Dubai’s real estate market stands out, specifically, townhouse apartments that have “Four Seasons”, “Bulgari”, and “Cavali” brand names, as a destination for the world’s rich looking for places to save their wealth, Invest-Gate reports.

A buyer agreed to pay AED 203.1 mn ($55.3 mn) for a five-bedroom Baccarat-branded apartment in a still-to-be-founded development at AED 14,000 per sqm. This is the highest price ever paid per sqm for a pre-construction apartment.

Luxury real estate sales in Dubai have boomed as some got richer during the Covid-19, resulting from the Russians’ search for safe places to invest their money after the Russia-Ukraine war.

Dubai’s prime property prices increased by 89% in October year-on-year, marking a rapid recovery from the 2014-2020 recession.

The speed with which the market boomed surprised many, as the villas in the “Four Seasons Residences” project in Dubai were sold for about dhm40 mn in 2021 in the pre-construction or “not yet started” stage, are now worth about AED 100 mn.

According to Invest-Gate, this boom pushed the value of branded apartments sold in Dubai during 2022 to a record high of AED 25.3 bn ($6.9 bn), constituting almost a fifth of all apartment purchases in the city.

Faisal Durrani, Partner, Head of Middle East Research, Knight Frank, said in an email:

“The demand for these apartments has increased sharply, thanks to the influx of money from the super-rich who continue to target the city’s luxury homes.”