At a Glance: Dubai Marina dominates UAE property
Dubai Marina dominates the UAE property market, according to TheMoveChannel.com’s latest At a Glance, accounting for over a quarter of all property searches.
The infographic, which depicts activity on the portal over the last 12 months, shows that 27.89 per cent of searches for UAE property were targeted directly at Dubai’s canal city. The second most popular location is the desert resort Arabian Ranches, accounting for 1 in 10 searches, also located in Dubai.
Indeed, Dubai dictates international investment in the emirates, responsible for a staggering 87.06 per cent of enquiries in the last year. Its closest contender is Ras al-Khaimah, which generated just 7.11 per cent of enquiries, followed by Sharjah, which received 4.08 per cent, and Ajman, which took 1.75 per cent.
The other three emirates received no enquiries, failing to compete with the demand for Dubai property.
Nonertheless, the cities of Sharjah and Abu Dhabi are both on buyers’ wish lists, attracting the third highest (9.54 per cent) and ninth highest (3.22 per cent) number of searches on TheMoveChannel.com. But the desirability of Dubai leaves the majority of investors heading straight to the emirate’s recovering market. Indeed, Dubai accounts for 8 out of the 10 most popular search locations – and 84.6 per cent of all UAE searches on the site.
As well as the Dubai Marina, the most sought-after real estate hotspots include Jumeirah Lake Towers, International City, Dubai Sports City and Dubai Waterfront.
The At a Glance report also analyses buyer behaviour on Google over the last 12 months, showing that Dubai’s dominance is not just limited to TheMoveChannel.com: investors searched for “UAE property” a total of 654 times in the last 12 months. “Dubai property”, on the other hand, occurred in 15,200 searches. Indeed, many general UAE-related property keywords received no searches at all.
Buyers most commonly searched for “Dubai apartments” and “apartments in Dubai”. The only other type of property to appear in a significant number of searches was houses, but the term occurred in just 2,830 compared to “Dubai apartments”, which featured in 7,170. Overall Google activity was at its highest between the months of March and May 2012. During the final months of 2012, overall UAE-related searches steadily declined, although searches for “Dubai property” remained relatively steady before climbing back to peak levels in February 2013.
TheMoveChannel.com Editor Ivan Radford comments: “Dubai’s rebound from the housing crisis has been quite incredible to witness, from slump to economic safe haven in little over a year – and the At a Glance infographic confirms the sheer desirability of Dubai real estate at the start of2013. The fact that some of the most popular resorts within the emirate are still under construction is telling, as investors return to the market regardless, drawn by the appeal of Dubai Marina and other luxury developments.
“In contrast, it’s interesting to see the stark lack of enquiries in the capital Abu Dhabi, although this is partly because of a lack of properties on the market: Abu Dhabi is still one of the top 10 searched-for locations in the UAE, but with no listings in the emirate on the site at present, investors are turning to the emirate next door instead. Dubai remains the clear favourite in the UAE at all stages of the buying process, dominating Google activity, location searches on TheMoveChannel.com and the purchasing stage too.”
Notes to Editors
Founded in 1999, TheMoveChannel.com is the leading independent website for international property, with than 400,000 listings in over 100 countries around the world, marketed on behalf of agents, developers and private owners.
The website address is http://www.themovechannel.com and the office address is 24 Jack´s Place, Corbet Place, Spitalfields, London, E1 6NN.
Contact Dan Johnson on 0207 952 7650 for further information.