Prices Slide in the Dubai Property Market
Prices slide on average across the market keeping buyers and renters in the driver’s seat in the Dubai property market – Bayut.com Q3 2018 report.
The average cost for buying and selling property in Dubai has decreased from the last quarter of 2018 in most areas, but the price differences have been fairly modest in Q3 as per the real estate market report by Bayut.com.
Rental Highlights:
• The price for renting apartments in Dubai decreased slightly on average. The most noticeable decreases were for 2-bedroom units in Deira and International City where prices fell by a substantial 8.3%. Other popular areas such as Al Nahda, Dubai Sports City and Jumeirah Lakes Towers remained more or less stable when it came to rents in Q3.
- Dubai Marina remained the most sought-after area for apartment rentals, with Marina Diamonds continuing to be the most searched for building in the locality.
Sales Highlights:
- It remains a buyer’s market with most areas reporting a fall in prices. The most noticeable difference for sales prices this quarter was for studios in International City where prices fell by 8.2%, however, there was also an increase observed for studios in Jumeirah Village Circle (JVC) where average prices went up from AED 440k in Q2 of 2018 to AED 473k in Q3.
- Dubai Marina continues to be the most popular choice for apartment sales as well, with Marina Diamonds receiving the highest number of searches.
Apartment Rentals
Dubai Marina, stays the most popular area for apartment rentals in Dubai. The average cost for renting a studio in Dubai Marina is AED 55k, 1-beds are at AED 81k and 2-beds at 120k. This quarter, the rents have not fallen drastically in any of the top 10 locations for leasing flats in Dubai compared to what we saw last quarter. After Deira and International City the next steepest decline was for 1-bed apartments in JVC, down by 6.7% and studios in Dubai Sports City which went down by 5.1%. Most other decreases were less than 5%.
Apartment Sales
Dubai Marina remained the firm favorite for those looking to buy apartments in the city, with prices remaining more or less stable compared to those seen in Q2. The average price for studios in Dubai Marina were stable at AED 850k, 1-beds averaged AED 1.21M and 2-beds remained at AED 2M. Most other areas showed a decline in average sales prices with the exception of Jumeirah Beach Residence, where prices for studios went up from AED 1M in Q2 to AED 1.15M in Q3, 1-bedroom units remained stable at AED 1.5M and 2-bedroom flats went up from AED 2.1M in Q2 to AED 2.2M in Q3 of 2018.
Villa Rentals
Rents dropped overall for villas in Dubai, with the exception of the most popular location, Mirdif where rents remained largely unchanged. The 5-bedroom units in Dubailand saw a marginal increase of 2.6% and 4-bedroom villas in Jumeirah Park witnessed an increase in average rents from the AED 195k seen in Q2 of 2018 to AED 210k now. The steepest fall in rents was seen for 5-bedroom villas in Al Barsha, where rents went down from AED 240k in Q2 to AED 220k in Q3.
Villa Sales
Arabian Ranches was the most popular area for villa sales, and the average price for a 3-bed villa fell by nearly 5% to AED 2.85M. The only noticeable price change was for 4-bedroom villas in Dubailand, where the average sales price went up from AED 2.35M in Q2 to AED 2.5M in Q3. All other increases and decreases were within 5%. The price changes in Dubailand can be attributed to the delivery of a lot of newly finished off-plan projects including some premium developments.
Most Popular Villa Sub-Communities
There were clear favorites among Bayut users when it came to sub-communities within the top 10 locations for buying and renting villas in Dubai. The villas in Al Reem, for instance, made up more than 46% of total sales searches in Arabian Ranches. Other popular villa communities for sales include Living Legends, which made up a whopping 49% of the total searches for buying villas in Dubailand, The Nest in Al Barari which raked in 51% of the total searches in the area and The Aldea in The Villa which brought in over 37% of the total searches in the locality.
Al Reem was also the most popular in Arabian Ranches for renters, accounting for more than 51% of searches, while Uptown Mirdif got the lion’s share of searches for villa rentals in Mirdif at 78%. Garden Homes in Palm Jumeirah (65%), Legacy In Jumeirah Park (57%) and Jumeirah 1 (53.1%) are the other popular sub-communities for villa rentals in Dubai.
Popular Off-Plan Projects
When it comes to off-plan investments in Dubai, the most popular locations are Mohammed Bin Rashid City, Akoya Oxygen, JVC, Downtown Dubai and JLT.
Within MBR City, the District 7 project was the most searched for at 35.8% and in Akoya Oxygen the top spot went to Sahara Villas which accounted for 30.7% of the searches.
Forecast For The Next Quarter
Haider Ali Khan, CEO of Bayut, said: “The average fall in property prices for this quarter is in line with the trends we saw in the H1 Market Report. It’s definitely still a buyers and renters market, but modest decreases in price suggest potential bottoming-out across the emirate. With the recent announcement of the new retirement visa along with earlier plans for the 10-year residency visa and 100% foreign company ownership coming into effect by the end of the year, we could see sales picking up in 2019. The time is perfect for people to invest and become homeowners or upgrade to bigger rental properties in Dubai and benefit from decreased prices floating in the market at the moment.”
