Dubai leads the world for premium property price growth in 2023
Dubai consolidated its reputation as one of the world’s hottest real estate investment markets in the second quarter of 2023, with residential property prices rising by an average of 17% year on year (YoY), according to Knight Frank.
The findings were published following the publication of the property analyst’s latest Prime Global Cities Index (PGCI), which tracks real estate prices in 46 prime investment markets worldwide.
The report found that Dubai’s average property prices had risen by 44% YoY in the first quarter of 2023, and an astonishing 149% compared to Q1, 2020, prior to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In terms of Dubai’s Q1, 2023 performance, only second-ranked Miami managed to report double-digit YoY growth (11%) during the same period, with Zurich (9.4%), Berlin (5.7%) and Singapore (5.5%) rounding out the top five markets.
“Dubai’s 149% growth through the pandemic (March 2020 to date) reflects a market undergoing significant structural change,” Knight Frank noted. “Miami saw the second strongest growth over the same period, but at only 59%, which merely serves to highlight Dubai’s exceptional market transformation.”
Dubai bucks global downward trend
Further highlighting the remarkable growth of Dubai’s property market over the past 12 months is the fact that overall, the global index actually fell by 0.4% in the 12 months to the end of March this year.
Knight Frank said the slowdown in growth when considering the 46 markets surveyed “has overwhelmingly been driven by sharply higher interest rates following recent tightening in global monetary policy”.
“Annual prices are now falling in 16 of the 46 markets tracked,” the report noted. “While two thirds of markets are still seeing positive growth, the large size of price declines in the weakest markets has pulled the overall index [into] negative [territory].”
Dubai’s booming property market follows a period of sustained economic growth in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The emirate’s economy grew by 2.8% in the first quarter of 2023, eclipsing growth rates in other major global economies, including the US and European Union, which posted economic growth of 1.8% and 1.1% during the same period.