Pakistanis park Rs200bn in Dubai realty in 18 months

KARACHI: Pakistanis have turned out as the third largest foreign investors, frantically involved in building their affluence in Dubai’s highly bankable real estate market, behind extravagant Indians and indigenous Emiratis, standing strong at second and first positions respectively, a report by Dubai Land Department disclosed on Tuesday. 

During the period between January 2016 and June 2017, Pakistani nationals carried out 5,398 real estate transactions worth approximately 7 billion dirhams or Rs200 billion ($2 billion), while Indian investors made 10,628 transactions worth more than 20.4 billion dirhams. 

"As many as 217 nationalities have invested a total of 151 billion dirhams in Dubai's realty market, while Emiratis made close to 12,000 investment transactions worth 37.4 billion dirhams," said Sultan Butti bin Mejren, Director General of Dubai Land Department, commenting on the findings of the research report. 

“This demonstrates the confidence that the world has in our real estate environment, which is characterised by a strong regulatory system that provides safety and security for all parties.” Bin Mejren added that this list has been unveiled at a time when Dubai’s real estate market was preparing for a new phase of growth in the run-up to Expo 2020.

“We are pleased to have witnessed such a high level of interest from global citizens in Dubai, who have invested over 151 billion dirhams across 71,000 real estate transactions in just 18 months," he said.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabians led the Gulf nations with 5,366 transactions worth 12.5 billion dirhams and British citizens took pole position among the European nationalities with 4,188 transactions worth 9 billion dirhams. 

Besides investors from Saudi Arabia, citizens from three other Arab countries appeared on the list, with investors from Egypt, China, Jordan, Lebanon, and America placing in sixth to tenth places respectively through 2,439 transactions worth over 4 billion dirhams . Egyptians came in sixth place, followed by Jordanians who made 2,235 transactions worth 4.2 billion dirhams.

Chinese investors ranked in eighth place after concluding 2,177 transactions worth 3.1 billion dirhams, while Lebanese nationals stood at the  ninth place with 1,313 transactions worth 2.6 billion dirhams, and Americans ranked tenth with 1,119 transactions worth close to 2.9 billion . Combined, all of the other nationalities registered in the DLD's database made a total of 23,318 transactions amounting to a total value of 48.665 billion dirhams.