The 2022 real estate data confirms the trends. The Dubai market earned 16 bn dirhams or Rs 35,500 crores from sales to Indian last year-which is almost double of what it netted in 2021 around 9 million dirhams. A sizable 40% of homebuyers were from India, the majority being from Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad, Surat, Hyderabad and Punjab. The remaining were Indians living in the UAE (40%) and global Indians (20%) based in different parts of the world.
There is also a certain percentage of Senior Executive, with global roles, who are eyeing properties in Dubai because it connectivity with the world, says the CEO of a real estate consultancy firm with operations in Dubai. He said many rich Indians are moving into high-end rented apartments, ditching metro cities back home. The Dubai rental market that had witnessed a dip of 30% during Covid-19 has now bounced back to 2015-16 levels, which was a peak period for the city’s realty.
While the average cost of housing being bought by Indians ranges between 1.6 and 1.7 mn dirhams (3.5 crore to Rs 3.8 crore) the monthly rents hover in the Rs 3 lakh to Rs 3.5 lakh bracket. Local realtors say that the average rental yield from properties in Dubai varies between 4% and 5% similar to Mumbai.
That’s a selling point with many white-collar professionals any another prominent realtor. He lists out other attributes. Dubai is safe for those with deep pockets to park their money and the city has world-class social infrastructure. Then there are multiple international schools and a growing Indian community. Together these factors makes Dubai a perfect place to relocate to especially for those Indians looking for an upgrade in their quality of life.
Ashrat Chaudhary, Director of Strategy for Damac Properties says this is one of the reasons Damac has been drawing buyers even from smaller towns of India especially Punjab. Our business from Indians grew by 2.5 times in 2022 he says. What we sold through the year in 2019 is what we sell in a month now. According to him about 15% to 20% of Dubai’s total realty sales is driven by the Indian community which is one of the top two homebuyers in the city. The other top buyers are the Russians. The British, Chinese and Pakistani nationals are the other prominent international buyers in Dubai.
The Golden Visa Programme-expanded in 2022 to include more workers, skilled professionals, scientists and researchers has given an additional thrust to the growth of Dubai’s Realty say industry analysts. The programme is a long term residence visa that allows foreign talent to live, work or study in the UAE while enjoying exclusive benefits. In fact, the increase in demand from international home buyers has led to more launches of apartments and villa projects in the city.
