Ramadan 2023, are 'Sofa Surfers' set to break another Dubai real estate record?

As the Suhour season whirls into full swing, the question I am asked most often, without fail, multiple times per day/night will be, 'How does the month of Ramadan affect Dubai's real estate market?'

As businesses across the city take a more leisurely pace with reduced working hours and an increase in annual leave requests flooding in, the real estate market historically bucks the trend!

Anticipating my opening Kharoub fuelled questioning and ensuring I am Ramadan-ready, I asked our data analysts to review the past three years of company activity, both online and offline during Ramadan, to see if the numbers match what our agents feel on the ground.

Three data points stood out a mile, and I am sure these will be the same for many real estate agencies across Dubai during Ramadan.

• Allsopp & Allsopp organic web traffic climbed on average 198%
• Allsopp & Allsopp's unique web page views increased by 187%
• Allsopp & Allsopp web conversion rates also saw a staggering increase of 150% vs the month's pre/post-Ramadan

Speaking to our Client Administration teams, we also see a direct positive impact on our bottom-line business:

• Client property viewings (+4%)
• Rental transactions completed (+13%)
• Sales transactions completed (+4.5%).**

One point that caught me completely off-guard was the dip in new property listings coming to market during Ramadan, dropping a whopping 65%.

My takeaways: socialisation, screen time and new seller opportunities!

Ramadan is a time when many people are far more social than usual. We all make a concerted effort to visit/entertain friends, family and colleagues (outside of the office) and come back inspired by some of the homes we see in person and shared over social media.

Factor in shorter working days and more time glued to our mobile phones, and soon the lure of a new 'dream home' gets us all (I am even guilty of looking across our website sometimes!).

With such a busy social schedule, the last thing on many people's minds during Ramadan is to place their home on the market - when our data suggests quite the opposite, and this may be a great time to list your property with an agent, given the increased organic visibility from well-intentioned, online clients and increased physical viewings/sales transactions!

Speaking to our Operations Director, Paul Kelly, he confirmed to me, "As people finish work earlier, we see a new 2-3hr property viewing window open during Ramadan. This results in buyers/sellers turbo-charging their time and trying to complete deals faster than any other time of year. Therefore, we prepare our agents well before Ramadan to adjust viewing schedules and seller expectations to cater for these peak viewing hours."

In conclusion, as Ramadan moves further from the Dubai summer heat, the increasing trend for midweek property viewings and real estate transactions will likely continue. The only challenge we continue to witness is the drastic undersupply of available properties on the secondary market, causing prices in key residential areas to continue climbing.