Property buying by Indians in Dubai has seen a spike since August this year, following the Indian government’s move to liberalise overseas investment guidelines for residents, industry insiders said.
High rental yields for residential properties in Dubai – about 7 percent as compared to 2.5 – 3 percent in cities like New York, Singapore, and London – is another factor driving cash-rich Indians to invest in real estate assets in the emirate.
India updated its remittance policy in August under which citizens can now transfer up to $250,000 in a financial year for investments in immovable assets or certain economic activities without prior government approvals.
“The recent policy changes have triggered a spurt of Indian investments in real estate assets in Dubai,” Shajai Jacob, CEO-GCC at Anarock, a leading real estate consultancy in the GCC and India, told Arabian Business.
“This is very much evident from the recent month’s investment numbers,” Jacob said.
Senior executives at property portals and real estate consultancies in India also confirmed the trend of increased Indian investments in residential properties in Dubai.
They said besides businessmen, more and more upwardly mobile Indian professionals were also now investing in residential properties of late, after UAE announced liberalised visa policies for techies and freelancers.
Since 2004, Indians have been among the top three nationalities to buy properties in Dubai, owing to the geographical advantage over European or American markets.
“It’s just a 3-hour flight from India to Dubai which makes sense for Indians to even buy their second home in Dubai,” said a Delhi-based property consultant.
Arabian Business reported on Sunday that average apartment rents in Dubai soared 27 percent to AED89,986 ($24,498), while that for a villa reached AED268,758 ($73,171) last month after prices jumped 26 percent in the year through September.
The spike in rentals, according to CBRE Group, was mainly being driven by a growing number of expat workers moving to the city.
Jacob said the total real estate sales in Dubai jumped 61 percent from last year and touched AED21 billion.
“Indians were on top in this contribution, followed by British, Italians and Russians,” he said.
“A lot of effort has been given to put Dubai on the world map. From building incredible infrastructure to easing the policies, all has been steps to make Dubai the hunting ground for the investors from across the globe,” Jacob said.
Since 2004, Indians have been among the top 3 nationalities to buy properties in Dubai, having purchased real estate worth AED83.62 billion in the last five years (2015-21), as per the DLD data, he said.
“The strategic location of Dubai, high return on investment, eased up government policy, changed RBI remittance rules and CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between the UAE and India) will all turn out to be the positives in future for continued investments by Indians,” Jacob said.
Industry insiders said residential property buying by expat Indians staying in the UAE has also seen a surge, following the changes in the long-term residency visa rules and tweaks in the Golden Visa rules by the UAE authorities.
“Besides, there has been an enormous rise of entrepreneurs in UAE, mostly from Indian origin, during and post-pandemic period, which has added to the rising demand for properties there,” a senior executive with a real estate portal said.
Jacob said there has been a rise in real estate investments in Dubai by expat Indians working in other countries – both Western and Southeast Asian countries – in the wake of the long-term residency visa rule changes by the UAE.
“Dubai has an unmatched lifestyle, cultural similarities and future-oriented outlook which make this market more attractive. Indians who used to invest in Singapore or Hong Kong are now finding it easy to live and work in Dubai for that matter,” Jacob said.
“This will continue to rise, adding to the commercial real estate demand in the UAE,” he said.
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