DUBAI - The Dubai Land Department, DLD, announced on Monday that the emirate's official monthly house price index saw a rise of 1.36 percent as the index value moves from 1.1 to 1.115 amidst the lockdown.

The results were announced as part of the second edition launch of 'Mo'asher' - Dubai's official sales price index - produced by DLD, in partnership with Property Finder.

The current index displays the history of how trends have changed over the past few years based on the data from Dubai Land Department. It noted that the emirate registered a total of 40,517 sales transactions in 2019, representing a growth of 18 percent in the volume of registered property sales transactions compared to 34,414 registered sales transactions in 2018.

Looking at quarterly data, the index revealed that since the highs of Q2 2009 when the Dubai property sales market transacted 37,556 sales transactions, the next peak was during Q4 2013, with 20,935 sales transactions when the Dubai real estate market rebounded from the 2007 financial crisis. This was followed by Q1 2017 with 15,179 sales transactions.

The index noted that the only peak after 2017 was visible in Q4 2019 with 12,448 sales transactions, where transaction volumes increased month-on-month due to the market picking up ahead of EXPO 2020.

Commenting on the index launch, Latifa Ibrahim Ahmed, Senior Director of Real Estate Studies and Research Department at DLD, said, "As the reliance on the relevant monthly data that is combined with data on the required real estate price increases so would the importance of the indicator." "The index includes tremendous market advantages as it provides all those interested with an overview of an in-depth market analysis and insight into how real estate prices in Dubai change during a particular month," she explained.

In the first quarter of 2020, there was a 16 percent rise in overall transactions compared to the first quarter of 2019, and February 2020 saw an enormous 40 percent hike in transactions compared to February 2019.

In March 2020, a slight decline in sales transactions was registered, in which 3,120 sales transactions were recorded, due to the implications caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic, and they continued to decline into April, which saw 1,808 sales transactions take place despite the full lockdown.

Worth noting, the base year for Mo’asher is 2012, and the base month for the monthly index is January 2012 with the base quarter for the quarterly index is Q1 2012.

Mo'asher figures noted that the value of the sales price index in the residential sector was 1.115 in April 2020, while the average sales price index was AED1,078,398, an increase of 11.5 percent compared to the base year of 2012.

"Comparing Q4 2019 and Q1 2020, the index value for Dubai overall decreased by 2.2 percent, apartments have decreased by 1.7 percent and villas/townhouses decreased by 2.6 percent," said Lynnette Abad, Director of Research and Data at Property Finder. "Comparing monthly March 2020 and April 2020, the index value for overall Dubai increased by 1.4 percent, with apartments having increased by 1.72 percent and villas/townhouses by 0.3 percent."

© Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2020.