WC Capital Real Estate Brokerage reported that 2024 was a new year of real estate boom in Dubai, with sales approaching AED 520 billion, for the first time historically. The real estate expert, Waleed Al Zarouni, Chairman of W Capital, said that the real estate market in Dubai is on an upward trajectory, since the recovery from the Corona pandemic in 2020, rising from AED 69.8 billion in 2020, to 149 billion dirhams in 2021, then to 265.5 billion dirhams in 2022, then 401 billion dirhams in 2023, then 517 billion dirhams in 2024 (2024 figures from January 1 to December 27), based on historical data of the Dubai Land Department.
He added that these exceptional figures show that real estate sales in Dubai doubled more than 7 times last year, compared to 2020, in a sign of the strong and continuous momentum within the market, and Dubai Real Estate’s position, which has reached globally, as the best city to live and work in the world.
Deals
He revealed that the number of deals rose by more than 38% year-on-year in 2024 to about 178.9 thousand sales, which is the highest historically, compared to 129 thousand sales by 2023.
He pointed out that the value of real estate disposals (sales + mortgages + donations) rose in 2024 by 35.8%, to 753.6 billion dirhams, compared to 554.7 billion dirhams in the previous year, thus exceeding the level of half a trillion dirhams for the third consecutive time, and the total real estate disposals during 2024 increased by 32% on an annual basis, to 223 thousand and 904 real estate disposals, compared to 169 thousand and 720 real estate dispositions in 2023.
He explained that the value of real estate mortgages amounted to 185.77 billion dirhams, through 35,677 thousand deals in 2024, then donations worth 50.86 billion dirhams, through 9,319 deals.
Highest quarterly sales
During the fourth quarter of 2024, Dubai’s real estate sector achieved the highest quarterly sales ever, with more than 142.7 billion dirhams, distributed over more than 48.641 thousand transactions, after the historically highest monthly sales recorded in October, of 61.47 billion dirhams, while sales recorded 43.65 billion dirhams in November, and 37.48 billion dirhams in December.
This increases the value of real estate sales recorded in Dubai during the three months ending December 2024, by 0.5% on a quarterly basis, compared to sales recorded in the third quarter of the same year by AED 142 billion.
Horizon 2025
Regarding the forecasts of the real estate market in 2025, Al-Zarouni said that Dubai’s real estate record figures confirm beyond doubt that the road is easy to achieve the 2033 initiative, to reach one trillion dirhams, after exceeding the level of 750 billion dirhams in 2024.
He added that the real estate market in 2024 is seen as a thriving year’s harvest culminated with successes, whether with record sales that have exceeded half a trillion dirhams, or the many billion projects launched by real estate developers, passing through very ambitious strategies and initiatives, which ensure the continuation of the upward wave of the real estate sector over the next decade.
He pointed out that the adoption of the real estate sector strategy 2033 comes as the most prominent events in the real estate market in 2024, given its objectives in enhancing the global leadership of the Emirate of Dubai, in one of the most vital sectors, by consolidating cooperation with the private sector and international companies, managing real estate portfolios, and enabling the real estate market to attract investors, by promoting the principle of transparency, by optimal exploitation of data, spreading supply and demand forecasts, and providing a package of qualitative initiatives, supported by an integrated system at the sector level, to support the achievement of the targets of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, foremost of which is making Dubai the most attractive destination for investments, and a global center for the most diversified economy.
Al-Zarouni expected the pace of growth in the market to continue in 2025, both in terms of sales, although by a lower rate, ranging from 10 to 15%, with sales close to the barrier of 600 trillion dirhams, as well as actions as a whole, which may exceed 850 billion dirhams.