Dubai property sales decreased by 19 percent in May compared to April, according to data from research firm Reidin. The sales totaled 22.5 billion dirhams in May, a 42 percent decrease from the April figure.

Current property transaction volumes there are below 50 percent of the volume recorded at the same period last year. Haider Tuaima, Head of Real Estate Research at ValuStrat, said. "The ready homes market has not recorded an annual decline of this magnitude since the pandemic." Sellers of luxury properties in Dubai have reduced asking prices by tens of millions of pounds.

Prior to this, property sales in April decreased by 4 percent compared to March. The 22.5 billion dirhams sold in May were approximately half of the 46.6 billion dirhams sold in the month preceding the outbreak of an armed conflict that escalated in the Middle East in late February. An Iranian projectile struck a hotel in the Palm Jumeirah area in March.

Yasin Valimulla, a buying agent, said. "We have sold to super-high-net-worth guys in the last year and a half, and every single one of them has now left Dubai." "There was a lot of panic in March and there is still not much clarity to this day," Valimulla said. He added that Western European buyers are now more reluctant to purchase properties there, preferring to wait one to two years depending on how events unfold. "Western European buyers are now more reluctant to buy properties here. I think they want to wait out maybe a year, even two years. It depends on how things play out," he said.

High-net-worth property buyers are currently purchasing real estate in cities such as Milan, London, and Singapore. "The numbers were so high to begin with, especially in the last two years. The market at that level was not sustainable anyway," Valimulla said. "There is going to be a correction in pricing, we just do not know the impact of that correction until we have [geopolitical] clarity." "The slowdown in sales is putting pressure on those smaller agencies that set up in a frothy market. There were about 1,000 brokers in the market a decade ago – now it’s about 10,000. That is going to fall," said Richard Waind, Representative of Cencorp.

No independent assessment was available for this report.