Dubai Real Estate Market Report — August, 2022

Dubai Real Estate Market Report – August 2022

August 2022 delivered fresh records for Dubai's sales market. Spanning every property type, 9,440 transactions traded for AED 23.44 billion, at a blended median of AED 1,144/sqft. Confined to apartments, villas and commercial, volume rose 68% year on year to 9,243 deals and value gained 66% to AED 20.57 billion — the strongest August on the market's record.

The advances were widespread rather than concentrated: each category recorded a double-digit increase in both deals and value, with apartments shouldering most of the work. Prices climbed in step with volume, making this a market growing on both fronts simultaneously rather than one holding up the other.

Headline figures

Year-on-year performance by category

Apartments drove the expansion. Volume rose 75% year on year to 6,494 sales — 2,780 above the same month in 2021 — and value advanced even quicker, up 85% to AED 11.69 billion. That momentum carried the segment to the highest August volume in the 9-year series, and the median price of AED 1,396/sqft (up 10% on the year and 16% above the 2014 base) was similarly the highest August figure on record. Notably, the median apartment ticket hardly shifted, at AED 1,139,239 (+1%), so the value jump was chiefly a volume story rather than buyers reaching for larger cheques.

Villas told a more nuanced story. Transactions climbed 53% to 2,492 — the highest August villa volume in the series — while total value rose 46% to AED 8.56 billion. Pricing was the highlight: at AED 920/sqft, villa values were up 18% on the year and now stand 33% above the 2014 base, a broader premium than apartments hold, and also the highest August per-square-foot reading on record. Even so, the median villa ticket dropped 13% to AED 2,050,000. The two facts sit together because the mix leaned toward smaller, keener-priced homes — buyers paid more per foot but took less floor space, pulling the typical cheque lower even as the record held.

Commercial was the smallest segment but anything but idle: 257 deals, up 65%, worth AED 321.68 million (+49%) — the busiest August since 2014. Pricing firmed sharply here as well, with the median at AED 944/sqft, a 26% year-on-year rise and the highest August figure since 2017, though it stays 2% short of its 2014 level. The median commercial ticket was unchanged at AED 813,096 (0%), in keeping with a segment adding transactions without re-rating deal sizes.

Every category, including plots and buildings

Plots explain the gap between the all-property headline and the apartment-villa-commercial totals: 197 land deals worth AED 2.87 billion. With a median ticket of AED 4,000,000 but pricing of only AED 385/sqft, plots form a low-count, high-value stream linked to the master-developer and land-banking side of the market rather than the end-user activity that dominates the other segments.

Primary versus resale

New-build sales set the pace, claiming 67% of deals and 65% of value — 6,166 primary transactions worth AED 13.45 billion. The resale channel covered the remaining 3,077 deals for AED 7.12 billion, and it carried slightly more weight than its share: 33% of volume yet 35% of value, a two-point gap suggesting pricier homes traded on the secondary market than the primary average.

Where the activity was

By value, Al Hebiah Fifth led at AED 2.05 billion, narrowly ahead of Marsa Dubai at AED 2.00 billion, with Business Bay (AED 1.87 billion), Downtown Dubai (AED 1.72 billion) and Palm Jumeirah (AED 1.53 billion) rounding out the value leaders. By deal count the ranking shifts: Business Bay was busiest with 1,181 transactions, then Al Hebiah Fifth (785), Al Barsha South Fourth (764), Al Merkadh (656) and Marsa Dubai (628). Business Bay's mix of high volume and high value makes it the month's centre of gravity, while Al Hebiah Fifth's villa-led value places it near the top of both boards.

Rental market

The rental market told a split story. New apartment leases were flat in number at 11,678 contracts (-0.01%), but the median new rent leapt 17.77% to AED 48,000 and per-square-foot rates climbed 22.92% to AED 59/sqft — new tenants faced a markedly dearer market. Renewals showed the other side: 10,383 apartment renewals, up 38.51%, saw the median edge up just 2.22% to AED 46,000, as existing tenants stayed put to keep their softer in-place rates. The same divide ran through villas, where new-lease per-foot rents rose 21.05% against a 14.71% gain on renewals, and through commercial, where new leases reached a median AED 83,958 (+14.41%). The gap between new and renewal pricing is the clearest signal in the data: renewing pays.

Supply

Supply ran net-negative on new starts: developers launched 2,571 units across 9 projects while 3,701 units across 15 projects were handed over, leaving 1,130 more homes delivered than launched, a launch-to-delivery ratio of 0.7. In a month posting sales records, that shortfall of new launches against completions bears watching — demand is presently outrunning the replenishment of the offplan pipeline.

Launched

• Myka Residence – Me'Aisem First (Myka Luxe), 120 units
• Ellington House – Hadaeq Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid (Ellington), 150 units
• Laya Heights – Al Hebiah Second (Akshara Global), 398 units
• Mudon Al Ranim 3 – Al Hebiah Sixth (Dubai Properties), 242 units
• Jumeirah Living Business Bay – Business Bay (Select Group), 82 units
• Binghatti Luna – Al Barsha South Fourth (Binghatti), 212 units
• Azizi Riviera Reve Tower-Podium – Al Merkadh (Azizi), 455 units
• Maimoon Gardens Tower B – Al Barsha South Fourth (Fakhruddin), 722 units
• Westwood By Imtiaz – Jabal Ali First (Imtiaz), 190 units

Delivered

• Azizi Riviera 7 – Al Merkadh (Azizi), 159 units
• Damac Hills (2) - Aquilegia – Madinat Hind 4 (Damac), 424 units
• G1 – Wadi Al Safa 3 (Al Barari), 54 units
• The Grand – Dubai Creek Harbour (Emaar), 597 units
• Damac Hills (2) - Avencia-2 – Madinat Hind 4 (Damac), 408 units
• 17 Icon Bay – Dubai Creek Harbour (Emaar), 429 units
• Tabeer 1 – Al Warsan First (Tabeer), 107 units
• Marbella Village – Al Hebiah Fourth (Victory Heights), 103 units
• Azizi Riviera 10 – Al Merkadh (Azizi), 141 units
• Cambridge Business Centre – Nadd Hessa (Memon), 116 units
• Lucky Residences – Al Barsha South Fourth (Lucky Aeon), 142 units
• Aras Residence – Wadi Al Safa 3 (Aras Development), 96 units
• Damac Hills (2) - Odora – Madinat Hind 4 (Damac), 254 units
• Villanova Amaranta 3 – Wadi Al Safa 5 (Dubai Properties), 265 units
• Damac Hills (2) - Victoria – Madinat Hind 4 (Damac), 406 units

Most expensive sales

Top apartment sales

1. AED 50,000,000 – Bulgari Residences 1, Jumeirah Bay Islands
2. AED 24,879,252 – The St. Regis Residences - Tower 1, Downtown Dubai
3. AED 17,600,132 – Mr C Residences Jumeirah - Block B1, Jumeirah Second
4. AED 17,355,666 – Mr C Residences Jumeirah - Block B3, Jumeirah Second
5. AED 17,000,000 – Park Gate Residences 1, Al Kifaf

Top villa sales

1. AED 210,000,000 – Emirates Living
2. AED 205,000,000 – Hadaeq Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid
3. AED 115,000,000 – Jumeirah Bay Islands
4. AED 42,265,000 – Al Hebiah Fourth
5. AED 35,000,000 – Palm Jumeirah

Notes on methodology

Scope. Headline totals and the category table span every property type captured in the data, Plot and Building included. The primary/resale breakdown, top-area rankings and the year-on-year series include Apartment, Villa and Commercial only, so those numbers are intentionally smaller than the headline and should not be summed across sections.

Rounding. The headline totals are the definitive rounded values. Category-level figures are rounded separately and may not add up precisely to the headline.

Definitions. Quoted prices are medians rather than averages. Year-on-year sets the period against the matching period twelve months before. Every value is in AED and all areas are in square feet.