Almost 57% Of UAE Residents To Invest In Dubai’s Property Sector

The majority of UAE residents are now investing in property, rather than gold – considered the traditional favourite, a new survey has found.

According to a survey conducted by IP Global and YouGov, around 53 per cent of the residents polled said that they invested in property compared to 43 per cent who invested in gold.

Of those UAE residents who have invested in property, 41 per cent put their money in properties overseas, compared with just 12 per cent owning property in the Emirates. This suggests that confidence is greater in the overseas property market at present, the survey said.

However, this could change with 57 per cent of those polled naming Dubai as their next preferred property investment destination, compared with just 21 per cent who consider London as the location of their next property purchase.

“More and more people are starting to see property investment as one of the highest performing asset classes within their investment portfolios,” said Paul Preston, head of IP Global, Middle East.

“There is definitely an increasing confidence in the Dubai property market presently, although with property prices already starting to cool and Dubai typically being more cyclical than other global markets, we’re seeing sustained interest in overseas property markets from investors at Cityscape Global 2014 in Dubai”.

He added that investors from the UAE are also interested in markets other than the UK.

“We’re also seeing more interest than ever before in markets outside of the UK, such as New York, Miami and Chicago in the US and Melbourne and Brisbane in Australia.”

Aside from property, other popular asset classes among the respondents were commodities, bonds and stocks as well as fixed/time deposits, the survey said.

“As gold is typically considered a ‘safe haven’ asset when currency markets are volatile, this likely indicates that UAE residents currently have sufficient confidence in the currency markets to invest in property and to diversify their investment portfolios,” said Preston.