Dr. Anand on Dubai 2025: Records, Real Estate & What's Next

Dubai Just Had Its Best Year Ever — Here's What Comes Next

After a longer-than-planned hiatus, the AJ Podcast is back — and we brought Dr. Anand with us. In our first episode of 2025, we covered a lot of ground: Sheikh Mohammed's year-in-review, the E33 education strategy, the Dubai Green Spine, Abu Dhabi's rise, Ras Al Khaimah's casino play, and whether the real estate market is heading for a correction (spoiler: Dr. Anand doesn't think so).

Here are the sharpest points from the conversation.

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2024 by the Numbers: A Record That Speaks for Itself

Sheikh Mohammed's annual review set the tone. According to the official figures Dr. Anand walked us through:

Non-oil trade hit AED 2.8 trillion — a first in UAE history
Foreign direct investment touched AED 130 billion
200,000 new businesses were registered in a single year, averaging 758 new companies every single day
The UAE signed 140 international agreements — roughly one every two and a half days

"Seven out of every eight businesses registered last year were by international companies or expats. That is a very strong statement of confidence for Dubai."

The real estate market matched that energy. Dubai closed 2024 with 226,000 transactions worth AED 760+ billion — a 36% increase in transaction volume and 21% increase in value over 2023. Over the last 49 months, prices have risen at an average of 1.23% per month, compounding to a 60.27% total gain in four years. In 2024 alone, prices moved 16.5%.

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The E33 Education Agenda: Families Are the Next Wave

The D33 economic agenda gets most of the attention, but Dr. Anand made a case for why the E33 education strategy may be just as important for long-term growth.

The headline targets: Dubai wants to rank among the top 10 education cities in the world and achieve a 1,000% increase in education tourism over the next nine years. That means global conferences, young leaders summits, and research events — not just students enrolling in schools.

On the school supply side, 49,000 new seats are being added in the affordable category, while premium institutions are also expanding. One upcoming school — a research and innovation campus — carries a construction budget of AED 367 million.

"You have the best year in business ever, you have the highest number of millionaire migrations — but do you have the schools that the caliber of families coming here are looking for? Now you do."

The Knowledge and Innovation district next to Silicon Oasis is central to this push, and Dr. Anand expects the area to draw some of the world's top universities as the 2040 Urban Master Plan develops.

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The Real Estate Market: Bulls, Bears, and Frames of Reference

We asked the question many investors are sitting with: with so many launches and handovers happening simultaneously, is the market overheating?

Dr. Anand's answer was structured around what he calls a "frame of reference" problem. Most skeptics come from mortgage-driven, ready-home markets where off-plan is uncommon. They apply that lens to Dubai and it doesn't fit.

"Once these units are absorbed, if developers start launching, it makes sense to them — because it matches the historical property cycle they're comfortable with. But that is not the Dubai model."

The supply-demand math: 306,000 units are currently under construction, with 71% less than 20% complete — meaning they won't enter the market for two to three years. In that same window, 250,000 people are expected to arrive annually. Dubai is projecting 2.5 million new residents over the next nine years.

"The launches of today are not for you to buy to live in today. They are to take care of 1.5 million people arriving between 2028 and 2033."

On rentals, a new building-by-building rental index (replacing the previous area-based system) has been introduced to prevent landlords with older, lower-quality stock from riding the coattails of premium developments.

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The Dubai Green Spine and the Engineered City Advantage

The E311 Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road — all 64 kilometres of it — is being converted into what developer URB is calling the world's greenest highway corridor. The same firm behind the Dubai Hyperloop concept and the 100-million mangrove tree initiative, URB's Green Spine plan includes:

1 million trees along the corridor
340 megawatts of solar power
Non-motorised jogging and cycling tracks
Porous surfaces to eliminate flooding
Vertical farms and retail integrated into the landscape
IoT and AI management that adjusts cooling, traffic flow, and footfall in real time based on live data

This sits within a broader 2040 target: 60% of Dubai's land area designated as marine or natural zones.

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Ras Al Khaimah and Abu Dhabi: The UAE Is Bigger Than One City

Abu Dhabi has quietly been building its own case. It has held the title of world's safest city for eight consecutive years and now ranks as the most livable city in the Middle East according to The Economist. Hedge funds — including names like BlackRock — are establishing regional headquarters there, and it recently became one of the leading crypto exchange hubs globally.

Ras Al Khaimah is the more dramatic story. Property values in certain projects near Wynn Al Marjan Island have already jumped 60–75%. Dr. Anand draws the comparison clearly:

"The relationship between Dubai and RAK will be like Hong Kong and Macau. People who have never visited Dubai before — large numbers from China and Southeast Asia — will come for RAK's casino and then spend time in Dubai. It feeds both cities."

On where RAK waterfront pricing could go once the full development is operational, Dr. Anand put AED 10,000 per square foot on the table as achievable by 2028–2029, up from current launch prices — though he was clear that depends on which global brands eventually anchor there.

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Infrastructure Budget: Building for 6 Million People

Sheikh Mohammed's three-year budget for 2025–2027 stands at AED 272 billion — nearly four times the national debt Dubai carried during the 2008 crisis. This year alone, AED 86.27 billion is allocated, broken down as:

46% into infrastructure
30% into social agendas and quality of life
18% into safety, security and emergency response
6% into AI, innovation and government transparency

Road construction alone accounts for AED 16 billion, with 634 kilometres of internal roads coming between 2025 and 2029 across 21 projects — designed to handle a city of 6 million people.

The Al Maktoum International Airport expansion, targeting 260 million passengers across five phases, sits on top of all of this.

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The full conversation covers much more than what fits here — including the concept of engineered versus organic cities, the cognitive city model where AI manages your home and schedule, and the broader question of whether Dubai's pace can be sustained. Pull up the episode to hear Dr. Anand make that case in full.

If you are a founder, investor or executive with a story to tell, we would love to have you on the show. Apply to be a guest at Dubai Stars and let's get you on record.