Revealed: the nationalities investing the most in Dubai's real estate

Investors from India topped the list of nationalities buying properties in Dubai in 2019, according to the annual ‘Real Estate Sector Performance 2020’ report issued by the Dubai Land Department (DLD).

Indian investors made 5,426 transactions, followed by the UAE with 5,172; and Saudi Arabia, China and the UK with 2,198, 2,096 and 2,088 respectively. Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, the US, and Canada completed the top ten list.

The number of real estate investors in 2019 exceeded 34,000, compared to 2018 with just under 30,000, with a growth rate of 14 percent.

The report revealed that Dubai Marina ranked first in terms of real estate investment quantity in 2019, with 3,920 investments, followed by Business Bay (3,508 investments), Al Khairan First (3,142), Hadaeq Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid (2,833), and Burj Khalifa (2,721).

Overall, the real estate sector contributed 7.2 percent to Dubai’s GDP last year, achieving an added value of more than AED29.4 billion, with a growth rate of 3.3 percent compared to 2018.

The number of real estate transactions saw growth of eight percent in 2019, with over 57,000, compared to over 52,000 real estate transactions in 2018.

The value of real estate transactions reached approximately AED226bn in 2019, compared to AED221bn in the previous year, with a growth rate of 2.1 percent.

In terms of real estate projects, a total of 1,894 projects were registered with DLD in freehold areas, 814 of which were completed and 314 under construction. In 2019, 70 real estate projects were registered with DLD, while 14 were registered in H1 2020.

Of the projects registered in 2019, 69 percent were buildings, 24 percent were villa complexes, and seven percent were villas.

As for the completed projects according to the year of project completion, 78 projects registered with DLD were completed in 2019 in freehold areas compared to 63 projects in 2018.

Some 314 projects registered with DLD are still under construction up until H1 2020. According to the date of project registration, 53 projects were registered in 2019, compared to 61 in 2018, 75 in 2017, and 45 in 2016.

2019 also witnessed the addition of 871 new commercial establishments to the real estate market with a total area of 243,529 square metres, which is higher than the past few years that witnessed an average addition of 250 shops annually.

2018 witnessed the addition of 238 commercial establishments according to the date of completion of the project with a total area of 39,262 square metres.

As for the hotel sector, there was a total of 544 hotels in Dubai in 2019 compared to 519 hotels in 2018, with a growth rate of approximately five percent according to the data of the Dubai Statistics Centre.

This growth was also reflected in the number of hotel rooms in 2019, with approximately 100,744 hotel rooms, compared to 91,085 hotel rooms in 2018, with a growth rate of approximately 11 percent.