DUBAI: The number of homes worth US$10mil or more that were sold in Dubai held steady in the first half of the year despite a drop in listings, an industry report shows, as demand from the international ultra-rich stayed strong.
A total of 190 homes worth an overall US$3.2bil were sold in the six months to the end of June, compared with 189 properties for US$3.3bil in the same period of 2023, according to data from property consultancy Knight Frank.
The total number of deals held up despite a 65.5% year-on-year drop in the number of such luxury homes available on the market in the second quarter, the report showed.
“This is a strong sign of the ‘buy-to-hold’ buyer profile that has taken root in the market,” Faisal Durrani, Knight Frank’s head of research for Middle East and North Africa, was quoted as saying in the report.
The trend suggested international high-net worth individuals “are largely focused on purchasing homes in the city for personal use, rather than to ‘flip’, which was a defining feature of the previous two market cycles,” he added.
Home to the world’s tallest tower, the United Arab Emirates’ Dubai is the Middle East’s biggest tourism and trade hub, attracting a record 17.15 million international overnight visitors last year. — Reuters
