Dubai’s real estate transactions valued Dhs3.62bn in April 2020

The Dubai real estate market recorded a total of 1,824 sales transactions in April 2020 despite the city reeling from Covid-19-triggered lockdowns, restricting freedom of movement.

The transactions, valued in at Dhs3.62bn, included 1,316 off-plan and 508 secondary sales transactions.

Innovative tools like Live Viewings and Virtual Tours aided in the transactions, according to Data Finder, part of UAE-based Property Finder.

This brings the year-to-date total to 12,254 sales transactions worth Dhs24.15bn.

Off-plan transactions
Off-plan constituted 72 per cent of all transactions and was dominated by Villanova and Dubai Creek Harbour for villa/townhouses and apartments respectively.

Top off-plan sales locations were The Lagoons in Dubai Creek Harbour, accounting for 123 transactions, Jumeirah Village Circle (112), Villanova (110), Umm Suqeim (105) and Business Bay (97).

Secondary sales transactions
The secondary market transactions were considerably lower than the off-plan market with Dubai Marina recording 40 transactions and Palm Jumeirah recording 39.

These were followed by Mudon (31), Downtown Dubai (26) and Dubai Hills Estate (21).

The top communities for apartment sales included: Jumeirah Village Circle (125), Dubai Creek Harbour (123), Umm Suqeim (105), Downtown Dubai (92) and Jumeirah Beach Residence (86). Meanwhile, the top communities for villa/townhouses’ sales included Villanova (118), Serena (36), Dubai South (26), Jumeirah (18) and Arabian Ranches (12).

In April, the search demand in Dubai has been dominated by Dubai Marina and Palm Jumeirah with both areas accounting for 21 per cent of all searches, followed by Downtown Dubai with 7.2 per cent, Dubai Hills Estate with 4.8 per cent and Jumeirah Village Circle with 4.2 per cent.

“Since the beginning of March and when the Covid-19 crisis started, the percentage of searches on the Property finder Portal for villas/townhouses is higher than for apartments. This trend continues to grow even after the lockdown has eased,” said Lynnette Abad, director of Research and Data, Property Finder.

“When compared to the previous weeks, sales enquiries submitted to agents for villas in Dubai were up 30 per cent than the same week last year. Rental leads for villas in Dubai are also up for the second week in a row, up 56 per cent compared to the same week last year.”