Dubai property: British, Indian, and Russian buyers lead real estate market; Pakistanis slip out of top 10

British, Indian and Russian nationals were top investors in Dubai’s real estate market in the first quarter of 2023, according to Betterhomes’ latest figures released on Thursday. Among other nationalities, investors from Italy, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, France, China and the UAE made up the top 10 list.

Recently, investors from Europe and Russia have surpassed those from the Indian subcontinent in Dubai’s real estate market due to several factors, such as the escalating costs in Europe after the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Dubai’s effective handling of the pandemic, a stable economy, 100 per cent foreign ownership, and the availability of 10-year Golden Visas.

Previously, Indians topped the investors’ chart in the local property market but slipped to third position last year and second in the first quarter of 2023. While Pakistani investors, who used to be among the top 10, dropped out of the ten lists in Q1 2023 as the South Asian country’s currency has depreciated massively in the past year.

According to xe.com data, the rupee plunged from 50 against the UAE dirham in April last year to 77.46 in April 2023. Pakistani investors were the sixth largest investors in the emirate’s real estate market in 2022, as per Betterhomes data.

The Dubai-based Samana Developers said Europeans were top investors in its latest project.

Najmeh Jafari, general manager of Samana Developers, said the Europeans who are mainly investing in properties here are from France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and Norway.

Ayman Youssef, vice-president, Coldwell Banker UAE, said property buyers primarily are coming from Germany, France and Switzerland.

“The UAE property market has managed to maintain attractive prices with higher yield/return per unit as compared to most countries in Europe. Today one can get up to 8 per cent returns which is quite high compared to what any European country can offer. Also, the Golden Visa, 100 per cent ownership right, better business opportunities and other factors are encouraging people to invest more in the emirate,” Youssef added.

“Dubai’s real estate sector continues to see strong international demand from across the globe, as people seek a safe haven, tax efficiency and positive investment returns. Buyers from the UK accounted for the most real estate transactions a Betterhomes in the first quarter, with growth of 60 per cent year-on-year. this was closely followed by buyers from India,” it said in its first quarterly report.

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