Photo: H.E. Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori. Director General of Digital Dubai.
In a significant step towards enhancing transparency in Dubai’s real estate market and promoting data-driven decision-making, Digital Dubai has announced a strategic partnership with the Dubai Land Department to introduce specialized indicators for residential and commercial property sale prices within the emirate.
This partnership falls within a comprehensive strategic vision to enhance confidence in the emirate’s vital industries, including real estate, which contributed 7.5% to Dubai’s total GDP in 2023 and remains one of the leading sectors in attracting investments. The strategic collaboration reflects the commitment to tracking property price movements, monitoring transaction values across various areas of Dubai, and keeping pace with periodic changes. The goal is to generate real estate statistical indicators that support decision-making and provide economic analyses related to property price trends.
In this context, Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori. Director General of Digital Dubai, said: “This partnership reflects Digital Dubai’s vision of digitizing life in the emirate and leveraging advanced digital technologies to serve strategic sectors and enhance their contribution to the overall GDP. We view this collaboration with the Dubai Land Department as a model of the partnership and integration between government entities, designed to deliver solutions that boost market dynamism and attract further investments. The ultimate goal is to solidify Dubai’s position as a leading global investment hub, particularly in the real estate sector, and to achieve the objectives of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33.”
His Excellency Eng. Marwan Ahmed Bin Ghalita, Director General of Dubai Land Department, highlighted that this partnership with Digital Dubai marks an important step towards enhancing transparency and credibility in Dubai’s real estate market. He stated, “Providing accurate indexes that reflect real market prices and trends enables decision-makers, investors, and developers to plan more effectively and forecast the future, thereby boosting Dubai’s competitiveness and supporting our vision of achieving global leadership in real estate investment. This aligns with Dubai’s position as the only property market in the Middle East and North Africa region to be classified in the ‘Transparency’ category, having advanced one position to 28th place in the 2024 Global Real Estate Transparency Index. Moreover, Dubai ranks among the top five markets globally that have shown the most improvement in transparency, highlighting the significant impact and role of government initiatives in this regard.
This aligns with Dubai’s standing as the only real estate market in the Middle East and North Africa region to be classified in the “transparency” category, having advanced one position to 28th place in the 2024 Global Real Estate Transparency Index. Moreover, Dubai ranks among the top five markets globally that have shown the most improvement in transparency, highlighting the significant impact and role of government initiatives in this regard. His Excellency Younus Al Nasser, Chief Executive of the Dubai Data and Statistics Establishment said: “This partnership delivers accurate and integrated data systems that monitor real estate market performance while providing comprehensive benchmarking across all aspects of this vital sector. This collaboration is part of a broader initiative to enhance the use of data and statistics to support the performance and activity of key sectors within the emirate. It also serves as a practical example of the positive impact that precise data can have on every stage of real estate development, from the planning phase through to the management of real estate facilities.”
Statistics and Figures
The new partnership between the Dubai Digital Authority and the Dubai Land Department reflects ongoing efforts to enhance the technical methodology of real estate indexes. The foundations underpinning these indexes have been updated, including revisions to the base year and relative weights, to ensure the delivery of more accurate and transparent results that encompass all areas of the emirate.
The quarterly change rates of the residential real estate price index for the second quarter of 2024 demonstrated positive results, with an overall increase of approximately 2.93%, comprising 6.58% for residential villas and 1.27% for residential apartments. Similarly, the commercial real estate price index for the same period also reflected growth, registering a rise of around 0.48%, including 4.77% for shops and offices.
Future Goals 6:
This strategic cooperation seeks to achieve several key objectives, including measuring real estate market performance and understanding trends and shifts, which will assist in making strategic decisions and developing appropriate policies. Additionally, it aims to support investment planning by leveraging digital data to identify opportunities and promote the growth of projects. The partnership also contributes to monitoring the market to better understand its mechanisms and to determine the necessary actions to address challenges. It will further provide data to the public and investors, empowering them to more accurately evaluate opportunities and risks. Another objective is to support national requirements and meet the needs of researchers by granting students and professionals in the sector access to precise data for their research. Finally, it seeks to track inflation and economic recession trends, as these indicators are crucial references in calculating GDP and assessing the industry impact of price changes.
