai’s property market covering 8,000 transactions, just over a quarter of the total number. Of this, Emirati investment provided the lion’s share, with total transactions reaching Dh14.5bn from 4,543 investments, while GCC investors made up Dh7.5bn from 3,656 transactions.

While Dubai’s real estate market has suffered a string of calls in recent months citing its bottom, the DLD data suggests many still see opportunity in it.

The total value of foreign investment into Dubai property reached more than Dh28bn, almost half the value of transactions, drawn from more than half of the investments – 14,314 investments out of the 26,000 were from foreigners.

“The Dubai real estate market has managed to maintain its robust appeal this year,” said Sultan Butti bin Merjen, the director general of the DLD. He said it is now emerging as one of the foremost property investment destinations in the world. “It has been bolstered by the decline in some regional economies and serious challenges faced by other countries around the globe,” he said, adding that the diversity of the investor base reflects the quality and trust that investors place in Dubai’s economy.

Indian investors led the way in the foreign investor field, bringing in more than Dh7bn worth of property transactions to the emirate from just 3,656 transactions.

The British were second with Dh4bn in investments, while Pakistanis were third with Dh3bn.

“I’m surprised to see GCC nationals and Emiratis so high on the list,” said Paul Clark, a real estate agent for Luxhabitat. “Generally GCC buyers are in the market for whole floors of a tower or several plots on the Palm.” However, Mr Clark says the biggest absence on the list is the Russian investor.

“At one point Russians must have owned at least 80 per cent of the real estate on Palm Jumeirah,” he added.

Follow The National's Business section on Twitter