Dubai property sales hit record volumes as prices fall
Last month set a record for the most Dubai property sales since 2008 with close to 5,000 real estate transactions, according to Dubai Land Department statistics compiled by real estate portal Property Finder.
There were 4,774 sales of residential and commercial properties and land, according to Data Finder, the real estate insights and data platform under the Property Finder Group. The second-highest volume recorded was in July with 4,234 sales.
“The most important factor is pricing and the amount of supply. There is a lot of inventory to choose from and it’s also put pressure on the secondary market,” Lynnette Abad, director of data and research at Property Finder, told The National.
“People think this is the best time to buy because they feel that it’s at the bottom, but also some clients believe that once we get closer to 2020 the prices will start rising.”
The lowest ever recorded monthly volume was ahead of the global financial crisis in January 2008 with 455 deals, which is the earliest publicly available DLD data.
Dubai property prices have been declining since 2014 due to a three-year slump in oil prices and market oversupply, as well as a move by developers towards building smaller, more affordable homes. Villas and apartment prices in the first half of 2019 were around 12 per cent cheaper than they were in 2017 and approximately 4 per cent cheaper than in the second half of last year, according to Property Finder.
Last month also hit a 2019 record for off-plan sales, clocking in 2,841 transactions, the second-highest since September 2015, with 3,258 deals recorded.