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Despite a marked slowdown in many processes and a slight decline in Dubai’s property prices throughout 2016, the annual figures show that it all was not as bad as it might have seemed from the start.
First annual statistics on the average Dubai real estate market's activity rate was provided by Reidin-GCP experts recently. According to these data, 23,579 property transactions were registered in the emirate in 2016 — a dip of only 2.3 per cent compared to the previous 2015 year’s level.
Surprisingly, but usually quite lazy summer month of July turned out to be the busiest month for Dubai housing market in 2016 — 2,495 freehold property units, including ready-made and off-plan housing, were sold during this period of time. And the year end, too, has brought property sellers in Dubai a rather rich ‘harvest’. In December and November, the number of transactions registered was almost the same — around 2,000 transactions per month, while in December home buyers got even more active and purchased 2,445 housing units, which almost equals the July’s annual maximum volume.
An obvious shift towards off-plan property should also be noted among the main 2016 trends in Dubai homebuyer’s activity. Convenient payment plans offered by developers, together with luring bonuses and discounts, plus a lower average price compared to ready-made housing determined buyers’ choice in favor of the projects under construction.
And the fact that the most of Dubai developers have changed their policy after Cityscape 2016 and turned to mid-market, thus substantially reducing average apartment price in the off-plan segment, became crucial to the major changes in the emirate’s industry turnaround. The development of new peripheral areas and residential communities, such as Dubai South and Town Square, a large number of new projects in IMPZ also played an important role in redistribution of buyers’ funds. The number of off-plan transactions in IMPZ alone increased by 67.6 per cent over a year.
In total, Dubai property buyers spent AED 18.04 billion on off-plan units in 2016, while another AED 18.22 billion were spent on the ready-made property units.
