Recent data by Property Finder, the leading property portal in the MENA region, revealed key trends dominating Dubai’s consistently flourishing property market. According to the data, April 2023 saw 8,077 real estate transactions, recording a 17% increase in volume compared to 6,898 in April 2022.
The value of the transactions witnessed a surge of 46% compared to the same month last year, reaching AED 26.5 billion. This marks the highest transaction volume and value for the month of April in a decade.
The market broadly followed the previous month’s trends in property preferences for owners and tenants alike. According to Property Finder’s data for April 2023, 58.2% of people who desire to own property were looking for an apartment, while 41.8% were interested in villas/townhouses. The month saw an increase in the percentage of investors or home seekers looking for apartments from 55.8% in April 2022 to 58.2%. Among home seekers, the most commonly searched apartment size was two-bedroom, accounting for 35.2%, followed by one-bedroom apartments at 31%.
In the rental segment, 78.3% of tenants searched for apartments, and 21.7% looked for villas/townhouses. Around 64.1% of the tenants were seeking apartments for a more extended stay favored furnished properties, while 34.2% were searching for unfurnished apartments. Among the tenants who can afford to rent a villa/townhouse, approximately 56.8% preferred unfurnished units, while 42.1% were looking for furnished villas/townhouses.
Around 33.4% of tenants were looking for one-bedroom units in April 2023, followed by two-bedroom units, which accounted for 30.7% of the tenants’ preferences, while 23.8% were searching for studios. For villas/townhouses, 41.6% of tenants were primarily looking for three-bedroom units, while 36% were searching for four-bedroom or larger options.
| Sales property type Preferences in April 2023 | Tenants’ property type PreferencesApril 2023 |
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Off-plan transactions significantly supported Dubai’s real estate market uptrend in April, accounting for 48.2% of the total sales transaction volume and 30.3% of the value. The volume of off-plan property sales surged by 43.7% YoY, with 3,894 transactions recorded, compared to 2,709 in April 2022.
Meanwhile, the existing property transactions experienced a marked increase in value at approximately 44% YoY, reaching around AED 18.5 billion compared to AED 12.8 billion in April 2022.
According to Property Finder’s proprietary data, the top searched areas for owned apartments in April 2023 continued to include Dubai Marina, Downtown Dubai, Business Bay, Palm Jumeirah, and Jumeirah Village Circle. Dubai Hills Estate, Palm Jumeirah, Arabian Ranches, DAMAC Hills (Akoya by DAMAC), and Mohammed Bin Rashid City were the most preferred for those looking to own villas/townhouses.
For the off-plan market, Dubai Marina accounted for 12.1% of the total transaction value and 6.4% of the total number of sales. A newcomer to the top three, Hadaeq Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid ranked second, representing approximately 9.1% of the total sales value and 8.1% of the volume. Following closely behind, Jumeirah Village comprised around 8.6% of the total transaction value while leading in volume at 20.6%
| Top sales transaction areas (Volume) | Top sales transaction areas (Value) |
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Scott Bond, UAE Country Manager at Property Finder said: “Once again, Dubai’s fast-evolving property sector saw a YoY spike in both volume and value in April 2023, with only a minimal decline in the volume of transactions in the existing property market, offset by a considerable increase in value. While overall trends mostly remained the same, we have seen the emergence of new home seeker preferences in the off-plan market.”
