Indian, British and Pakistani buyers top list of non-Gulf area investors in Dubai property

Indian, British and Pakistani buyers topped the list of non Gulf area overseas real estate investment in Dubai in 2015, according to official figures.

Indians accounted for AED20 billion ($5 billion) of transactions last year, followed by British buyers with AED10 billion and Pakistanis with AED8 billion, according to the latest data from the Dubai Land Department (DLD).

However, buyers from the Gulf Co-operation Council states accounted for almost a third of sales, investing AED44 billion and Emiratis accounted for half of that at AED26.08 billion.

Overall, the data shows that 55,928 investors from 150 nationalities invested a total of AED135 billion or $26 billion in Dubai real estate during 2015.

Buyers from Saudi Arabia invested AED9 billion in property and those Kuwait accounted for AED3 billion of investment, followed by investors from Qatar, Oman and Bahrain.

The data also show that Arabs from outside the GCC invested a total of AED16 billion in the Dubai real estate market, with Jordanians ranking the highest value investors with AED3.5 billion.

Egyptians invested AED2.55 billion and Lebanese nationals invested AED2.53 billion. Significant investments were also made by nationals from Iraqi, Yemen, Sudan, Palestine, Libya, and Algeria.

According to Sultan Butti Bin Merjen, director-general of the DLD the sheer diversity of investors in Dubai’s real estate market is an overwhelming endorsement of the emirate’s international appeal to property investors.

‘Dubai enjoys an extremely high degree of acceptance from international investors because of its attributes and return on investment,’ he said.

‘We are reassured with the size of investments from UAE citizens, in addition to the enormous demand from the GCC which provides the market with a strong shield from seasonal fluctuations,’ he added.