Is this the right time to invest in Dubai property?

It may be the right time to invest as realty prices may soon go upward.

It is apparently high time to invest in the Dubai property market as prices are fairly valued and more affordable than almost all of those in the top 25 major cities worldwide.

In fact, property prices in Dubai are close to undervalued among the world's top 25 cities, excluding Chicago. According to Switzerland-based UBS' Global Real Estate Bubble Index (GREBI), Dubai has been bracketed among fair-valued cities along with Milan, Warsaw, Madrid, Singapore and Boston. On a score of -0.5 to 0.5, Dubai got -0.40 compared to the 0.23 of Milan, 0.36 of Warsaw, 0.43 of Madrid, 0.48 of Singapore and 0.49 of Boston.

Sailesh Israni, managing director of Sun and Sand Developers, said property prices are fairly valued in Dubai and will start to move upward in the next seven to 10 months.

The DLD said August did better than July this year by 2.2 per cent. August saw a rise of 16.7 per cent in the number of real estate transactions compared to August 2019, as well as a 60 per cent increase in transaction value and a 13.4 per cent rise in the number of transactions compared to the year-ago period.

Lewis Allsopp, CEO of Allsopp & Allsopp, said the Dubai property market started strong in 2020 but came to a halt during the lockdown. However, it has since hit the ground running.

"We have seen an exponential increase in buyer registration and sales transactions. In August 2020 buyer registration rose by 129 per cent compared to August 2019 and sales transactions increased by 82 per cent with overall revenue increasing by 78 per cent," he said.

Another trend to note is the change in demand from smaller units to larger ones. Since the start of the pandemic, the ratio of sales transactions for one-bedroom units has fallen by over 10 per cent and for studios by more than 34 per cent. The ratio of transactions for three, four and five bedrooms has increased by nine per cent, 20 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively.

(Source: Khaleej Times)