Dubai: An Emirates Hills villa became the costliest residential property transaction between July and end September, with Dh90 million, while a seller took away Dh47.5 million from a 33,570-square-foot apartment in Downtown Burj Khalifa.

The Dh90 million Emirates Hills villa, which sold on September 17 — has a built-up area of 28,710 square feet. “The ongoing trend seems to be selling Emirates Hills villa plots that could contain one or two villas on one plot,” said a source with Luxhabitat. “This fits the requirements of the larger families in the Gulf as well as some joint Indian families.”

The third and fourth spots in the costliest rankings went to Palm villas, for Dh34.2 million and Dh32 million, respectively, according to the latest data from Luxhabitat.

Beachfront properties, and particularly the Jumeirah neighbourhood, are coming up strongly in investor choices, and with upcoming freehold launches — such as the Madinat Jumeirah Living from Dubai Holding — it stands a good chance of retaining that pull factor.

“Jumeirah has traditionally been a leasehold area, complete with plots and villas, mostly owned by GCC nationals and rented by well-to-do expats,” said Brigitte Tenbergen, Associate Director at Luxhabitat. “With the launch of freehold projects such as Port de La Mer (from Meraas) and Madinat Jumeirah Living, it holds a lot of promise for the Dubai residential market to pick up.

“There’s been an overwhelming demand for apartments in these projects. These projects also have a relatively reasonable price tag and have been a major success.”

While Jumeirah recorded Dh1.3 billion worth of freehold deals, the Downtown had Dh1.2 billion and sellers in MBR (Mohammad Bin Rashid) City picked up Dh1.06 billion. MBR City, in particular, is benefiting from more properties coming up for handover, which is also the case with Dubai Creek Harbour, where the first tenants are likely to move in during first-half of 2019. Creek Harbour had Dh655 million in sales during Q3-18, while Dubai Marina had Dh662 million.

Overall, the prime end of the residential market in Q3-18 totalled Dh8.7 billion, down 13.9 per cent from the previous quarter.