Total real estate transactions crossed the Dh5 billion mark, an all-time high in a single day, as investors rushed to register their properties to save a two per cent transfer fee that will be effective from October 6, according to Dubai Land Department (DLD) data.

Last Thursday, DLD announced that freehold property registration fee in Dubai would be four per cent instead of existing two per cent to curb speculation. The new registration fee covers all types of property transactions in Dubai except for the industrial sector, including warehouses.

Sunday was the first day after the announcement was published and the department recorded Dh5.1 billion transactions — the highest ever in the department’s more than 50-year history.

On Monday the trend continued, but reached Dh1 billion of total transactions. More than Dh6 billion transactions in two days again is another record for the department. Real estate investors saved more than Dh60 million in two days.

The DLD, on Sunday, witnessed Dh2 billion of total registered land deals while transactions worth Dh1.7 billion were registered for apartments and villas. Mortgages on land and apartment and villas were Dh515.5 million and Dh904.8 million, respectively, according to DLD data.

The data shows Palm Jumeirah was the most popular area with transactions increasing Dh640 million followed by Al Nahda one with Dh120 million.

Total transaction value crossed Dh165 billion mark in the year to-date. It was Dh145 billion for the whole of 2012, according to DLD data.

Residential property prices in Dubai jumped nearly 22 per cent in the year to the end of June, according to a recent report from real estate brokerage Knight Frank, making it the top-performing market in the world.

The hiked fee structure, charged equally to the buyer and seller of a property, was aimed at discouraging excessive speculation in the property market, which has seen a major pick-up over the past few months by recording a big surge in transactions, prices and rentals, Sultan Butti bin Mejren, Director-General of the Land Department, told reporters on September 26.

Mejren, justifying the fee hike, said around 110 countries in the world are charging higher property registration fees than Dubai. In the UK, the fee is 4-10 per cent, France eight per cent and India 7.3 per cent. Ruling out any negative impact of the fee hike on the market as some analysts feared, he said it would, on the other  hand, help stabilise the property market that has achieved maturity.