Villlas in The Meadows, Jumeirah Islands and Arabian Ranches have seen increased sales transactions in the past one month. Among apartment buildings, Dubai Marina, Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR), Downtown Burj Dubai and Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT) have recorded the maximum number of sales transactions.
“Among villas, Meadows, Jumeirah Islands, Arabian ranches recorded the highest transactions, while from an apartment perspective, Dubai Marina, JBR, Downtown Burj Dubai and JLT have recorded the highest transaction,” Peter Penhall, Chief Executive, Gowealthy.
Gowealthy recorded 20 per cent incremental growth in transactions for November, from October figures.
Vineet Kumar, Head of Sales, Asteco Property Management, said: “The top three residential areas, which have witnessed the most transactional activity in the month of November for apartments sales, have been The Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Marina and Downtown Burj Dubai areas. “The locations which witnessed the most transactional activity in the month of November for villa sales are The Emirates Living Area, Arabian Ranches and The Green Community.”
Kumar said the total number of transactions Asteco supported in the month of November was 48 individual sales. However, some of these transactions were single investors purchasing multiple units so the overall unit numbers were higher than this.”
Liz O’Connor, Director-Residential Sales and Leasing, said: “From a sales perspective, among the villas, Springs/Meadows, Jumeirah Village, Jumeirah Islands stood apart and in the apartments category, it were Downtown Burj Dubai, Jumeirah Beach Residence and Dubai Marina.
“From a rental perspective, Emirates Living [Springs, Meadows, JLT, Discovery Gardens, Jumeirah Village], Marina [JBR, Marina], Dubai Land [Arabian Ranches, Motor City, Sports City] have recorded high number of transactions.”
The sales were about 40 and leases are about 250, according to Better Homes.
According to Mohanad Alwadiya, Managing Director, Harbor Real Estate, Emirates Hills Third and Palm Jumeirah are the areas that have recorded maximum transactions.
According to Penhall, predominantly South Asian (Indians, followed by Pakistanis) have invested into these areas. The GCC nationals form the next largest set, followed by South East Asians/Chinese. “Most of them were end users and finance buyers,” he added.
According to Kumar, the buyer profile has been predominantly the end user. However, there were a few buyers based overseas who have bought properties for rental income purposes with a view to holding their real estate assets for the mid-term (5-7 years). “The buyers on these projects were mixture of individuals from the GCC countries, Russia, India, Pakistan and Western Europe,” he said.
O’Connor said these areas have mostly seen end-users, pre-qualified for a mortgage but those who have access to additional funds to cover the difference if the evaluation of the property was less. We deal with many cash buyers who are looking for the best priced properties in today’s market.”
With respect to price floor in these areas, Penhall said that for a higher trading areas such as well-located villas in Meadows and apartments in certain towers at Marina, expectations are being met to a large extent due to the relatively higher availability and demand parameters. “The selling prices are neither too far out of present reach-market getting more matured, buyers and sellers are getting quite pragmatic on their price expectation factors.”
He added that however, the point to be noted here is that currently, price factors are an indication of distress levels of individual sellers and should not necessarily be construed as a market price index for a particular type of property in a particular community.
Kumar said the sales activity on these projects have tended to revolve around the owners and sellers of properties who have purchased them in the years prior 2008. “Typically these properties can be sold in today’s market with some expectation of premium,” said Kumar.
Alwadiya said mixed nationalities of end-users and investors have invested into these areas. “In general, buyers are more demanding and careful nowadays compared to last year and the previous years and hence they do enough due diligence before purchasing any properties.”
According to Better Homes, the buyer is always looking for the best priced property/value for money.
“We have not seen major prices changes sine the last three month – prices have stabilized in certain areas and you can always find very well priced properties in all areas of Dubai,” she said.