Dubai Silicon Oasis, the emirate's integrated free zone technology park, has emerged as the in-demand residential hostspot in February overtaking Dubai Marina as the top area to rent apartments in the city, said a new report by UAE property portal Bayut.

Each month, Bayut.com reveals the top areas in Dubai for buying and renting both apartments and villas, along with price trends and comparisons to January.

This report is focused on how the Dubai property market fared in February 2018, based on listings and user searches on Bayut.com

In its February report, Bayut said rents for one- and two-bedroom units at Dubai Silicon Oasis were Dh55,000 and Dh80,000 respectively, representing a 0.20 per cent drop for the latter while the former stayed stable. The price of studios in the neighbourhood dropped five per cent to Dh38,000.
 
Last month’s most searched for area, Dubai Marina came in third place. Rents of studio, 1 and 2 beds here were Dh62,000, Dh88,000 and Dh130,000 respectively. The annual rent of two-beds remained the same as in January 2018, but studios dropped by 4.62 per cent and one-beds increased by 3.53 per cent.

The neighbourhood of Jumeirah was the most searched for area by Bayut.com users. 3-beds here were listed at an average annual rent of Dh177,500 dropping by less than 2 per cent, 4-beds decreased by 8.33 per cent to Dh220,000 and the rent of 5-beds stayed the same as in January 2018 at Dh280,000.

According to Bayut, the most affordable area to rent a villa in February 2018 is Mirdif, even though prices of 3-beds increased to Dh115,000. However, 4-bed properties here declined by 3.85 per cent to Dh125,000.
 
Just as in January 2018, the most popular area for those looking to buy an apartment in Dubai is Dubai Marina. The average sale price of studios increased slightly to Dh85,400 while 1 and 2 bedrooms here declined to Dh1.2 million and Dh2.02 million, i.e., by 4.25 per cent and 7.95 per cent respectively.

The expected average ROI for apartments in Dubai stayed relatively stable as compared to January 2018 at 6.58 per cent - less that 1 per cent more than what it was in January.

Once again, Bayut said the most searched for area by people looking to buy a villa was Arabian Ranches.

The average sale price of villas here increased slightly compared to the previous month. Three bedroom villas in Arabian Ranches were listed at Dh3.12 million, (0.8 per cent more), 4-beds at Dh4.25 million (1.2 per cent more) and 5-beds at Dh5.2 million (3.3 per cent more).

The average ROI for villas in February increased by 1.34 per cent compared to January, ending at 5.29 per cent, said the report.

The property market in Dubai showed stability in February 2018, with the greatest price fluctuations caused by the influx of off-plan properties in certain areas, it added.-TradeArabia News Service