Secondary home sales in Dubai hit a 6-year high

The secondary residential property sales in Dubai hit a six-year high in November by accounting for 74.4 per cent of the total Dh7.65 billion worth of 3,928 transactions, according to Data Finder.

The real estate insights and data platform of the Property Finder group said the overall secondary residential property transactions in November were the highest since April 2014, while September, October and November were “recording- breaking months for secondary villa/townhouses historically.”

The report by Data Finder said 61 per cent of these transactions were in the secondary market and 39 per cent were in the off-plan market by volume. Off-plan transactions accounted for 25.6 per cent of the total sales value.

Secondary residential sales transactions reached a record high in April 2014 with 2,265 deals. Since then sales transactions in this segment declined and never crossed 1,850 a month over the past six years.

"This year, no one ever expected the market to rebound the way it had. November has broken the six-and-a-half year sales record in the secondary market," said Lynnette Abad, director of Research & Data at Property Finder.

"It will be interesting to see what happens in the first half of 2021 as these numbers are not sustainable. However, with Expo 2020 coming, we could potentially still see a surge in the numbers as demand will be there from foreign investments," she said.

April and May 2020 were the lowest months historically for secondary sales because of the lockdown but since the ease in restrictions, the secondary residential real estate sales have been on a rise, peaking in November 2020 with 2,179 sales transactions, the highest in more than six year, said Data Finder.

“While 1,402 secondary apartment sales transactions took place in November, the highest recorded since July 2019, villa/townhouse sales during the past three months have been historically record breaking, with 600, 660 and 645 transactions in September, October and November respectively,” it said.

Areas that witnessed brisk sales in secondary apartments in November were Dubai Marina, Business Bay, Barsha Heights, Downtown Dubai and Jumeirah Village Circle. The top areas for secondary villa/townhouse sales were Green Community, Arabian Ranches, Town Square, Nadd Al Sheba and Dubai Hills Estate.

issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com