Dubai real estate sector starts on long road to recovery

Dubai real estate sector starts on long road to recovery

DUBAI--In the past few months, prime Dubai properties have been snapped up by buyers taking advantage of decade-low prices, easy financing and an economy still open for business despite the pandemic.

Sales of luxury villas, sea-view apartments and second-home family houses have jumped, re-energising a property market that saw a sharp fall in activity at the height of the pandemic and had been in a five-year slump prior to that. But with rents still falling and oversupply weighing, the road to recovery will be long for one of the emirate's main economic engines.

Dubai's economy – reliant on trade, tourism and its international reputation as a regional hub for business services – was hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic last year as firms slashed jobs. Many foreign workers, needed to support demand in a real estate sector that contributed 7.2% of GDP in 2019, upped and left.

Yet estate agents say market activity has begun to recover in the last six months, after lockdowns and curfews were lifted, helping to stabilise prices for family villas and high-end beach and golf course properties.

Realtor Matthew Bate, whose agency Nest deals mainly in high-end villas, says business has become much busier in the past few months