Dubai has always been known as a city that keeps reinventing itself to enhance the standard of living, boost tourism, increase investment opportunities, and improve the well-being of its people. The recently launched 2040 Master Plan is a testament to the city’s modern strategy as it will reinforce and support Dubai’s plan of becoming a futuristic integrated city with a focus on sustainability. The plan puts emphasis on providing a holistic environment and infrastructure for citizens, visitors, and investors.
Let’s first think about what the Dubai 2040 plan achieves. At its most basic level, it shows us the ‘where’ of future city-building. More than that, it paints the aspirations of our city. For investors, it is a transparent look at how the city is planned to look over the next 20 years. This brings confidence in decisions made in key areas of property acquisition, asset management, and portfolio building. What and more importantly, where are the future growth corridors of Dubai are key metrics for new and existing investment (such as Expo 2020/District 2020 as one of the five new urban centres for Dubai).
Upward trajectory in March
As a regional business hub, Dubai is already at the forefront of attracting investors and others looking to make the city their home. Q1 2021 has been a fantastic quarter of property market transactional activity. Dubai’s real estate sector continued its upward trajectory in March 2021 by registering a huge jump in sales transactions to 4,643 worth Dh10.93 billion (DataFinder, 2021). What the plan also achieves is an investor roadmap. In the next 20 years, Dubai’s population is expected to grow to 5.8 million, from 3.3 million currently, putting a further catalyst to how supportive the Dubai 2040 plan will be to attracting new sources of real estate investment.
For residents, the 2040 Master Plan means improved living standards. An abundance of green space and public realm infrastructure will only enrich the high-quality living standards Dubai already provides. The recent health crisis has placed emphasis upon people and businesses to think about social enrichment and well-being. Addressed in the 2040 plan, Dubai will see the amount of green and recreational space double; 60% of Dubai’s landmass will be allocated to preservation and nature, and social mobility is centre-stage with a range of new mobility routes set out. With such a people-centric strategy and promise of an increasing population coupled with a growing demand for real estate, real estate investment will undoubtedly continue to rise off the back of the Dubai 2040 plan.
Along with this, the recent reforms in laws regarding company ownership, citizenship, golden, and retirement visas provide further long-term investment appeal. Encouraging more people to invest and live in the city, Dubai will undoubtedly become a truly global city. If you doubt that, then look no further than the Dubai 2040 plan.
The author is Associate Professor in Real Estate at Heriot-Watt University Dubai
