Dubai Real Estate: What Happened in January 2024

The first month of 2024 has ended, and the Dubai real estate market continues to amaze us with new records. Next, we’ll talk about how the cost per square meter of Dubai real estate has increased, and we’ll also discuss the sharp increase in the number of transactions with it.

Increase in the sales value of residential properties

Last year's records in Dubai are no longer relevant - real estate prices show new results in January 2024, but not in all segments:
the cost of apartments has remained at the same level: today you can purchase residential properties in this category for an average of 1.3 million dirhams, or 328,000 euros;
villas increased in price by approximately 12.7% and their average cost reached 2.9 million dirhams or 732 thousand euros;
commercial real estate is the leader of January growth: the price of this type of real estate increased by 53% and amounted to 1.2 million dirhams or 303,000 euros.
Land plots set an anti-record in January 2024 - their average price decreased by 34%.

New sales records

January of this year also showed an increase in the number of transactions related to the sale of residential properties. Compared to January last year, this figure increased by an average of 12%: in the first month of 2024, 11,280 transactions were closed, the total amount of which exceeded 8.3 billion euros.

Let's take a closer look at the statistics on the increase in the number of transactions for each type of real estate:

• apartment sales increased by +18.9%;
• the number of concluded purchase and sale agreements for commercial premises increased by +1.3%;
• villa sales decreased by 56.6%.

It is important to note that most transactions involve the purchase of real estate under construction. This segment accounts for 54% of the total number of concluded contracts.
At the same time, the TOP 3 areas in which apartments, villas and townhouses are most often purchased include Dubai Marina, Jumeirah Village Circle and Downtown Dubai.

The sharp increase in sales volumes was also influenced by the availability of the opportunity to obtain a Golden Visa - an analogue of a residence permit, which gives foreign investors the right to reside in the UAE for the next 5 or 10 years. To obtain a residence permit, you must purchase real estate worth at least 2 million dirhams or 505 thousand euros.

Rising cost of renting residential property

The rental price of residential real estate is also showing steady growth. In January 2024, the average cost of annual rent for an apartment in Dubai was 70,000 dirhams, or about 17.7 thousand euros. Compared to January last year, this figure increased by 25%.

Villa rentals have risen by 13.3%: today you can rent such residential premises for an average of 170 thousand dirhams per year (approximately 43 thousand euros).

The maximum increase in rental payments was recorded for commercial premises: compared to January last year, the rental of such real estate increased by 41.7% and today the average is at around 59.5 thousand dirhams per year (approximately 15 thousand euros).