The Most Important Things to Know About The UAE Property Market in 2025

The UAE property market is one of the fastest growing in the world. In Dubai alone, around 43,000 residential property transactions were recorded in the first quarter of 2025. Investor interest in UAE real estate remains high, and capital inflows into the market are growing steadily. However, there is a peculiarity in transactions involving projects under construction that must be taken into account in your investment strategy. Our expert Daniil Malafeev explains what this nuance is and how knowing about it can help you save money.

About 70% of transactions on the Emirates market are for housing under construction. Developers offer buyers convenient instalment plans: for example, you can pay only 10% as a down payment and pay the remaining amount over the construction period.

During this time, the value of the purchased lot will increase. This is attractive to investors: by paying a small amount at the start, they can sell the asset before the full amount is paid and receive a high return on their invested capital.

But this is where the main nuance of the real estate market in the UAE lies: most units cannot be sold until the instalments have been paid and the keys have been received. The speculative strategy works in no more than 10% of cases. Most often, the investor needs to pay the developer and receive the keys, and only then put their asset up for sale.

Real estate developers in UAE rarely allow buyers to resell property before the instalments have been paid off. This way, they protect themselves from risks. It also gives them a competitive advantage over investors.

The fact is that completed projects cause a surge in demand from buyers. Those who buy apartments in them are interested in:

If the developer still has vacant lots for sale, it is in their interest for these people to buy flats from them rather than from investors. To this end, the developer:

And this approach works: the vast majority of buyers in completed buildings choose the developer's lots. They are slightly more expensive than those offered by investors, but they come with convenient payment plans.

Of course, investors can also sell their properties without paying off the instalments, but only if two conditions are met:

Below, we will look at how this works in practice.

One of my clients wanted to sell her apartment. She had already paid 50% of the cost and had to pay the remaining 50% to receive the keys.

We put the property up for sale a couple of months before construction was completed and found a buyer with a mortgage. Now it was time to sort out the numerous formalities.

How to sell a property with a mortgage:

As a result of this transaction, my client received a 64% return on her investment in a year and a half.

However, this result was only possible thanks to a number of factors:

Thus, a competent approach to buying and selling allowed the investor to achieve a high return.

If you are interested in such transactions, please submit a request. Our experts will provide detailed advice, help you navigate the UAE market and select an investment property in line with your objectives.