181114 Dubai canal
A view of Dubai Canal at night. By November, developers will start getting back with full-scale launches in Dubai after giving it a miss for the whole of 2020. Image Credit: Gulf News

Dubai: Recovery for Dubai’s property market cannot get any better – total sales are closing in on the Dh100 billion mark for 2021. By end August itself, the numbers have rocketed past Dh88 billion – and that’s well ahead of even the most optimistic forecasts put out at the start of the year.

This year, end-users and first-time buyers are leading the turnaround for the property market. Mortgage-backed deals too are on the increase, as residents with longer term plans to be in the country switch from renting to actually buying a home.

But the biggest plus – from a developer standapoint, at least - from the August transaction numbers put out by Property Finder is that offplan sales too are making a strong recovery. If this moment lasts for another six months at least, worries about unsold apartments clogging up the city’s property market will prove largely unfounded.

Now, the talk is that by November, developers will start getting back with full-scale launches in Dubai after giving it a miss for the whole of 2020. In fact, the forecasts were that a recovery will be seen only by 2023-24.

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In fact, sales during June and in August were the highest monthly sales in a decade. The number of Dh1 billion daily deals registered at Dubai Land Department, too, is rising. The belief among end-users is that if they delay any longer, property values will start increasing and they would have missed out on a good opportunity.

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The number of Dh1 billion daily deals registered at Dubai Land Department, too, is rising.

“Every day I get at least 10 calls from brokers wanting to know whether I plan to sell any of my properties on the Palm or Dubai Hills,” said one of the biggest investors in the city. “I tell them, politely, why should I sell now when the market is only beginning to pick up?

“For five years, these properties were quoting below their sale value. Now, the fun is starting.”

For Dubai property market, the fun will be how quickly it can get past the Dh100 billion tally in the coming weeks.