The Palm Jumeirah in Dubai is not only experiencing record high villa prices but also posting the highest number of home sales in nearly five years, according to an analysis by global real estate consultancy Knight Frank.
“The boom in ultra-prime home sales across Dubai is nowhere better reflected than on the Palm Jumeirah, where average transacted prices, at over Dh2,100 per square foot (psf), are at their highest level in over five years. What’s more, 19 of the 34 $10 million-plus homes sold in Dubai between January and June were on the Palm Jumeirah,” said Faisal Durrani, Partner – head of Middle East Research, Knight Frank.
“Villas remain in high demand as both resident ex-pats and international investors seek to secure larger and more luxurious homes in the most prestigious parts of the city. The pandemic has taught us all the importance of personal space and with a shift to hybrid working models emerging as the norm, families are seeking accommodation that delivers on space, luxury, and exclusivity. This accelerating trend has driven average transacted villa prices on the Palm Jumeirah up by an impressive 40 percent over the last four years,” said Durrani.
Earlier this year, a new record was set with the sale of a villa on Jumeirah Bay Island for $32.9 million (AED 488.14 million) to a European buyer, highlighting the buoyancy of the villa market. In March, One100 Palm sold for more than $30 million (AED 110.19 million) on the Palm Jumeirah, making it the most expensive home to sell in 2021.
At Dh3,250 psf, the average transacted villa prices are just shy of the all-time record high of Dh3,436 psf set in Q3 2017. “Despite accounting for a little over 2.0 percent of the total number of villa sales across Dubai, the 90 villa transactions on the Palm Jumeirah drove almost 13.5 percent of the Dh15.8 billion city-wide villa transactions during Q2,” Knight Frank said in a statement.
“The Palm Jumeirah is really coming into its own. The recent opening of Nakheel Mall has helped to cement the amenities available to the island’s residents, helping to create not only an exclusive enclave, but one that epitomises the very definition of a 15-minute city; an emerging and highly desirable legacy trend of the pandemic globally,” said Durrani.
“The Palm Jumeirah is really coming into its own. The recent opening of Nakheel Mall has helped to cement the amenities available to the island’s residents, helping to create not only an exclusive enclave, but one that epitomises the very definition of a 15-minute city; an emerging and highly desirable legacy trend of the pandemic globally,” said Durrani.
There was also a bounce-back in transactional activity for Palm Jumeirah apartments, as 300 flats were sold in Q2 alone; this is the most since Q3 2015. Not only that, but according to Knight Frank, the average apartment deal size has reached almost Dh1,800 per square foot for the first time since 2016.
“There has certainly been a very healthy number of transactions for Q2 2021 with record-breaking months and sales prices. Apartment sales make up a large proportion of transactions with a number of high-value transactions for the boutique developments such as Palme Couture, Atlantis The Royal, One Palm, and W Residences,” said Yasin Valimulla, associate partner at Knight Frank Middle East.
Valimulla said villa and townhouse sales remained strong, continuing from Q1 2021’s success, and prices saw a sharp increase compared to the previous quarters. “The villa market has always proven to have its own micro-market and with so many transactions happening, we are seeing price expectations increasing with the demand being higher than the current villa supply. This has been evident with both sales and rentals transactions.”
