Dubai's real estate market is witnessing continuous growth and increased investment attractiveness on the cusp of the largest international event in the region, Expo 2020 Dubai. According to the 18th edition of Mo’asher, Dubai’s official sales price index, launched by Dubai Land Department (DLD) in cooperation with Property Finder, August 2021 is the second-highest month since December 2013 in terms of the number of sales transactions in one month, with 5,780 sales transactions worth AED 14.97 billion, becoming the best August in 12 years.

The base year for Mo’asher is 2012 and the base month for the monthly index is January 2012. In August 2021, the overall monthly Index recorded 1.096 and an index price of AED 1,041,825. The apartments monthly Index recorded 1.116 and an index price of AED 931,310, while the villas/townhouses monthly Index recorded 1.072 and an index price of AED 1,909,567. The monthly overall Index rose by 1.20%, the apartment index rose by 1.36% and the villa/townhouse index rose by 3.18%

Overview

August 2021 had 5,780 transactions worth AED 14.97 billion, making it the best August on record in the past 12 years. This brings the year-to-date total to 37,537 sales transactions worth AED 88.12 billion. In just eight months, the value of real estate sales transactions is 22.61% more than 2020 as a whole. The whole of 2020 had 35,401 sales worth AED 71.87 billion. 

In August 2021, 55% of all sales transactions were for secondary/ready properties and 45% were for off-plan properties. Looking at overall percentages, the percentage of off-plan properties relative to the entire market increased by 5% month-on-month.

When we look at the volume of sales transactions, the off-plan market witnessed 2,599 sales transactions worth a total of AED 4.95 billion. This is the highest value of off-plan sales transactions the Dubai real estate market has seen in over 11 years. The last time the market saw this much money being pumped into off-plan properties was early October 2009. The secondary market recorded 3,181 sales transactions worth AED 10.02 billion.

The overall average sale transaction value increased to AED 2,589,938, an increase of 1.57% when compared to July 2021, while the secondary/ready average sale transaction value increased to AED 3,149,857 — an increase of 5.91% — and off-plan average sale transaction value decreased by 1.3% to AED 1,904,635.

According to proprietary Property Finder demand data, the top areas of transactions in August 2021 for villas/townhouses were the Arabian Ranches 3, Dubai Land, Dubai South, Tilal al Ghaf and Damac Hills 2. As for apartments for the same period, the top areas of interest were Business Bay, Jumeirah Village Circle, Dubai Harbour, Mohammed bin Rashid City and Downtown Dubai.