665 secondary or ready to move in Villas/Townhouses were transferred in the month of October, which is 7.2 percent higher than the second highest month, September 2020 with 605 transactions. This figure is 34 percent higher than the 3rd highest month ever, July 2020 with 496 transactions. For the past four months we have had the highest number of transactions for villa/townhouses consistently, each month being at an all-time high with the record broken the very next month. This consistent growth started after May 2020 which had 110 transactions and since then has grown by over 500 percent.
“The fear of not having enough space and lack of outside space has become the new reality many people faced since the pandemic started.” says Lynnette Abad, Director of Research & Data at Property Finder. “All of us started to spend more time in our homes. We worked from home, our children were home-schooled, and we chose to stay home more, cook homemade meals and avail delivery services. All of this prompted a new trend and people started to want more space and outside spaces for their family. People also started to migrate away from densely populated city centres and towards the suburbs. All of this has led to an all-time high for transaction volumes in Dubai for Villas/Townhouses.”
The top areas for secondary (ready) Villa/Townhouses in October 2020 were Nadd al Sheba (11.8 percent), Town Square (7.8 percent), International City (6.7 percent), Arabian Ranches (6.4 percent) and Dubai Hills Estate (5.9 percent). 39 percent of the transactions were for 4-bedroom units, 34.7 percent for 3-bedroom units and 14.8 percent for 5-bedroom units.
Looking at proprietary data from Property Finder, the search trends show us that the top five locations for consumers searching for villa/townhouses were Dubai Hills Estates, Arabian Ranches, Palm Jumeirah, Damac Hills and Mohammed bin Rashid City. Keywords such as ‘upgraded’, ‘pool’ and ‘furnished’ were the top three keywords in the month of October 2020.
Overall for the month of October 1013 villa/townhouses were transferred in both the off plan and secondary market. A total of 2,031 apartments were transferred with 1,128 in the secondary market and 903 in the off-plan market.
“It will be interesting to see what the future holds for the villa/townhouse segment if this trend continues. If we look at new villa/townhouses stock this year, there have been 7,225 completed. In 2021, we are expecting to see 7,822 new villa/townhouses completed. The question will be, is this enough supply based on the current trends and transaction numbers we are seeing?” says Abad.
Another highlight for the month of August was the sale of 11 luxury apartments over three projects on Palm Jumeirah and Downtown worth over AED 15 million each for a total of AED 220.7 million. The most expensive apartment was an AED 30 million apartment in One at Palm Jumeirah. All these units were north of 5,000 sq ft with the largest touching 15,000 sq ft in The W residences worth AED 22.73 million.
