Dubai’s stunning property rebound lifts sales, rents to record

Dubai’s stunning property rebound lifts sales, rents to record

A spectacular turnaround in Dubai’s property market last year saw the Middle East’s financial hub break a decade-long record for total home sales and lifted rents to unprecedented levels.

The city registered 90,881 residential transactions in 2022, according to real estate adviser CBRE Group Inc. — beating the previous record of 81,182 deals in 2009. Ejari contracts, or home rental agreements, increased 11 percent in 2022 compared with a year earlier, reflecting a growth in the city’s residents.

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“It’s been an incredible year,” CBRE’s head of research Taimur Khan said in an interview. “This is the highest number of transactions ever, partly because the supply of new homes is increasing, and because the take up has been strong.”

Dubai’s property market has bucked the trend in much of the world, where values have largely dropped amid surging interest rates and an increasingly darkening economic outlook.

In expatriate-dominated Dubai, though, home prices and rents have surged amid an influx of Russians looking to protect their wealth after the invasion of Ukraine, and as bankers fled strict lockdowns in Asia. The arrivals also included Israeli investors, crypto millionaires, and hedge fund executives after