Photo: Maher Naim/Flickr
The head of a large Middle Eastern luxury home developer saw something of Dubai in Toronto’s real estate market when he visited the major Canadian city recently.
“In a way, Toronto and Dubai share a number of similarities,” says Hussain Sajwani, chairman of DAMAC International, in a news release sent out this week.
“Both cities continue to attract skilled professionals and investors who are looking for a stable, friendly market to raise their families while offering strong investment returns on property purchases,” he says.
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Those weren’t the only similarities Sajwani, who while in town met with Toronto Mayor John Tory, observes. “Both cities are leading in attracting top talent from around the world,” he adds.
Dubai and Toronto are in the ranks of the “world’s most dynamic startup cities,” according to the 2016-2017 Startup Cities Index from Nestpick, a furnished apartment search site for international renters. Toronto placed 10th on the 85-city index, while Dubai snagged the number-29 slot.
The head of DAMAC, which has about 19,000 homes, continues: “Both [Dubai and Toronto] offer a rich, culturally diverse environment that is safe, vibrant and family friendly, but most importantly, both cities have a burgeoning property market that continues to show resilience and is able to deliver strong returns,” Sajwani notes.
While Toronto’s housing market has been cooling as buyers and sellers adjust to Ontario’s Fair Housing Plan, including a foreign-homebuyer tax for the city and its environs, the moderating phase isn’t expected to last long.
Meantime, the property market in Dubai, a city known for its wealth — and mind-bending exercises in architecture and development — has been showing signs of recovery after a recent slowdown.
While the Dubai market picks up, DAMAC is in the midst of international expansion, the news release suggests.
