A record has been set for the most expensive apartment sale in Dubai as the property market continues to ride the momentum from last year.
The sale, worth Dh410 million ($112 million), was for a penthouse at Bulgari Lighthouse development at Jumeirah Bay.
The property is an off-plan purchase for a nine-bedroom home with five parking spaces, Dubai Land Department data show.
Set across 38,970 square feet, the price means it sold at Dh10,521 per square foot, with the deal registered on February 1.
Bulgari Lighthouse is a 27-storey residence overlooking the sea, and will have 31 penthouses, plus the three-level sky villa.
The development, by Meraas, has been designed by renowned architectural firm Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel, and the building “embodies Italian contemporary aesthetics while taking inspiration from the natural world and the beautiful surrounding landscape”, according to the project's website.
Property prices across Dubai rocketed last year, particularly in the prime sector, as the market and wider economy bounced back from the coronavirus-induced slowdown.
A record for ultra-luxury property deals was set, with 219 sales of homes valued at $10 million and above.
Dubai’s prime residential market registered transactions worth Dh30.7 billion ($8.35 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2022, reflecting a volume growth of about 40 per cent from the third quarter, a report by Luxhabitat Sotheby’s International Realty found.
The average price of property in prime areas was Dh6.9 million, with 9,836 units sold, it said.
As well as records for the total number of transactions, records were also set for the most expensive property sale and highest rental deal during 2022.
Record transaction numbers have continued into 2023, with 9,879 sales transactions worth more than Dh28 billion recorded in January.
That is a more than 128 per cent year-on-year increase in volume after 5,739 transactions were completed in January 2022.
“In terms of value, the transactions for existing properties witnessed an increase of around 42 per cent year on year, reaching over Dh16 billion, compared to Dh11.4 billion in January 2022, recording highest volume and value for the month for in a decade,” Property Finder said.
“Off-plan transactions witnessed remarkable performance, with a 90 per cent year-on-year increase, recording over 5,000 transactions, compared to 3,086 in January 2022, as well as an increase of 130 per cent in value worth more than Dh12.1 billion, as opposed to Dh5.3 billion during the same time last year.
“This was recorded as the highest volume and value for off-plan transactions for the month of January over the last decade.”
Last month, Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed described the emirate's property market performance as “exceptional” and said it would help achieve its vision to be “one of the world’s top three cities”.
“The results also support the goal of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33 … to double the size of Dubai's economy by 2033,” he said. “The sector is a pillar of Dubai's strategy for sustainable development and a vital driver of its 2040 Urban Master Plan.”
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Family: I am happily married to my wife Liz and we have two children together.
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Who are the Sacklers?
The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.
Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma.
It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.
Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".
The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.
Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
