Al Hebiah Fifth: 1,772 Sales, and 93.3 Percent of Them Off-Plan

Al Hebiah Fifth registered 1,772 apartment sales over the last 12 months, and 93.3 percent of them were off-plan. That second figure is the whole story. Almost nobody in this community is buying a finished flat from another owner.

Off-plan share is a measure of who you will compete with on the way out.

At 93.3 percent, the buyers active in Al Hebiah Fifth are overwhelmingly buying from developers. They are choosing a payment plan, a handover date and a render. When you try to sell your unit later, you are asking that same kind of buyer to do something different: pay for a finished flat, in full or with a mortgage, with no post-handover instalments attached.

Some will. Many will not, because the plan was the reason they bought in the first place. That is the risk you take here, and it is worth taking with your eyes open rather than assuming all 1,772 sales represent people who would have bought your unit.

1,772 registered sales in 12 months is a busy community by any measure. Real money is moving.

The catch is that nearly all of that activity is primary market. The resale slice, the part that tells you what a finished unit trades for between two private parties, is the small remainder. That is a far thinner market than the headline count suggests, and it is the only part of the count that maps to your exit.

There are practical consequences. Comparables will be scarce when you price your sale, because most recent registrations are developer sales at launch terms rather than owner to owner deals. And your competition at handover is not only the developer with unsold inventory. It is every other investor who bought the same line, on the same plan, in the same tower, and wants out in the same quarter you do.

Studios accounted for 795 sales. One bedroom units accounted for 703. Two bedroom units accounted for 255.

Studios and one bedroom units are where this market lives. Buy one and you own the most replaceable unit type in a community full of them. On resale you will be one listing among many that look the same on a portal, and the buyer will sort by price.

Two bedroom units are thin at 255 sales. That cuts the other way: fewer competing sellers, but also fewer buyers, and a slower sale when you need one. Neither is wrong. Just know which trade you are making before the reservation form comes out.

The median sale was AED 1,079,500 and the median unit measured 67.6 sqm.

That is a genuine entry point for a first investment property, and it explains why so much off-plan volume lands here. It also gives you a benchmark to argue with. If the unit you are shown is priced well above AED 1,079,500 for something around 67.6 sqm, the developer is asking you to pay for a specific thing. Make them name it, then ask yourself whether a resale buyer will pay for it in a few years when the render is a building and the pool is full.

| Measure | Al Hebiah Fifth, last 12 months |

| Registered sale transactions | 1,772 |

| Median transaction value | AED 1,079,500 |

| Off-plan share | 93.3% |

| Median unit size | 67.6 sqm |

| Studio sales | 795 |

| One bedroom sales | 703 |

| Two bedroom sales | 255 |

Source: registered Dubai Land Department sale transactions, apartments only, priced AED 200,000 to AED 2.5 million, last 12 months. Al Hebiah Fifth is the community name the Land Department puts on the registration record, which is often not the name printed on the marketing material.

The off-plan share is not a reason to walk away. It is a reason to be specific.

Ask when your tower hands over, and what else hands over within a few hundred metres in the same window. That is your competition, and you can find it out before you commit. Ask what the developer still holds unsold in your building, because unsold stock at handover means the developer is selling next to you with better terms than you can offer. Ask what the payment plan does to your exit: if you plan to sell before handover, know the transfer rules and the fee, in writing, on your specific contract.

Then buy the unit the next person will want. Not the cheapest one on the floor plan.

Oliva underwrites one specific unit for you, free. The line, the floor, the handover quarter, the developer's remaining inventory, checked against the registered transactions in the community. Sometimes we say buy. Sometimes we say wait for the next phase. Often enough we say do not buy, and we say it plainly, because Oliva is a Dubai brokerage with no paid placements and no developer commission changes our answer.