Dubai's red-hot real estate attracts big name backers
Iconic view: The Sheikh Zayed Road is seen with Dubai's iconic skyline illuminated in the background. — AP
DUBAI: Dubai's real estate market – where property values have surged 70% in the last four years – is starting to entice a slew of new Wall Street investors.
Brookfield Corp is weighing plans to develop a mixed-use community in the Dubai Hills neighbourhood, which would be its first residential real estate bet in the region, according to sources.
A property manager owned by Singapore's Temasek Holdings is also currently scouting for investments in the city, some of the sources said.
They would be joining the likes of Goldman Sachs Group and Asia-based asset manager Hillhouse Investment, which have both recently ploughed millions into the emirate's real estate.
They have all been drawn by the surge in activity taking place across Dubai.
In the last 24 months, the city recorded eight office building sales – more than the previous 10 years combined.
The same goes for hotel transactions, where 15 deals took place in the past 30 months, according to real estate consultancy Knight Frank.
'The past two years have been busier for us than the whole previous decade on the capital market side,' said Andrew Love, head of capital markets and commercial agency at Knight Frank.
'Demand is growing from overseas buyers who are coming in search of better returns and lower taxes.'
It is a far cry from the years following the financial crisis, when the image of hundreds of luxury cars left abandoned at Dubai International Airport by expats who could not keep up with their debts was etched into the minds of institutional investors around the world.
It had been a visceral reminder of the boom-and-bust nature of the real estate market in the city, where the population is still dominated by foreigners to this day.
Dubai's turnaround started in the aftermath of the pandemic when the city reopened earlier than others, drawing scores of wealthy tourists and investors to its sunny shores.
The government's introduction of more liberal visa policies poured more fuel on that rally.
After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, many of the country's wealthy moved some of their cash to the city in an effort to shield their assets from sanctions and tighter capital controls at home.
They were soon joined by loads of newly minted crypto millionaires and hedge fund managers who were lured to Dubai by the emirate's low tax regime and a time zone that allows workers to trade across Asian, European and US hours.
Taken together, the moves have sparked an unprecedented surge in residential and commercial real estate values.
In the first quarter of 2025, before US President Donald Trump's trade war weighed on investor sentiment and contributed to a plunge in oil prices, Dubai notched record sales of homes valued above US$10mil.
Brookfield began furthering its foray into Dubai's real estate market in 2020.
Back then, the asset manager – along with its partner Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) – opened ICD Brookfield Place, Dubai's largest office tower.
The building quickly filled up and now commands the city's highest commercial rents; in 2024, Brookfield was able to offload a 49% stake in the tower in a deal valuing the property at US$1.5bil.
Now, the Canadian firm is weighing plans to build residential towers alongside offices and retail space that it would make available to rent in Dubai Hills, an area known for its luxury villas.
Then there is Mapletree Investments, a property manager owned by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek.
The firm's hoping to deploy about US$2bil in the Gulf region after opening an office in Abu Dhabi in 2024, other sources said.
Inside Blackstone, executives have also held preliminary discussions across the Middle East region about commercial real estate investments, the sources said. — Bloomberg
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