Villas continued to drive the growth in property prices in Dubai during February, according to new research.
Consultants ValuStrat said the pace of monthly price growth was steady at just over 1 percent, with Dubai villa capital values increasing by more than double that figure (2.1 percent) while apartments saw marginal growth of just 0.5 percent last month.
The ValuStrat Price Index reached 78.1 points in February, still 21.9 percent lower than the 100 point index base of January 2014 despite more than a year of steady price increases.
According to ValuStrat, all apartment locations monitored by the valuation-based index had positive annual capital gains with the exception of Jumeirah Village, which saw prices fall by 1 percent.
It said the best annual apartment performance with double-digit growth was recorded in highly demanded Palm Jumeirah (21.2 percent), as well as established locations such as Jumeirah Beach Residence (16.3 percent), Burj Khalifa (13.7 percent), The Views (11.2 percent) and The Greens (10.3 percent).
Villa capital values grew at a constant monthly rate, with some areas seeing prices become stable such as Mudon (0.5 percent) and Green Community West (0.7 percent).
On an annual basis, the top villa area performers were Jumeirah Islands (40.7 percent), Arabian Ranches (39.4 percent), The Lakes (36.7 percent) and Palm Jumeirah (34.4 percent).
In fact, February saw villas located in Palm Jumeirah go beyond their peaks of 2014 by 3 percent with 123.8 VPI points.
ValuStrat said February residential sales transaction volumes increased 18.9 percent when compared to the previous month and 105.4 percent higher than the same period last year.
It added that the month-on-month performance saw cash and mortgage sales of ready properties grow 48.1 percent, but off-plan Oqood (contract) registrations declined 5.8 percent, representing 42.9 percent of overall home transactions.
February also saw 17 transactions valued over AED30 million, with one such transaction of an off-plan 5-bedroom apartment located in Business Bay selling for AED68.9 million.
Topping the sales charts overall were properties developed by Emaar (19.1 percent), Damac (14.3 percent), Nakheel (11.3 percent), Azizi (6.7 percent) and Dubai Properties (4.9 percent).
Top off-plan locations transacted in February included projects located in Meydan One (14.8 percent), Business Bay (11.4 percent), Dubai Creek Harbour (7.2 percent) and Jumeirah Village (6.9 percent).
Most transacted ready homes were in Damac Lagoons (10.5 percent), Al Furjan (9.3 percent), Jumeirah Village (8.5 percent), Business Bay (7.3 percent) and Dubai Marina (4.9 percent).
ValuStrat said Jumeirah Village and Al Furjan broke their individual records with the greatest number of homes sold in one month since 2010.
