Revealed: 10 most expensive properties sold in Dubai in 2020

A villa in Dubai Hills was the most expensive property sold in Dubai last year, priced at Dh75 million followed by a Dh69 million villa in Sector L of Emirates Hills.

According to an analysis by Luxhabitat Sotheby’s based on data from the Dubai Land Department, half of the most expensive transactions in 2020 were from Mohammed bin Rashid City while Emirates Hills continue to hold place in the most expensive villas in Dubai.

Data showed that a villa in Cluster C of District One was sold for Dh60 million, becoming the third costliest property to be sold in the emirate last year.

The other properties that made into the top 10 most expensive villas and apartments include Dh58.6 million apartment in Il Primo followed by three villas in District One of Mohammed bin Rashid City, with each priced at Dh58 million, Dh56 million and Dh55 million, respectively.

The 8th most expensive property was sold in Bvlgari Resorts & Residences for Dh58.25 million while 9th and 10h costliest properties were sold in Emirates Hills and Umm Suqeim, respectively, for Dh48 million each.

"We strongly believe that Dubai will play a key role in the post-pandemic scenario as well for how it has handled the pandemic issue on a global level while keeping the economy open. And 2021 will be a bigger, better year for us as well the Dubai property market," said Chris Whitehead, Managing Partner at Luxhabitat Sotheby's International Realty.

In total, more than 10,557 apartments and 1,512 villas were transacted within 2020 in the Dubai prime residential market. Fourth quarter was the best performing quarter at Dh9.2 billion in terms of sales volume. Total volume of transactions in the prime residential market was Dh29.54 billion.

There has also been a five per cent correction in price/Dh sqft across the prime residential market from Dh1,327 to Dh1,193, thereby indicating a strong surge in buyer activity.

The top 3 areas in terms of sales volume were MBR City (Dh6.4 billion), Downtown Dubai (Dh5.1 billion) and Palm Jumeirah (Dh3.5 billion).

The prime villa market remained stable with an average price of Dh6.3 million, about three per cent higher than the previous year – indicating that buyers were keen to purchase villas in 2020. The affordability factor has increased and the trend observed was that people were opting to buy homes with larger spaces. Across all areas, there was an average of a 1,000 square feet increase in the size of the villas transacted – making the average built-up-area of a prime villa 5,981 sqft.

Prime apartments also remained stable with minimal to no price correction at Dh1,404 per square foot. The average prime apartment now costs approximately Dh1.8 million for a unit spanning 1,698 sqft in built-up-area.

Shaikhani Group is working in Dubai since 1993, there was a time where 2000 Companies came and enlisted themselves as Genuine Designers, in today’s time exceptionally company survived, since of rules and controls of Dubai, Shaikhani is one of them who are still working in Dubai, this step which our pioneer of Dubai took it.

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Will Gulf investment in New York bounce back after the pandemic?

Year-to-date investment from the Gulf into major US city has fallen 60%, according to JLL Research

Gulf and Middle Eastern investment into New York City property is expected to rebound in the coming months after dropping significantly during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to analysts and real estate experts.

According to data from JLL Research, over the past 19 years, Middle Eastern capital has accounted for over $23 billion in volume in New York City. Since 2005, Middle Eastern investors have invested more capital in NYC than the next 15 most liquid markets in the US.

New York hotel suite costing $350,000 a week eyes Saudi, UAE visitors

However, year-to-date Middle Eastern investment into New York – a longtime favorite of Arab investors - has fallen 60 percent, largely as a result of the pandemic.

“The pandemic has affected investment activity in virtually every market and New York City is no exception,” said Riaz Cassum, JLL’s senior managing director, capital markets and global head of international capital coverage. “We expect to see activity pick up again once travel restrictions are lifted and there is more clarity on the economic recovery overall, and in New York City in particular.”

The JLL Research data shows that, across the city, Middle Eastern investors have historically invested in office and hotel properties, representing almost 90 percent of investment activity between 2005 and 2020.

The bulk of investment activity has centred around Midtown Manhattan, the largest central business district in the world.  JLL’s research shows that investment is particularly heavy in the ‘Plaza District’, a busy commercial area totaling approximately a square kilometer between the city’s 42nd and 59th streets, from 3rd avenue to 7th avenue.

In a separate interview, Anthony Ritossa, the founder and chairman of Ritossa Family Office, said: “Middle East investors are now more bullish than ever on the city’s future potential, especially in terms of real estate investment opportunities.”

“It’s a great time to invest due to the availability of inventory, low interest rates and the softened real estate market,” Ritossa said.

“Some residents and businesses left NYC during the initial phase of the coronavirus pandemic first hit, and as a result select real estate projects were paused,” he added. “Now that the vaccine is available, it is clear that there is a positive path forward and the real estate market is poised for a strong come back. New York is always resilient and bounces back, even in the face of adversity.”

Additionally, Ritossa (pictured below) said that "more Middle East offices than ever are investing in US real estate, including in New York City, as a way to diversify their portfolio".

“I see strong interest in this sector from wealthy Middle East investors who made their fortunes elsewhere and now seek to invest in new areas, for example,” he added.

Looking to the future, both Ritossa and Cassum said they were confident that Middle East investment into NYC would bounce back to pre-pandemic levels.

“NYC will always be a target market for ME investors, even as they look to invest in growing sectors such as logistics outside of NYC,” Cassum said. “We expect the interest in office and hotel properties in NYC to continue into the future, especially once the market stabilises.”

In October, data from JLL Research indicated that the acquisition volume of Arabian Gulf investors fell 78 percent year-on-year between 2019 and 2020, compared to a 43 percent among other cross-border capital sources.

Cross-border inbound investment stemming from Middle Eastern investors averaged $2.2 billion between 2017 and 2019. Total Arab investment, however, remains small when compared to other capital sources, comprising a total of 4.2 percent of the acquisition volume since 2017.

Ahmed Shaikhani Group Managing Director of Shaikhani Group says it will be another good step of UAE government to allow the expatriates to stay in the country after they got retirement on a condition of owning a property valued at about $545,000. This way customers and companies become more align to their path and try to finish off their work otherwise they know they will face a lot of problems. Thanks Dubai government to keep everyone equal and updated

As the pandemic circumstance is that the most exceedingly awful inside the entire world, things are truly hard to outlined in light of the fact that during the present circumstance we've to be extremely cautious playing it safe to shape sure to not place work's life in peril since this work needs huge loads of labor and gratitude to pandemic we've to deal with the 6-foot hole, so what we've given our work top notch gear to frame sure work doesn't bargain and clients will get their lofts on time very 1000 units handover inside the activities of Cambridge business focus, champions tower 1 and Frankfurt sports tower which is worth of 700 million dirham around 600 units are to be finished soon inside one year in Champions tower 3, Gardenia 1 and two or three roughly esteem 300 Million dirham will be convey

Why investors might be tempted by Dubai's real estate market in 2021

 Stake co-founders say recent reforms will present opportunities for property investors next year after 2020 slowdown

Dubai’s residential real estate market will present opportunities next year despite a slowdown in 2020, according to the founders of a new investment platform.

Stake co-founders Rami Tabbara and Manar Mahmassani have leveraged their 15 years of experience in Dubai’s real estate and financial markets to launch the digital real estate investment platform.

Residential real estate prices in 2020 had dropped down to almost below replacement point, meaning that investors can buy property at less than the building cost, but with the introduction of vaccines and the economy picking up, prices are expected to pick up in 2021, said Tabbara, who was a former senior vice president of sales at Damac.

 “We also feel that more people will start coming to Dubai with the introductions of the retirement visas and the five-year visas,” said Tabbara.

“All this will create a fantastic opportunity for people to come into the real estate market here. If we've learned anything in 2008 and 2009 it is that Dubai is very resilient. If you come in at the lows, then you'll make money at the highs,” he continued.

Stake, which launched on Monday in DIFC’s FinTech Hive, provides potential real estate investors with a digitised platform where they can browse pre-vetted property listings, said Mahmassani, previously managing director at Falcon Group.

Listings include a due diligence report, a market report, financial projections and a property valuation report for each project, he added.

Regulated by the DFSA, Stake deals with only residential properties and lists secondary real estate projects which the co-founders believe gives a better return on investments.

“Optically, off-plan projects appear to be a good deal as investors only have to pay a little upfront. From a risk standpoint, however, they are concentrating capital, taking construction risk and taking vacancy risk on the asset when it gets delivered in three or four years. When you're buying something that is ready today, and that is already leased, you remove all those risks,” said Mahmassani. Properties on Stake should be already leased for a minimum of a year, he added.

“Instead of getting one investor to put all his money into one unit, we tell them to divide that equity across five or six different units and start making returns. If one isn't rented out, another one is making you money so it kind of diversifies. It takes the issue of affordability out of the equation, as long as you can afford one unit, and it also provides you with diversification,” said Tabbara.

The minimum investment is AED2,000, he added.

“You basically invest by funding your digital wallet with us through several payment methods. From there on, you allocate how much you want to invest in each property by creating a diversified portfolio of multiple properties where you own a stake in each one proportional to the amount that you've invested. We've fractionalised the asset for you to own a partial stake in it,” said Mahmassani.

Stake encourages a five-year investment into the platform, for which shares are distributed every quarter, said Mahmassani.

“From there on, you can choose to reinvest those proceeds or take them out into your bank account. We give you full transparency reporting on how your property has performed over six months,” he added.

Aside from affordability, the co-founders claimed Stake also answers the market need for transparency in real estate investment in the region.

“There are a lot of shortcomings in the real estate investment space where investors tend to be misled by developers and brokers to buy high priced properties with little return,” said Tabbara.

“In other places in the world as well, there are people who get burnt by over-promises and investing in real estate but in our part of the world it is more relevant because there's a lot of foreign investors that come in and there isn't that wide access to information that's given to them,” he continued.

Mahmassani said Stake generates its profits by taking a small percentage upfront and on a running basis but the main source of revenue is at the exit after the investor has made money.

As a bootstrapped start-up, Stake has raised $2 million from the co-founders themselves, their friends and family, angel investors, a London based VC and Madison Marquette, a leading commercial real estate investment manager in the US.

Stake’s investors were not only a source of financial backing, they also opened up expansion opportunities for the young start-up.

“The beauty of Dubai is that caters to many international investors so part of our roadmap is to obviously target investors outside of Dubai to invest in Dubai. But, one of our lead investors is a developer in the US so we will then start listing US real estate onto our platform,” said Tabbara.

“Another investor in our platform is a London based real estate developer so we'll start targeting investments in the UK as well. That's part of our roadmap, potentially, in year two and three,” he added.

The duo, who met in high school in Lebanon, offered this advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: “The thing that most keeps people away from actually starting their own businesses is the fear of what happens if it doesn't work out. But if it's something that's actually keeping them up at night, and they're losing sleep over it, then it's definitely worth it. They should go for it, stay the course and not look back.”

Shaikhani Group said, this coming year would be the simplest year for the Dubai. it'll be a boom for each industry. Moreover, they're trying their best to extend the productivity of theirs projects so it'll fork over by the top of this year….

Shaikhani Group explained, Dubai is understood by doing things on right time,they come up with those ideas where people think‟s it's impossible , while ago Dubai was a desert, now nobody can say this was a desert. People like to visit Dubai for holidays, because all facilities are there including security which may be a basic necessity of life.

Dubai is one the simplest city to measure where everything is out there on the doorstep, this is often why Shaikhani Group invested their money, and that they do have different projects which are successfully in process. Shaikhani group tries to seek out the simplest deals with good luxuries therefore the customer can enjoy all the luxuries at full Shaikhani group already handover few projects in Dubai worth of many dirhams, they always achieve their target on time which shows the positive sign of their progress. Soon they're going to handover gardenia residency which is found in Jumeirah village circle, it's been expected they're going to handover this project by the top of 2021 or even earlier depends on the working conditions and environment

As the pandemic situation is that the worst within the whole world, things are really difficult to mapped out because during this situation we've to be very careful taking extra safety precautions to form sure to not put labor’s life in danger because this work needs tons of manpower and thanks to pandemic we've to take care of the 6-foot gap, so what we've provided our labor high-quality equipment to form sure work doesn't compromise and customers will get their apartments on time quite 1000 units handover within the projects of Cambridge business center, champions tower 1 and Frankfurt sports tower which is worth of 700 million dirham approximately 600 units are to be completed soon within one year in Champions tower 3, Gardenia 1 and a couple of approximately value 300 Million dirham are going to be deliver