Dubai suburbs rise in popularity

While it’d be logical to assume that the high rise, city centre communities remain the most popular neighbourhoods in Dubai, a report by ServiceMarket shows a distinct shift to the suburbs for new residents.

ServiceMarket is a platform for moving home in the UAE, and carries out a report showing ‘moving trends’ twice a year. The most recent report has ranked Dubai neighbourhoods in terms of how popular they are with new residents. This could be people moving into the country for the first time, or moving from other areas of the UAE.

Dubailand is on the up

For the first quarter of 2017, the report shows that Dubailand is the most popular neighbourhood in terms of brand new residents moving in, with 13 per cent of all requests to move directed to this neighbourhood.

Dubailand was followed by Dubai Marina/Jumeirah Beach Residence, Downtown Dubai, Barsha Heights and Silicon Oasis. This is different to the data for Q1 of 2016, which showed Dubai Marina and Downtown as the most popular neighbourhoods. Dubailand came fifth in last year’s report, so this is a distinct change of mood in terms of which areas are attracting new buyers.

Why is Dubailand so popular?

Dubailand is a huge area located near Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road, and although currently under developed, is clearly on the way to becoming more popular. Communities that most people choose to move to within Dubailand are Mira, Remraam, Mudon and The Villas. But where has this shift to the suburbs come from?

Why are more residents choosing to move to Dubailand? It’s likely that a large reason is the cheaper rents. When Dubailand is compared to older areas like Downtown and Dubai Marina, the rents are simply more affordable. There is also considerably less traffic (for now) and a lot of new facilities being developed, including shopping malls and schools.

More freehold properties available

It’s likely that the fact there are more freehold properties available to buy in these areas. Buyers are far more likely to be able to find freehold properties in Dubailand at the moment at significantly lower prices than can be found in areas such as Dubai Marina.

This is potentially a sea change for property in Dubai, as over the last three years the same areas have stayed at similar levels of popularity. Downtown, Barsha heights/The Greens and dubai Marina have consistently been in the top five most popular areas.

As well as Dubailand gaining in popularity, Silion Coasis is also moving up the rankings. In Q1 2017, it leapt from 11^th place to fifth in the most popular areas. It’ll be interesting to see how this impacts investment in residential property.

Samir Salya

Samir Salya is the Chairman of Reign Holdings and is involved in real estate and construction within the UAE and UK. Samir holds over 20 years of experience in executive management, business expansion, performance improvement, sales and marketing.