Since the Zero-COVID policy has been lifted in China, the citizens are now free to travel overseas and make investments.
Chinese investors who want value appreciation are parking their money in the property market in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Dubai real estate
The chief executive of Azizi Developments, FarhadAzizisaid that the first quarter of 2023 saw Chinese investors scoop up a lot of real estate in Dubai.
Almost 12% of the total real estate transactions in Dubai in the first quarter were attributed to Chinese investors, which is a significant rise from 8% in the same quarter of the previous year.
The CEO said that they had seen a rise in the interest in their property sales firsthand, as their transactions also reflected a similar figure.
He also added that a greater number of peak units were being sold on a daily basis than they had done so in 2019, which had been the peak year.
The first quarter of the year saw a 50% year-on-year increase in Dubai’s real estate transactions to reach 30,852 units.
Data from Dubai Land Department (DLD) revealed that there was a 60% year-on-year growth in terms of value as they reached about Dh88.56 billion.
Upbeat developers
The sentiments that Azizi expressed were also seen in consultants and developers in the real estate sector.
Kamran Ghani, the CEO of Empire Developments, said that the daily real estate transactions had climbed to AED1 billion, which was the first for Dubai and the number had not come down.
As a matter of fact, they expect it to rise, all thanks to Chinese investors.
Abdullah Alajaji, the CEO and Founder of Driven Properties, added that there was a five-fold increase in UAE real estate investments from Chinese non-residents between the first quarter last year and this year.
He said that the activity recorded in this year’s first quarter were a sign of recovery to the level seen back in 2019.
Chinese investment
Faisal Durrani, the Head of Middle East Research and Partner at Knight Frank, said that after pandemic restrictions had been lifted, there was a bit of ‘revenge spending’.
According to Durrani, 23% of the purchases of Knight Frank last year had come from Chinese buyers. He added that before the pandemic, Chinese had been in the list of top 5 nationalities purchasing residential properties in Dubai.
He also added that they expected them to return to the list quickly. Mainland China buyers had accounted for just 2% of the prime sales back in 2019 for Knight Frank.
But, they had climbed 17% in the last year and had actually surpassed London, which accounted for 14%.
It appears that in terms of global destinations preferred by Chinese buyers, Dubai was climbing up the ranks.
But, it is interesting to note that Chinese investors are not making their investments only in Dubai where the Middle East is concerned.
Durrani revealed that 77% of the High Net WorthIndividuals (HNWIs) from East Asia who wish to buy real estate in the UAE are also exploring other regions, including Abu Dhabi.
