Dubai: Attractive property prices are driving overseas investors to purchase a well-priced property quickly without even viewing the property physically and finalizing the sale from overseas via a remote transfer.
This trend towards buying a property virtually could be one of the reasons for Dubai to record a surge in real estate transactions in August despite the restrictions of the pandemic. According to Data Finder, August 2020 saw a rise of 11.3 percent in real estate transactions compared to August 2019. August did better than July this year by 2.2 percent.invest
"In previous years, the summer months were typically slower for real estate transactions in Dubai because of the summer holidays. This year, due to the Covid-19 situation, many residents chose not to travel. This, coupled with pent-up demand and attractive pricing drove transactions higher," said Lynnette Abad, director of research and data at Property Finder.
Based on the data, the top areas for overall sales transactions in Dubai in the month of August 2020 were Town Square, Jumeirah Village Circle, Dubai Marina, International City and Business Bay. For off-plan transactions, the top areas were Jumeirah Village Circle, Business Bay, Palm Jumeirah, Arjan and International City. For secondary properties, the top areas were Town Square, Dubai Marina, Dubai Land, Downtown Dubai and Dubai Sports City.
Lewis Allsopp, CEO of Allsopp & Allsopp, said that in a digital world, things will only advance more in the real estate industry. "With our clients being more receptive to committing to buying and renting homes virtually, there is a whole new avenue opening up into how the market operates. Another trend is that clients are utilising the virtual viewings to narrow down their property search before going out to physically view a property, saving them a lot of time and effort," he said.
According to Property Finder, a new trend is a shift in demand from smaller units to larger units. "Since the start of the pandemic, the ratio of sales transactions for one-bedroom units has fallen by over 10 percent and for studios by more than 34 percent. The ratio of transactions for three, four and five bedrooms has increased by nine percent, 20 percent and 15 percent, respectively," said Abad.