Dubai’s Luxury Housing Rally Cooled Slightly in the Third Quarter

Across Dubai’s high-end home sector, five properties have sold for upward of AED 100 million (US$27.2 million) so far in 2021—a year that has brought about an impressive luxury-home market renaissance in the city.  The high-end market has been on a tear since Dubai’s home prices finally bottomed out in November 2020, after steadily declining since 2014—when the price of oil collapsed and prompted the city’s deep-pocketed home buyers to take pause. In the third quarter, Dubai’s prime residential market saw 4,827 apartments and 506 villas change hands, according to a report from Luxhabitat Sotheby’s International Realty. Combined, they were worth AED 16.1 billion, a minimal decline of 3.67% from the second quarter, according to the report, which used data from the government’s Dubai Land Department. Luxury apartments were responsible for the lion’s share of the quarterly total, with apartment sales volumes ringing in at AED 11.1 billion. The average prime apartment in Dubai now costs approximately AED 2.8 million. “The enormous growth in the luxury residential sector speaks volumes of the Dubai real estate market’s resilience in this post-Covid era,” George Azar, CEO and chairman of Luxhabitat Sotheby’s International Realty, said in the report. “Some of our top-billing areas have seen three times the number of deals versus the previous quarter with 80% of the transactions worth an average of AED 30 million.” Palm Jumeirah ranked No.1 of Dubai’s neighborhoods in terms of sales volume, with a total of AED 3.9 billion being spent on luxury real estate on the tree-shaped archipelago during the third quarter, followed by Downtown Dubai and Business Bay, the report said. Palm Jumeirah is also where three of the five nine-figure deals have taken place this year, including one home that sold for AED 119.5 million. Meanwhile, the sale of an AED 121 million spread on Jumeirah Bay Island—another man-made landmass shaped like a seahorse—in July is now the most expensive home ever transacted in the emirate.