At Dubai’s property rally for nearly five years, villas are becoming the next big thing. Villas' prices rose 16% year-on-year as overall residential prices rose by more than 13% while total residential prices rose by more than 13% in 2024.
Knight Frank, a global property consulting firm, said the second quarter of 2025 marked a “historic high” in both volume and value. The April-June term exceeds 51,000 home sales – “historical records ever”.
Faisal Durrani, head of research at MENA, said the viewing segment was Villa Market. “Until the end of 2029, only 20% of the planned housing supply will fall into the villa category, and the remaining demand is centered on independent family homes, and the delta between Villa and apartment price performance is likely to continue to expand.”
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When the Covid-19 pandemic was the case, buyers focused on ensuring larger homes, more space for home offices, home gyms and/or outdoor spaces. Durani tells Durani tells Khaleej Times.
Villas outperformed the broader market, with value climbing to Dh2,172 per square foot, a 4% increase over the quarter. In the medium term, villas are likely to be available briefly, and the price performance of this segment is expected to continue to outperform the apartments.
“In fact, Villa’s price is now 49.3% higher than its 2014 peak, while apartment prices rose 17.5% during the same period.”
The highest area of the villa
At the luxury and affordable end of the market, the price increase in villas is strong.
“In Q2 2025, the highest quarterly growth was recorded in Victory Heights, Al Barari, Jumeirah Park, and Dubai Hills Estate, with average price increases ranged between 8-10 per cent. Al Barari and Dubai Hills, now firmly established as prime villa markets, continue to see strong demand driven by their lifestyle offers and limited supply,” said Durrani.
The annual data show that the best performers include the green community west, more accessible areas in Al Furjan and south of Emaar, as well as wealthy communities in grasslands and Arab ranches.
Who is the buyer?
Mena's regional partner Will McKintosh said the market is increasingly shaped by real buyers rather than speculators, with resale activity only 4-5% within 12 months of purchase, compared to 25% in 2008.
Durrani explained that there are much less speculative market activity today than the previous two cycles, which is supported by the Buy-to-Wing activity. “The indicator we use to measure market speculation is the percentage of resold within 12 months of the acquisition. During 2008/09, this figure was 25-30%, and today it was close to 4%, which stressed that there are more real end users in the market, and in addition to long-term “buy to “buy” or “buy” investors, they also rely on “people who live”, and there are many people – and there are many people – and there are many people – and there are many people, and there are many people, and there are many people.
Price growth for five years
The total value of residential sales in H1 reached AED 268 million, an increase of 41% compared with the same period last year. Knight Frank predicts that 2025 will surpass the 367 billion AEDs reached in 2024.
In the second quarter of 2025, residential prices in the city rose 3.4%, an average of Dh1,809 per square foot. This puts current value at 21.6% higher than the previous market peak recorded in 2014.
“Price continues to grow – it's now approaching a sign of a continuous five years since the start of this issue in November 2020, which is a clear sign of a more stable and predictable market environment,” Dulani said. “Knight Frank's 2025 forecast remains unchanged, with mainstream markets expected to grow by 8% and 5% in premium markets.”
Unplanned sales accounted for nearly 70% of all transactions in the second quarter. “Major residential areas such as Palm Jumeirah, UAE Hill, Jumeirah Bay Island and Dubai Villa Manor are still the most popular locations, especially among international high net worth individuals.”
Sahim Salim
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