Dubai Land Department's Mo’asher: Monthly sales transactions in August surpass past five months

Dubai Land Department (DLD), in cooperation with Property Finder, launched the sixth edition of Mo’asher, Dubai’s official sales price index. The base year for Mo’asher is 2012 and the base month for the monthly index is January 2012, with the base quarter for the quarterly index being Q1 2012.

In July 2020, DLD recorded a total of 2,480 sales transactions worth AED 4.72 billion with 31.5% in the off-plan segment and 68.5% in the secondary segment. This brings the year-to-date total to 20,614 sales transactions worth AED 41.65 billion.

Overview

August typically has been a slow month for Dubai real estate when compared to the rest of the year, but not in 2020. August 2020 did better than July this year by 2.2%. August 2020 saw a rise of 16.7% in the number of real estate transactions compared to August 2019 as well as a 60% increase in transaction value and a 13.4% increase in the number of sales transactions compared to August 2019.

In previous years, the summer months were typically slower for real estate transactions in Dubai because of the summer holidays. This year, due to the COVID-19 situation, many residents chose not to travel. This, coupled with pent up demand and attractive pricing, drove transactions higher.

Investors also started to see prices stabilise in some prime areas in Dubai, including some areas where prices were slightly rising. These are areas where supply is limited and demand is high. The trends of consumers looking for larger properties is also still going strong.

Another trend to note is change in demand from smaller units to larger units. Since the start of the pandemic, the ratio of sales transactions for 1 bedroom units has fallen by over 10% and for studios by more than 34%. The ratio of transactions for 3, 4 and 5 bedrooms has increased by 9%, 20% and 15% respectively.

In addition, looking at proprietary Property Finder search trends we are able to get insights into market sentiment. The top searched rental keywords in the month of August were  ‘new units’ and ‘chiller free’. This shows us a trend of what the average person is looking for, which are brand new units due to the large amount of completed supply and chiller free units to save on extra costs. The top searched sales keywords were  ‘furnished’, ‘upgraded’ and ‘payment plan’ which shows consumers are looking to get the best bang for their buck.