DUBAI (AP) – As conflict casts a shadow across the Middle East, people are getting rich in Dubai.
The city’s economy is buzzing with tourism and construction as it positions itself as a safe haven in the region.
“Dubai is in a very unique position. We happen to be the net beneficiary of crisis in the region, for good or bad,” the chief operating officer of real estate consultancy Property Monitor Zhann Jochinke, told The Associated Press.
Dubai has a long history of indirectly benefiting from crises in the region. When the ultra-wealthy worry about turmoil, the city offers stability, low taxes and a friendly visa system.
The current turmoil has situated Dubai to capitalise once again, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Demand is running red hot in Dubai’s real estate market, catapulting glitzy properties to record-breaking valuations. Not even historic flooding in April could dampen the bull market.
State-backed Emaar Properties, whose name is splashed across Dubai’s skyline, announced that its development business made USD8.1 billion in sales through the first half of the year, up from USD5.2 billion over the same time period last year. Across the city, valuations for Dubai’s upscale villas have set a new record, increasing around 38 per cent in the second quarter of 2024 compared to last year, according to real estate consultancy ValuStrat.
The average price for a villa – the local term for any freestanding home – exceeded USD2.7 million for the first time in a decade. Rises in premium apartments are close behind with locations in Palm Jumeirah, a man-made archipelago jutting out into the Persian Sea, already surpassing 2014 peaks. Head of sales at Pat and Co, a brokerage firm that deals in high-end properties, Tariq Shah, said the demand from his clientele seeking to buy has risen exponentially.
“The demand for luxury is way above the expectation,” Shah told the AP.
Meanwhile, Dubai International Airport – the world’s busiest for international travel – saw a record 44.9 million travellers in the first half of this year. Dubai plans to move operations to a nearly USD35 billion new airport in the next decade. “We are heading for a forecast number for the balance of the year of 91.8 million passengers through DXB, which is again another record for us,” Dubai Airports Chief Executive Officer Paul Griffiths told the AP.
Some 9.3 million tourists visited the global hub through the first half of the year, beating pre-pandemic heights, according to research from the Dubai government-owned bank Emirates NBD. The city state’s population has grown from 3.2 million in 2018 to nearly 3.7 million in 2024, with an additional 1.1 million who temporarily live in the city or commute there for work each day.
The hereditary monarchy seeks to increase Dubai’s population to 5.8 million by 2040.
But some analysts are asking just how long the record-breaking upswing can last.
Some warned that an oversupply of housing could eventually slow the market if demand does not keep pace.
