Revealed: Where residential rents are rising and falling in Dubai

Revealed: Where residential rents are rising and falling in Dubai

Dubai’s rental market will take a turn in 2022, becoming more favourable for landlords after being remaining tenant-friendly for years as rents in some areas have recovered to the peak level seen in 2014.

Real estate consultants believe that rental demand for villas and larger units will remain strong in 2022 as well as work-from-home continues for many firms amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.

The local rental market has been consistently going down over the past few years, but now it has almost bottomed out and it’s back on an upward trajectory.

“Rental market to balance out and start favouring the landlords after being tenant-friendly for years. However, rental rises will not be uniform across the city. Covid-19 variants will continue to impact remote working, thus keeping demand for villas and larger units strong,” says Prathyusha Gurrapu, head of research and advisory at real estate consultancy Core.

The latest data for the fourth quarter of 2021 showed that rents for villas continued to recover faster than apartments with city-wide villa rentals rising on average by 21 per cent.

According to real estate consultancy ValuStrat, Dubai residential rents witnessed the highest increase since 2014, increasing by 18.9 per cent year-on-year.

Average annual rents for 2-bedroom villas stands at