World’s rich favour Dubai over London’s luxury properties, says report

A GROWING number of wealthy individuals prefer to buy their second luxury home in Dubai and not London or Miami, with the emirate topping the chart of the ‘best of the best’ cities, reveals a report by Christie’s International Real Estate, the real estate arm of the renowned auction house.

The ‘Luxury Defined’ report found 75 per cent of global high net-worth individuals (HNWIs) bought properties in the emirate in 2014, with the average luxury prices starting from $2 million onwards – four times affordable than Los Angeles ($8 million), two times than New York ($5 million) and three times than London ($6 million).

“Of the top markets with the highest percentage of international luxury home buyers, only three of our top 10 cities ranked on the list. Dubai ranked top of all cities, with three-quarters of prime property buyers hailing from overseas. London (44 per cent) and Miami (40 per cent) trailed significantly behind,” the report said, which analyzed over 80 markets worldwide.
Though the emirate saw a contraction in sales growth in 2014, the report said value of sales rose by more than 10 per cent.

“These corrections in the Dubai marketplace are driven in part by the fluctuations in availability of luxury product being offered to the market,” Joachim Wrang-Widen of Christie’s International Real Estate, wrote in the report.

“We anticipate that the market will begin to stabilise in 2015 as new, particularly entry-level luxury product, becomes available,” he added in Emirate 247.