Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, a new trend has emerged in the demand and movement of the secondary villa/townhouse sector in the Dubai real estate market. In July, we saw the highest number of sales transactions of ready villa/townhouses in a single month (493) as consumers were looking for ready units to move into.
The number of transactions was a direct reflection of what Data Finder, the real estate insights and data platform under the Property Finder group, has analyzed in the number of searches and demand for villa/townhouses on the Property Finder website since the crisis started. In July alone this number compared to the same period last year had increased by more than 58%.
One of the reasons we are seeing this trend is due to the high demand for larger properties with more outside space. During the crisis and lockdown, search and demand data showed that people started looking for bigger properties. The search and demand data shifted from the traditional small family apartments to villa/townhouses. We can see in our data this trend has grown significantly since the crisis started and continues to have an affect on the market.
The top areas for secondary villa/townhouse sales were Nadd al Sheba(14.4%), Dubai Hills Estate(6.7%), Al Furjan(5.9%), Dubai Industrial Park(4.9%) and Mudon(4.7%).
The top areas for off-plan villa/townhouse sales were Dubai South(28.1%), Dubai Hills Estate(23.4%), Arabian Ranches 3(15.6%), Town Square(10.9%) and Dubai Land(7.8%).
Lynnette Abad, Director of Research and Data at Property Finder said “ Nearly 35% of all searches for villa/ townhouses in the past four months have been concentrated around Arabian Ranches, Dubai Hills Estate, Palm Jumeirah, Damac Hills and the Springs. Per the data, it is clear that consumers are looking for well established communities with ready properties.”