Dubai sets new record with 50,000 homes sold - can this be surpassed?

Dubai: For the first time, Dubai’s property market has seen sales of homes go past the 50,000 mark in a quarter. In all, 51,000 residential deals were done in the second quarter of 2025, according to data from Knight Frank.

A sizable number of these sales will involve end-users – and that’s where Dubai is hoping to generate more demand from in the coming months through the launch of the ‘first home’ initiative early this month. This is aimed squarely at those who are planning to buy their first home in Dubai, and which clearly targets younger buyers as well as newer residents in the city.

In all, just over 94,000 homes were sold in Dubai during the first six months of 2025, generating Dh268 billion. That’s 41% higher over the same period in 2024.

“With this momentum, 2025 is poised to surpass the Dh367 billion achieved in 2024,” says the Knight Frank update.

Dubai’s luxury homes

Sales of $10 million and plus homes pulled in Dh9.5 billion – and that’s another all-time high quarterly figure for the Dubai property market. There were 143 such deals in Q2-2025.

For the first time since Q2-2023, apartments valued at $10 million and over sold more than villas, with 80 apartment sales compared to 63 villas.

“The sustained growth in prices - now approaching five consecutive years since the current cycle began in November 2020 - is a clear sign of a more stable and predictable market environment,” said Faisal Durrani, Head of Research for MENA markets at Knight Frank.  

“This is precisely the kind of consistency that global investors seek. Knight Frank’s forecasts for 2025 remain unchanged, with 8% growth expected in the mainstream market and 5% in the prime segment.”

Are Dubai property price gains slowing down?

Based on the latest data, there's not much of a price drop. In fact, based on Knight Frank's numbers, city-wide residential prices increased 3.4% in Q2-2025, to Dh1,809 per square foot .

That's a whopping 21.6% 'above the previous market peak in 2014'. A major reason for the latest increase is the number of luxury offplan projects that were launched in recent weeks, and which were priced much higher than the market average.

There were also a few deals struck whether at Al Barari or on Sheikh Zayed Road that rewrote existing records.

And offplan sales continue to dominate Dubai property market, accounting for 70% of home sales in the latest period.

Buy a home in Dubai - and hold on

“The (Dubai property) market is increasingly being shaped by genuine buyers rather than speculators," said Will McKintosh, Regional Partner – Head of Residential at Knight Frank.

It meant resale activity within 12 months of purchase 'now at just 4%–5%, compared to 25% in 2008'. "This shift toward end-user activity is a positive indicator of the market’s growing maturity and long-term sustainability," said McKintosh.