Affordable luxury: Dubai home buyers look to upgrade as prices continue to fall
Villa sales usually make up the bulk of luxury sales. According to real estate portal Property Finder, villa prices in Dubai have dropped 4.3 percent to an advertised median price of AED 855 per square foot compared to H2 2018. They are 12.1 percent cheaper than they were in 2017.
Areas that have proved popular for villas include those on the more affordable end. The most popular villa community was Dubai South, with 434 sales off-plan sales. Other popular areas for villas and townhouses were Town Square, Arabian Ranches 2 and Dubai Hills Estate.
However, the portal found that villa communities that experienced the biggest decline in sales prices in the first six months of this year were Damac Hills (down 8.2 percent), Emirates Hills (down 6.6 percent), Green Community Motor City (down 5.4 percent), Dubai Silicon Oasis (down 5.2 percent), Al Furjan and The Villa (down 5.1 percent).
“As new affordable villa communities are getting completed and handed over, we have seen a migration to these communities from popular areas such as Dubai Marina. Families are choosing to live a little further out in the suburban areas of Dubai in order to gain access to a larger property with outside space. We have also seen a large influx of renters converting to home buyers, especially in these new villa communities,” said Lynnette Abad, director of data and research at Property Finder.