Over the course of 2021 the emirates of Sharjah and Ajman have presented attractive market conditions for investors and tenants alike. The release of Bayut and dubizzle’s detailed annual real estate market reports for Sharjah and Ajman reveal that prices in both emirates have remained largely competitive, when compared with the beginning of 2020.
The CEO of Bayut and dubizzle Haider Ali Khan commented on the trends and said: “Tenants and buyers in the UAE have really no shortage of options when it comes to real estate. Both Sharjah and Ajman have continued to offer an excellent inventory of reasonably priced, family friendly units in established city centres. In fact the stock in Sharjah on Bayut & dubizzle has grown by a considerable margin of over 90% to cater to the growing demand for units in the emirate. Similarly the inventory in Ajman has also increased by close to 20% in the last year alone. Traffic across the board for the Northern Emirates and Sharjah has also grown consistently, coming close to 15 million sessions in 2021, pointing to the healthy demand in the market.“
SHARJAH:
As per consumer search trends observed in 2021, the rents for apartments in Sharjah exhibited moderate declines, while sales prices increased slightly in popular areas.
In 2021, Al Nahda remained the most popular area for tenants in search of rental apartments in Sharjah. Prices for apartments in this well-connected community have decreased across the board, leading to a consistently healthy demand from tenants. The annual average rent for studios in Al Nahda has dipped from AED 17k in 2020 to AED 16k in 2021. There have also been notable decreases of 9.61% and 8.32% in the price of 1 and 2-bedroom apartments respectively. Other prominent areas like Al Majaz and Al Taawun have also attracted tenant interest as overall rental prices remained competitive.
Al Khan has been a firm favourite among investors interested in buying flats in Sharjah during 2021. In comparison to 2020, the sales price-per-square-foot for apartments in most of the popular areas, including Al Majaz and Aljada, has increased moderately between 1.49% and 11.87%. However, a minor decrease has been observed for apartment sales in Al Nahda, where prices dipped by 5.32% in 2021.
Al Majaz has reported the highest ROI when it comes to the most searched areas for apartment sales in Sharjah, offering rental returns of up to 6.33%, thereby paving the way for investors to capitalise on property investments in the area.
In terms of villa sales and rentals, Al Tai has emerged as a firm favourite for tenants and buyers alike in 2021. Meanwhile, Muwaileh has attracted investor interest with a healthy ROI of 5.61%.
AJMAN:
Based on the consumer search trends observed on Bayut and dubizzle in 2021, the rents for apartments in Ajman have experienced moderate declines in most areas.
Al Nuaimiya has been the most popular area for rental apartments in Ajman. The decrease in rental costsby up to 8.62% and the area’s plentiful amenities have ensured that demand for flats in Al Nuaimiya has remained consistent throughout 2021. The rent for studio flats in the area has gone down slightly from AED 15k in 2020 to AED 14k in 2021, while rents for 1 and 2-bed apartments have averaged at AED 19k and AED 28k respectively.
Other areas like Al Rashidiya and Al Jurf have also generated a lot of interest amongst tenants. In Rashidiya, rents have decreased by 2% to 5%, whilst rents for Al Jurf apartments have dropped by up to 2.7%.
Apartments for sale in the most popular areas have also become more affordable during 2021, with Al Rashidiya taking the greater chunk of buyer interest. The price-per-square-foot for apartments has decreased by up to 33%, subsequent to an increase in the inventory of low-priced units in the market. Sales price-per-square-foot in Ajman Downtown has also gone down by 2.12%. On the flip side, apartment price-per-square-foot in Corniche Ajman has increased by 3.23%.
Garden City and Ajman Downtown, with an ROI of over 9%, have attracted potential buyers looking for healthy returns on buy-to-let apartments in Ajman.
Al Yasmeen has been the most popular area for the sale of villa properties in the emirate. In terms of ROI, Ajman Uptown has offered the highest returns, with projected rental yields exceeding 7.65%. Among those searching for villas for rent in Ajman, the top areas of interest have been Al Rawda, Al Mowaihat and Al Hamidiyah.
To get an accurate representation of the sales trends for villas and apartments in the top areas, Bayut and dubizzle’s 2021 market report compares the average price-per-square-foot in 2020 to 2021. These prices are however subject to change within an area and property type, based on the building, amenities, developer and other deciding factors. For the rental properties, the report compares the average cost for individual unit types observed between the two periods in the popular neighbourhoods of Sharjah and Ajman.
Disclaimer: The above report is based on prices advertised by real estate agencies on behalf of their clients on Bayut.com and dubizzle, and not representative of actual real estate transactions conducted in Sharjah and Ajman.
About Bayut
Bayut is the UAE’s most trusted property website for buying, selling and renting homes. Bayut provides detailed insights, extensive content resources and updated statistics allowing end-users to make the best decision when searching for properties in the UAE.
Since Bayut was established in 2008, the company has seen accelerated growth, increasing not only the number of real estate partners it works with, but also obtaining substantial traffic growth over the past few years. Haider Ali Khan joined Bayut in 2014 as the CEO and the company has continued to showcase very high growth over the past five years including closing multiple rounds of funding from top Venture Capital firms such as Naspers, KCK, Exor, and other notable names. To further expand their reach in this region, Bayut also launched Bayut.sa in 2019, with its headquarters in Riyadh.
Bayut is a part of the Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG) which also operates the largest property classified sites in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Morocco. In April 2020, the group merged with the Netherlands-based OLX group in certain key markets, and was valued at $1 Billion, giving it the coveted unicorn status. The group now also owns and operates dubizzle in the UAE, OLX Pakistan, OLX Egypt and OLX Lebanon, in addition to several other OLX platforms in the broader Middle East region including Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar.
About dubizzle:
dubizzle is the leading classifieds platform for users in the United Arab Emirates. Since its launch in 2005, dubizzle has become the number one platform for users to buy, sell, or find anything in their community. A community where underused goods are redistributed to fill a new need, and become wanted again, where non-product assets such as space, skills, and money are exchanged and traded in new ways that don’t always require centralized institutions or ‘middlemen’.
