In the first quarter of 2016 Dubai recorded AED 54,782 billion ($14.9 billion) of real estate transactions , reported on Sunday.

In its quarterly update, the Dubai Land Department (DLD) said that the $14.9 billion of transactions included 8,440 sales and 3,213 mortgage transactions, as well as 915 “other” transactions.

Sales and mortgages related to land transactions totalled AED42,729 billion ($11.6 billion), with commercial property taking the lion’s share of deals by value, with AED12,053 billion from 8,892 transactions.

The Seeh Shoaib area of Dubai was the most popular for land sales, DLD said, followed by Al Hibiya 3 and Al Yafra 3. For land mortgage transactions, Al Thunaya 5 was top, followed by Al Hebiya 3 and Al Thunaya 4.

DLD’s report also recorded investment transactions, revealing that the sum of real estate investment transactions reached AED25 billion ($6.8 billion) in the first quarter of 2016.

A total of 11,353 investors from 127 nationalities invested in Dubai’s property sector during the period, DLD said. Of this, GCC nationals contributed AED 9 billion ($2.4 billion) – Emirati investment accounted for the lion’s share with AED6.1 billion ($1.6 billion) of transactions, while Saudi Arabians came second with AED1.8 billion of transactions ($490 million), followed by Kuwaitis.

Arab investors from outside the GCC made more than AED3 billion ($820 million) of investments in the Dubai real estate sector, while other foreign nationals contributed more than AED12 billion ($3.27 billion), DLD said.

Source: Arabian Business website