The villas emerge as the next great thing in the middle of the almost five -year real estate rally in Dubai. With a growth of 16% in annual sliding prices, the villas led, the prices of global residentials jumped more than 13% compared to 2024.
Global Property Consultancy Knight Frank said that T2 2025 has marked a “historic high” in volumes and transaction values. The period from April to June experienced more than 51,000 house sales – “a quarterly record of all time”.
Faisal Durrani, partner – Research manager, Mena, said that a segment to watch is the villa market. “Only 20% of the housing supply scheduled until the end of 2029 will fall in the Villa category, and with the remaining demand focused on autonomous family houses, the Delta between the villa and the performance of the apartment prices may well continue to widen.”
Stay up to date with the latest news. Follow KT on WhatsApp channels.
When the pandemic coup Covid-19, buyers focused on securing larger houses, with more space for a home office, a home gymnasium and / or an outdoor space. “More importantly for Dubai, there has been relentless demand from international rich buyers who seek to secure the most expensive houses in the city, who tend to be autonomous properties by the sea,” said Durrani Khaleej times.
Villas has outperformed the wider market, with values climbing 2,172 DH per square foot – an increase of 4% compared to the quarter. Villas should remain in the short term in the medium term, and the price performance of this segment should continue to surpass apartments.
“In fact, the villa prices are now 49.3% above the cutting-edge levels of 2014, while the prices of the apartments increased by 17.5% over the same period.”
The best areas for villas
The price growth of the villa has been strong in both luxury and affordable market purposes.
“In the second quarter of 2025, the highest quarterly growth was recorded in Victory Heights, Al Barari, Jumeirah Park and Dubai Hills Estate, with average price increases between 8 and 10 percent. Al Barari and Dubai Hills, now firmly established as Villa Prime markets, continue to see a strong demand led by their lifestyle offers and their limited diet, “said Durrrani.
The annual figures show that the best performers include the most accessible areas of Green Community West, Al Furjan and Emaar South, as well as the wealthy communities of Meadows and Arab ranks.
Who are the buyers?
Will McKintosh, regional partner – Residential manager, Mena, said the market is increasingly shaped by real buyers rather than speculators, with resale activity within 12 months of purchase now at only 4 to 5%, compared to 25% in 2008.
Durrani explained that there is today much less speculative market activity compared to the two previous cycles, which were supported by the activity “Buy on the flip”. “A metric that we use to assess market speculation is the proportion of reinvested houses within 12 months of acquisition. In 2008/09, this figure was 25 to 30%, compared to more than 4% today, stressing that there are more authentic end users on the market, in addition to the long-term purchase ‘“ Buy-to-Tlet’ ‘or “ Buy-to-Hold’ ‘remains strong.
Five years of price growth
The total value of residential sales in H1 reached 268 billion dirhams, an increase of 41% compared to the same period last year. Knight Frank plans that 2025 will exceed 367 billion DH made in 2024.
City -scale residential prices increased by 3.4% to T2 2025, reaching an average of 1,809 DH per square foot. This places the current values of 21.6% above the peak of the previous market recorded in 2014.
“Price sustained growth – which has now approached five consecutive years since the start of the current cycle in November 2020 – is a clear sign of a more stable and predictable market environment,” said Durrani. “Knight Frank’s forecasts for 2025 remain unchanged, with growth of 8% planned in the consumer market and 5% in the privileged segment.”
Excluding sales represented almost 70% of all transactions in T2. “The main residential areas such as Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Hills, Jumeirah Bay Island and Dubai Hills Estate remain the most sought -after places, especially among international individuals with high shuttle.”
Sahim Salim
Editor
As an assistant editor -in -chief, Sahim Salim helps tell the story of water like no one else – and leads a team of journalists who asks the questions to get news and titles that matter.
