In 2029, Dubai’s first skyscraper, the World Trade Centre, will turn 50 years old. When it was built, the 39-storey tower was an outlier, an ambitious spindle that stuck out in a low-rise landscape. Now it’s almost hard to see, dwarfed by soaring new additions. The first rash of those skyscrapers went up around the turn of the century, continuing until the Great Recession of 2008 upended the emirates’ fortunes.
Almost two decades later, Dubai is thriving. Residential sales in the third quarter of 2024 reached Dh120bn ($32.7bn), according to CBRE, and Knight Frank’s 2024 Destination Dubai Report projected the year’s spending by top-end homebuyers (those with a personal net worth in excess of $20mn) would hit $4.4bn, a rise of 76 per cent year on year. Its most recent Wealth Report, published this month, showed property prices in Dubai rose 147 per cent over the past five years. Savills has increased its Dubai team from 3 to 100. Dubai’s neighbouring cities are watching closely — in their different ways looking to emulate or distance themselves from Dubai in a bid to attract new residents.
One keystone of Dubai’s success has been in the more diverse profile of buyers, says Michael Lahyani, founder of PropertyFinder — the local answer to Rightmove or Zillow — largely thanks to the now six-year-old Golden Visa programme. It was introduced specifically to encourage foreigners to treat Dubai as more than just a tax-free pit-stop for a couple of years — and it seems to be working. After the Gulf Cooperation Council buyers came a flurry of Russians and Indians: “It’s for entertainment purposes, a place to go for a weekend,” says Lahyani.