Revealed: Dubai leads the way as 2013’s best performing property market

The latest Knight Frank’s Global House Price Index found prices rose in 37 of the 55 countries surveyed in the second quarter of 2013. This compares to 27 two years earlier and points to an improving global picture, the report said.

Dubai leads the annual rankings, recording price growth of 21.7 percent in the year to the end of June. The emirate’s housing market has gained momentum since late 2012, while its prime market led the way, mainstream prices are now following suit, the index found.

For the first time since 2010, European countries recorded positive annual price growth. However, the average 0.7 percent uplift over the past 12 months masks a sharp divergence in performance between individual countries with Turkey the strongest performer (up by 12.2 percent) and Greece the weakest (down by 11.5 percent) year-on-year.

Last month it was revealed land and property sales in Dubai have skyrocketed by 67 percent in a year with $6.26bn of transactions made to the end of July, figures show.

Official data from the Dubai Land Department, covering real estate transactions in the emirate, also showed a similar boon in mortgages over the same period of time.

Real estate agents say residents are increasingly looking to buy their own property as they cash in on an “under-priced” market while shunning rising rents.

An analysis of the Land Department data by Arabian Business showed property sales totalled $6.26bn between January and the end of July this year, up from $3.74bn for the same period last year.

For real estate sales, the data pointed to the number of transactions increasing from 1922, or 275 a month, last year to 3012, or 430 a month this year.

Mortgage transactions jumped from 1632, or 233 a month, to 2385, or 340 a month.

The upward trend looks set to continue with sales figures for this month at $498m, compared to $239.5m last August.