Strong levels of demand across all sectors continue to underpin exceptional performance in the UAE’s real estate market, says CBRE

Strong levels of demand across all sectors continue to underpin exceptional performance in the UAE’s real estate market, says CBRE

Dubai: Building on last year’s momentum, the UAE’s real estate market had a very strong start to the year, with high activity levels being recorded in the first quarter of 2023 across all sectors.

Looking at the UAE’s office sector figures, rental performance in Abu Dhabi’s occupier market continued to improve, with average Prime, Grade A and Grade B rents recording growth rates of 19.1%, 8.8%, and 10.7% respectively in the year to Q1 2023. In Dubai, the total number of new Ejari (lease) registrations in Q1 reached 22,802, up 60.5% from the previous year. Given these elevated activity levels and limited availability of supply, occupancy within Dubai’s office market has significantly improved, from 80.6% in Q1 2022 to 91.2% in Q1 2023. These increased occupancy levels have underpinned growth in rental rates, with average Prime, Grade A, Grade B, and Grade C asking rents rising by 20.2%, 13.5%, 18.7%, and 28.7%, respectively. Free Zone areas have been the focus of occupier activity, and this will likely remain the case over the reminder of the year, particularly with the introduction of the 9.0% Federal Corporate Tax, where we expect Free Zones to hold certain advantages.

In the residential sector, average apartment prices