$9.3 billion worth of real estate was sold in Dubai in March

According to data published by PropertyFinder, in March 2023, real estate worth $9.3 billion (AED 34.2 billion) was sold in Dubai.

The number of real estate transactions increased by about 45% year-on-year and amounted to more than 12,000 transactions compared to 8,344 in March 2022.

The cost of transactions increased by more than 53% compared to the same month in 2022.

As for value, transactions with existing real estate increased by more than 34% year-on-year, reaching more than AED 21.6 billion ($5.88 billion) compared to AED 16.1 billion ($4.38 billion) in March 2022, recording the highest volume and value for the month of March in a decade.

In addition, the data showed updated figures showing a significant evolution in real estate preferences for both owners and tenants.

According to Property Finder data for March 2023, 59.7% of people who want to own real estate is looking for an apartment, and 40.3% are interested in villas/townhouses.

In March 2023, the share of investors in search of an apartment increased, from 57.2% in March 2022 to 59.7%.

Conversely, the number of those looking for villas/townhouses decreased by 2.5%, from 42.8% to 40.3%.

Among those looking for housing, people most often looked for a two-bedroom apartment, which is 34%, followed by one-bedroom apartments (32%).

In addition, 79.8% of tenants in the rental segment are looking for apartments, and 20.2% are looking for villas/townhouses.

About 63.8% of tenants looking for apartments for long-term living prefer furnished real estate, and 34.4% were looking for apartments without furniture.

And among the tenants who can afford to rent a villa/townhouse, about 52.1% were looking for unfurnished options, and 46.8% were looking for furnished villas/townhouses.

About 33.3% of tenants were looking for one-bedroom apartments in March 2023, followed by two-bedroom apartments, which accounted for 30.4% of tenants' preferences, and 29.4% were looking for studio apartments. As for villas/townhouses, 42% of tenants were primarily looking for three-bedroom options, and 35.5% were looking for houses with four bedrooms or more.

Transactions with off-plan housing under construction significantly supported the upward trend in the Dubai real estate market in March, which accounted for 52.8% of the total number of sales transactions and 36.8% of the total value of transactions.

The volume of sales of such real estate also increased by 95% year-on-year: in March 2023, more than 6,400 off-plan transactions were registered, compared with 3,287 transactions in March 2022.

During the year, the number of transactions increased by about 13%, while more than 5,700 transactions were registered. The value of these transactions also increased by about 34% year-on-year, reaching about AED 21.6 billion ($5.88 billion) compared to AED 16.1 billion ($4.38 billion) in March 2022.