Dubai real estate market: Britons, Indians and Russians top the list of buyers, Pakistanis lag behind.

Updated data from Betterhomes shows that Britons, Indians and Russians were the most active investors in Dubai's real estate market in the first quarter of 2023.

Other nationalities in the top 10 investors include Italians, Lebanese, Egyptians, Turks, French, Chinese and Emiratis.

Investors from Europe and Russia have recently overtaken investors from the Indian subcontinent in the Dubai real estate market due to several factors such as rising costs in Europe after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, effective pandemic management in Dubai, stable economy, full foreign ownership and the possibility of 10-year Golden Visas.

Indians used to top the investor table in the local real estate market, but dropped to third position last year and second in the first quarter of 2023.

At the same time, Pakistani investors, who were previously in the top 10, have fallen off the investor list in the first quarter of 2023 due to the significant depreciation in the value of the Pakistani currency over the past year. According to xe.com, the rupee fell from 50 UAE dirhams in April last year to 77.46 in April 2023.

Pakistani investors were the sixth largest investor in the emirate's real estate market in 2022, according to Betterhomes.

Samana Developers made the following statement: "Europeans are leading investors in our latest project. "

They are mainly investing in real estate here from France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium and Norway.

The vice president of Coldwell Banker UAE, Eiman Youssef, said that real estate buyers mainly come from Germany, France and Switzerland.

"The UAE real estate market has managed to maintain attractive prices with higher yields on properties compared to most of Europe. Currently, you can get up to 8% returns, which is quite high compared to what any European country can offer. In addition, the Golden Visa, 100% ownership, better business opportunities and other factors are encouraging people to invest more in the emirate," Youssef added.

The first quarter saw the highest number of real estate transactions by British buyers, up 60% year-on-year, followed by Indian buyers, according to a Betterhomes report.