
The head of real estate investment at Dubai’s Land Department has dismissed reports of a property slowdown in the emirate.
In an exclusive interview with Arabian Business, Majida Ali Rashid, assistant director-general and head of real estate investment management and promotion center at Dubai Land Department (DLD), insisted the market was maintaining “sustainable” growth.
“The real estate market has shown a clear ability to gain momentum from year to year, in addition to maintaining sustainable growth, as well as the trend towards maturity,” she said.
Real estate analysts have claimed this year that Dubai’s residential market in particular is witnessing a slowdown, with figures from broker JLL last week showing that average apartment prices fell two percent compared with the previous quarter and villa prices fell one per cent during the first three months of the year.
Rashid pointed to DLD’s annual report published in January, which showed that the total amount of real estate transactions recorded in the emirate last year exceeded AED218 billion, across 53,871 transactions. The same report showed last year’s transactions were diversified and were all over Dubai, demonstrating market resilience, she said.
“The report suggests sustainable growth [of the real estate market] in the years leading to the launch of Expo 2020,” Rashid said, adding: “Dubai is the ideal investment location in the Middle East, and is also competing with top investment cities in Asia and Europe.”