Dubai unveils residential rental performance index to analyse market

The emirate recorded 51,452 leases in January, with 52% being new contracts

In 2021, Dubai recorded 564,036 leases, which broke a 12-year record in terms of volume for property rental contracts. Reuters

Dubai Land Department and real estate listings portal Property Finder have unveiled the first official Residential Rental Performance Index.

It will be used to analyse the emirate’s rental market.

About 51,452 leases were signed in Dubai last month, with 52 per cent being new contracts, according to the index.

Of the total leases, 81 per cent were annual contracts.

In 2021, Dubai recorded 564,036 leases, which broke a 12-year record in terms of volume.

Annual leases increased by 50.3 per cent and non-annual leases increased by 75.5 per cent in 2021 compared with the previous year.

The most popular rental contracts in January were for two-bedroom apartments followed by one-bedroom properties. The most popular villa or townhouse rental contracts were for three bedrooms, according to the data.

Areas with the most rental contract registrations included Jabel Ali First with 1,811 registrations, followed by Naif with 1,760. Al Karama, Al Warsan First, Al Souq Al Kabeer, Business Bay, Al Nahda Second and Barsha South were also popular.

Dubai Marina was the most frequently looked-for area on the Property Finder platform, accounting for more than 11 per cent of all searches, according to the index. This was followed by Downtown Dubai, Business Bay, Jumeirah Village Circle and Jumeirah Lakes Towers.

The UAE’s property market continues to recover from the pandemic-induced slowdown on the back of government initiatives such as residency permits for those who have retired and a rapid vaccination programme.

The value of property deals in Dubai more than doubled last year and broke a 12-year record in terms of real estate sales transactions, buoyed by demand in the secondary real estate market.

The emirate registered 61,241 sales transactions worth Dh151.07 billion ($41.13bn) last year compared with Dh71.87bn worth of transactions it closed in 2020, making 2021 the best year for total transactions since 2013 and the highest in value since 2009, according to Property Finder.