Indians biggest buyers of Dubai properties

Indians have dominated foreign investments in Dubai’s property market in the past six months, local website arabianbusiness.com reported on Wednesday, citing data from the emirate’s Land Department.

Dubai’s real estate market has seen investments totalling AED 22 bn ($5.98 bn) being made in the first half of the year. Indian investors have bought a total of 2,153 properties valued at AED3.751 bn ($1.02 bn) in Dubai’s real estate market, while British investors bought a total of 1,564 properties worth AED2.529 bn ($680 mn)in the first half of 2012, the report said.

Investors from Pakistan bought a total of 1,814 properties at AED1.713bn ($466 mn), ranking third.

According to the Real Estate Investment Promotion and Management Centre, investors of various nationalities bought 12,875 properties including buildings, land, apartments and villas during H1.

"The real estate sector performance is moving from strength to strength over the past two years. The market has been attracting more foreign investors, which reflects the solid national economy and its excellent growth potentials," Majida Ali Rashid, chairwoman of the organisation was quoted as saying.

Iranian and Russian investors were ranked in the fourth and fifth position subsequently. Iranians bought 1,057 properties worth AED1.515bn ($411 mn) and Russians bought 694 properties at a total value of AED1.438bn ($389 mn)in the first half of the year, the report said.

Saudis, Americans, Canadians and Jordanians were also prominent investors in Dubai's real estate market, the Dubai Land Department figures showed.