The softening of restrictions put in place to combat Covid-19 in the UAE have had a positive impact on market sentiment across the real estate sector, with listings up compared to previous weeks, according to data from Property Finder and Mortgage Finder. People are increasingly searching for properties with outdoor spaces after weeks of lockdown, according to Property Finder data.
“We are starting to see signs of the market returning to a new normal. In the past week, both the listings on the portal as well as the number of listings views increased,” said Lynnette Abad, director of research and data from the Property Finder Group.
According to Abad, the number of listings were up 6 percent for rental and 5 percent for sales against the previous week.
“In addition, a new trend emerged this past week which we didn’t see during the lockdown period which is rental leads for villas in Dubai are up by 11 percent compared to the same week last year,” she added. “In the previous weeks during the lockdown, we also started to see an increase in searches for villas and townhouses, outside space such as gardens and balconies and pools in villas.”
Registration trustee offices came back to work with 30 percent of their workforce in the current climate. However, appointments are required and documents need to be emailed as a safety measure.
Online procedures put in place by the Dubai Land Department during the lockdown are still in place.
In terms of supply, Dubai had more than 20,000 units completed so far in 2020. These include more than 15,000 apartments, which the most popular areas being Business Bay, Town Square, Downtown Dubai, Dubai Sports City and Dubai Production City.
There were also over 3,800 villa and townhouses completed.