India Leads Overseas Interest in Dubai Property Market

Dubai's property market continues to draw strong interest from abroad, with fresh data from fäm Properties showing India as the single largest source of international search traffic over the past three months.

The brokerage's figures, which strip out UAE-based searches to isolate overseas interest, put India at 20.59%, ahead of the United Kingdom at 13.26% and Egypt at 12.60%. The United States (8.99%) and Pakistan (6.94%) round out the top five, while Saudi Arabia, Australia, Germany, France and Canada fill out the remaining top ten spots.

India's position at the top isn't a surprise, given the country's deep-rooted ties to Dubai's property market, a large resident Indian population in the UAE, established trade relationships, and a steady appetite among Indian investors for real estate as a way to diversify overseas.

Firas Al Msaddi, CEO of fäm Properties, was careful to frame the numbers as an indicator rather than a forecast, noting that search interest doesn't translate directly into completed deals. Even so, he pointed out that online search activity tends to precede transaction data by several months, making it a useful early signal of where demand is building before it shows up in official sales figures.

One notable absence from the rankings: China, historically one of the most active buyer nationalities in the Dubai market. Al Msaddi attributed this to how Chinese buyers typically operate, leaning on agent networks, developer relationships and word-of-mouth rather than searching independently online. A similar dynamic may explain why Russia, also traditionally a top-five buyer nationality, sits well down the list in 12th place at 2.50%.

Top 10 Countries by Share of International Search Traffic