Dubai real estate transactions reach AED 285 billion for 2017

The Dubai Land Department (DLD) recently revealed the annual results of the Dubai real estate market for 2017, with the total real estate transactions exceeding AED 285 billion through 69,000 real estate transactions.

Commenting on DLD’s Annual Transactions Report, which summarizes the market activity over the past year, Sultan Butti bin Mejren, Director General of DLD, said: “The figures disclosed in the report for total transactions including sales, mortgages and others, confirm the current strength of the Dubai real estate market, in particular when compared against the past two years — 2015 and 2016.”

Bin Mejren added: “The 2017 report sends reassuring messages of renewed cycles of growth in the coming years, especially when we take into account the modern-day infrastructure that exists in Dubai. The numbers and figures contained in the report confirm the strength of the Dubai real estate market and its ability to grow from year to year. Among the positive signs of the report is the lead UAE nationals have in investments, as well as the diversity of the investor base which reflects the attractiveness of the Dubai real estate market to global investors.”

The report states that the real estate transactions for 2017 have increased by 6 per cent in terms of number, and 4 per cent in value when compared to AED 275.8 billion for 2015, and increased by 14 per cent in number, and 6 per cent in value compared to AED 268.7 billion for 2016.

Bin Mejren added: “Looking at the details of the results from 2017, the sales of land, buildings and units in the Dubai real estate market totaled AED 114 billion through 49,000 transactions, while mortgages for the same three categories reached AED 138.5 billion through 15,700 transactions. There were approximately 4,000 other transactions valued at approximately AED 33.3 billion, where the total turnover for the year 2017 was AED 285.562 billion from 69,000 transactions.”

Turnout from global investors

For 2017, Dubai’s real estate market has attracted investors from around the world, including Gulf nationals, Arabs and foreigners, with a total of 39,480 investors making nearly 53,000 transactions worth more than AED 107 billion.

According to the same report, over 9,790 Gulf nationals made 14,381 transactions worth more than AED 37 billion. The Dubai real estate market attracted nearly 7,000 Arab investors who closed 8,644 real estate transactions worth over AED 14 billion. There was also a high level activity among foreign investors, with nearly 23,000 investors making approximately 30,000 transactions worth approximately AED 56 billion throughout 2017.

Women’s Activities

The contribution of women to real estate investment is growing, with their trust in the Dubai real estate market reflected by 11,773 women entering the market and making a total of 14,316 transactions worth over AED 27 billion.

List of Top Nationalities Investing

The UAE investor continued to lead the list of nationalities investing in the Dubai real estate market, where the value of their investments amounted to AED 25.307 billion. The second place was for Indian investors who invested AED 15.6 billion. The Saudis came in third place with investments exceeding AED 7 billion dirhams, followed by British and Pakistanis whose investments amounted to AED 6 and 5 billion, respectively.

Other active investors include Chinese, Jordanians, Egyptians and Canadians.

Brokers Earn

Thanks to an active investment climate, brokers benefited from an increase in demand for Dubai’s properties and built up AED 1.77 billion for their role in completing sales of land, buildings and residential units. Their share included AED 840 million from land sales, which came close to AED 42 billion. They also earned AED 133 million from sales of buildings, which exceeded AED 6.6 billion, and with commissions amounting to AED 794 million from sales of units worth AED 40 billion. In this regard, the value of broker commissions is calculated by calculating (2%) of the total actual sales.

The number of real estate permits during the same period was 12,407, and the number of real estate offices reached 2,256. According to DLD Statistics, the number of registered real estate brokers reached 6,195.

Areas in High Demand

The report also reveals the top ten real estate sales areas in Dubai, with ‘Burj Khalifa’ taking first place in terms of value with 2,008 transactions worth AED 7.368 billion. ‘Business Bay’ followed in second place with 3,763 transactions worth AED 7.115 billion, while ‘Dubai Marina’ took third place with 3,300 transactions worth nearly AED 7 billion. ‘Hadaeq Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid’ came in fourth place with 1,948 transactions worth AED 5.672 billion and ‘AL Barsha South Fourth’ ranked fifth through 3,138 transactions worth around AED 4 billion in value. The other five places went to ‘Jabal Ali First’ with 2,750 transactions worth AED 2.487 billion, ‘Al Yufrah 2’ with 1,827 transactions worth AED 2.389 billion, ‘Al Yelayiss 2’ with 1,883 transactions worth AED 2.268 billion, ‘Madinat Al Mataar’ with 2,365 transactions worth AED 2.137 billion, and ‘Al Warsan First’ with 1,831 transactions worth AED 1.871 billion, respectively.

Attractive areas

In terms of mortgages, ‘Palm Jumeirah’ topped the list with 731 transactions exceeding AED 12 billion in value, followed by ‘Business Bay’ with 769 transactions worth nearly AED 6 billion. ‘Dubai Marina’ ranked in third place with 1,127 transactions worth over AED 3.7 billion, ‘Al Barsha South Fourth’ came in fourth place with 670 transactions worth over AED 2.6 billion, and ‘Burj Khalifa’ placed fifth with 545 transactions worth over AED 2.5 billion. The other five places went to ‘Al Thanyah 4’ (AED 2.304 billion), ‘Al Thanyah 5’ (AED 2.289 billion), ‘Jebel Ali First’ (AED 1.068 billion), ‘Al Yelayiss 1’ (AED 932 million), and ‘Al Thanyah 3’ (AED 927 million) respectively.

Bin Mejren concluded: “Such results would not have been possible without our firm commitment to the vision of our wise leadership, and our keenness to achieve the highest levels of excellence in our innovative services that will reassure all segments of investors, allowing Dubai to remain an attractive investment environment for investors seeking a safe return on investment. That is clearly seen through the base of investors of more than 200 nationalities from all continents of the world.”