Just five years ago, the U.A.E. city recorded only 30 home sales priced at $10 million and above.
2 min
Dubai had a banner year in 2025, logging a record-breaking number of home sales at $10 million and above, according to a report from Knight Frank on Monday.
The U.A.E. city closed out the year with 500 sales valued at $10 million-plus—including 68 homes that sold for more than $25 million, another all-time high—producing a total value of $9.05 billion, a 27.7% increase of 2024’s luxury sales volume of $7.09 billion.
A strong fourth quarter helped propel the market to these record numbers, with 143 homes selling for more than $10 million during the final three months of the year, up from 103 in the third quarter.
Regional and worldwide luxury buyers alike continue to be compelled to buy property in Dubai, “attracted by the high quality of life, world-class amenities and infrastructure, enabled by the government’s ambitious investment programs,” Faisal Durrani, partner and head of research for Knight Frank’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, said in the report.
“Dubai’s meteoric rise as the world’s busiest market for $10 million-plus homes, having increased from just 30 sales in 2020 to 500 by the end of 2025, is best reflected in the emirate’s growing reputation as a magnet for the global elite,” he said.
The tree-shaped man-made island of Palm Jumeirah retained its spot as the most popular community for luxury home buyers, recording 28 sales of homes valued at more than $10 million during the fourth quarter.
The yet-to-be-completed Palm Jebel Ali—which closely resembles the shape of Palm Jumeirah—was close behind with 22 sales. It’s expected to be completed in 2028.
“At 50% larger than its established neighbor Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali remains a destination to watch,” said Will McKintosh, regional partner and head of residential for MENA.
“While it will obviously take time to reach the maturity of other established communities, the 2025 sales figures are a welcome indication of its high potential and the growing demand from the wealthiest buyers for prime waterfront property and the luxury Dubai lifestyle.”
The priciest deal of the quarter was for a six-bedroom apartment in Bugatti Residences by Binghatti, within the Business Bay community.
The 47,200-square-foot home sold for AED 550 million (US$149.7 million), setting a U.A.E. sale price record for a penthouse.
The previous record was held by a 22,000-square-foot penthouse at the Como Residences on the Palm Jumeirah that sold for AED 500 million in November 2023.
Copyright 2020, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. LEARN MORE
Following the successful launch of its Palais Collection, MAISON de SABRÉ has unveiled a new modular handbag system offering more than 720 styling combinations.
Automobili Lamborghini and Babolat have expanded their collaboration with five new colourways for the ultra-exclusive BL.001 racket, limited to just 50 pieces worldwide.
Kit Braden, an executive at French beauty empire L’Occitane, has spent every winter for the past 13 years at the stone vacation home.
2 min
A historic Barbados estate with a 300-year-old villa and 11 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea is now for sale with a guide price of $22.5 million.
The seller is Kit Braden, chairman of the U.K. branch of French beauty empire L’Occitane Group, whose family has spent every winter for the last 13 years at the island property, known as Fustic Estate.
“It’s very much a family house,” Braden said. “We love having a lot of people there. It’s a collection point to keep everyone together.”
The main villa dates to 1712, though it’s been reimagined and expanded substantially over the years.
It spans 13,000 square feet and features seven en suite bedrooms across three wings, as well as expansive verandas, stone courtyards and rows of louvered doors in gay Caribbean pastels.
In the 1970s, when the home was owned by Charles Graves—brother of British poet Robert Graves—it was reimagined by stage designer Oliver Messel, one of the foremost theater designers of the last century. Messel expanded the home, added a lagoon pool with a natural waterfall and other theatrical features, according to Braden.
“The whole place is a little bit magical,” he said.
The home sits about 350 feet above the water, and surrounded by lush gardens that slope towards the water.
“We look down through our garden—which is about 12 acres of tropical gardens and palm trees and wonderful old mahogany trees—onto the Caribbean,” Braden said.
He and his wife first saw the property on New Year’s Eve 2013, during a quick trip from where they were staying in Grenada.
The couple spent an hour walking the perimeter, some of it still untouched jungle, in the pouring rain.
“By the time we got back, I had fallen in love with it,” Braden said.
His wife, however, wasn’t so sure. But in Braden’s telling, a second visit in sunnier weather with two of their children brought her around.
“She had to be talked into that it was a jolly good idea; now she absolutely loves it,” he said.
When they bought the property, the edge that runs along the waterfront was a jungle, so they cleared the ridge and transformed it into gardens.
They also bought an additional sea-level parcel with two beach cottages, giving the property direct access to the water and the town below via a five-minute walk.
The property also has a 15-person staff, a reflecting pond, an outdoor pavilion suitable for yoga and a commercial grade kitchen that can serve more than 100 guests, according to a brochure from Knight Frank, which posted the listing in March. They did not provide further comment.
For Braden, the property is special because of its natural beauty, its proximity to the town of Saint Lucy and its history—which dates way way back to when the island of Barbados was first formed via tectonic activity.
“It was basically tectonic plates that collided about a million years ago so the seabed is the top of the hill,” Braden said. “We’re on coral rock.”
As a result, Fustic Estate includes an extensive network of caves that were likely used by the Arawaks, a Venezuelan fishing tribe that followed the fish to these islands about a thousand years ago.
“If the fish were good they’d camp here,” Braden said. “There’s evidence that they stayed there in those caves, they lived there in good winters.”
Now it’s someone else’s turn to live on the land shared by Arawaks, the plantation owners of 1712, Charles Graves and the Braden brood.
