Demand for Villas and Townhouses in Dubai is at Record High

1,013 villas and townhouses were sold in Dubai in October in both the off-plan and secondary market.

The demand for villas and townhouses in Dubai is at an all-time high. The growth started in May, which saw 110 transactions, and since then has increased by 500%, according to Property Finder, a leading real estate portal. The number of transactions for villas and townhouses has been going up consistently, with each month breaking the record of the previous.

In October the buyers' interest in townhouses and villas remained strong. People were mostly snapping up ready-to-move homes, though off-plan segment had rather high sales, too. Total number of transactions for villas and townhouses last month stood at 1,013 in both the off-plan and secondary market.

COVID-19 pandemic created new reality – people spending more time at home, cooking at home, having things delivered at home, children home-schooled and so on. All of this prompted a new trend and people started to want more space and outdoor spaces for their families and move from crowded city centers to the suburbs. The fear of not having enough space and lack of outside space resulted in higher transaction volumes for villas and townhouses in Dubai.

Ready-to-move villas and townhouses sold best in October in Sheba (11.8%), Town Square (7.8%), International City (6.7%), Arabian Ranches (6.4%) and Dubai Hills Estate (5.9%). 39% of these transactions were for 4-bedroom units, 34.7% for 3-bedroom units and 14.8% for 5-bedroom units.

The search trends at Property Finder show that the top five locations for customers looking for a villa or a townhouse were Dubai Hills Estates, Arabian Ranches, Palm Jumeirah, Damac Hills and Mohammed bin Rashid City. And top three keywords were 'upgraded', 'pool' and 'furnished'.

'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,' said Lynnette Abad, the Director of Research & Data at Property Finder.

In 2021, Dubai will see 7,822 new villas and townhouses completed. The question is, whether it will be enough, given the current trends and record-high transaction numbers.