The last few months in 2020 have been record breaking for the secondary market with November and December both breaking the secondary/ready market transactions records for the past 7 years. December 2020 had 2,579 secondary/ready transactions worth AED 6.22 billion, 9.7% more than November 2020, which was already a record breaking month for the secondary/ready market.
Dubai real estate market performance, due to the proactive measures taken and initiatives set by the Dubai Government, is now back to a pre-covid sales transactions records. It was a tumultuous year globally, but Dubai managed to keep things under control and Dubai managed to keep the real estate market alive through innovative initiatives.
To date, we have been going toward a V-shaped recovery and when we look at the numbers, from the lowest numbers we had in May (1,452 transactions) the market has recovered by almost 270 percent.
April and May 2020 were the lowest months historically for secondary sales because of the lockdown in Dubai, but since the ease in restrictions the secondary residential real estate sales have been on a rise, peaking in November 2020 with 2,179 sales transactions and then in December with 2,579 sales transactions. The highest in six years and nine months.
Despite the drawbacks in the market of the lockdown, from the restricted movement and market conditions, 2020 as a year did better than expected in terms of numbers. A total of 35,400 transactions took place in 2020 worth AED 72.47 billion. 14,356 of these were for off-plan properties and 21,044 were for secondary/ready properties, worth AED 19.81 billion and 52.66 billion respectively.
Q4 2020 was the strongest quarter in 2020 and helped the year recover the most in terms of volume and value with 11,064 sales transactions worth AED 22.07 billion.
Looking at overall mortgages for 2020, there were a total of 12,958 transactions worth 87.20 billion. Almost 100% of these were for secondary/ready property. This increased shift in ready property is something we have seen throughout the year as residents are now opting to buy a place to live in, rather than rent.
