Dubai property prices rise in January for first time in five years
Residential real estate prices in Dubai registered a marginal 0.1 percent increase in values in January compared to the previous month, an early sign of growth for the first time in five years, according to consultants ValuStrat.
Its new report said that property prices in Dubai approached stabilisation in January as the long-running downward trend came to a "standstill".
Annually, ValuStrat said its valuation-based index was 12.3 percent lower than last year but stability and marginal improvements in capital values were observed in all established villa communities as well as nearly half of free-hold apartment areas in Dubai.
January registered a 29.8 percent monthly drop in home sales transaction volumes, as existing ready-to-move-in properties saw a decline of 24.7 percent, and off-plan sales shrunk 39.2 percent when compared to the previous month.
ValuStrat said some locations monitored by the VPI saw capital values decline around 1% monthly - examples of which were apartments in Dubai Sports City, Dubai Production City and Jumeirah Village Circle.
However, a slight improvement in apartment capital values was observed in International City with a monthly increase of 0.3 percent.
"However, given the high demand due to record low prices per square foot, villa capital values demonstrated higher resilience when compared to apartments. All villa freehold locations saw capital values stabilise this month, and, in a few areas, continued to register monthly increases," ValuStrat added.
Examples include Arabian Ranches, The Meadows, The Lakes, Emirates Hills and Jumeirah Islands.
ValuStrat also said that 69 percent of January’s cash-based sales transactions volume was towards ready homes as off-plan sales have slowed due to limited project launches.
Properties developed by Emaar, Nakheel, Damac, Binghatti and Nshama topped the sales charts overall while the top off-plan locations transacted during January were in Jumeirah Village, MBR City, Al Jaddaf, Sobha Hartland and Business Bay. The most transacted ready homes were located in Business Bay, Dubai Marina, Town Square, Dubai Silicon Oasis and Palm Jumeirah.