Dubai Real Estate Market Report — 2025

Dubai Real Estate Market Report – 2025

Dubai's property market ended 2025 at a record high on the two counts that matter most. The emirate recorded 215,583 transactions worth AED 686.22 billion across every property type — the highest annual volume and the highest annual value in the series. Set plots and buildings aside, and the core Apartment, Villa and Commercial market made up 211,130 deals, up 19%, and AED 560.08 billion in value, up 27% year on year.

Apartments led the expansion, but the story runs wide: all three core segments posted fresh volume and price-per-square-foot highs, rents rose on every line, and developers launched far more than they handed over. It was the fifth straight year of double-digit growth.

Headline figures

The market in context

Apartment, Villa and Commercial transactions and value over the last seven years to 2025:

Year-on-year performance by category

Apartments did the heavy lifting. The segment logged 170,308 transactions, up 20% and 28,201 deals more than the prior year, for AED 332.72 billion in value (+26%). At AED 1,732 per square foot, apartment pricing climbed 6% on the year and sits 44% above its 2014 level, while the median ticket nudged up just 2% to AED 1,294,000 — volume, not ticket inflation, powered the segment. Both its volume and its price per square foot were the highest in the 12-year series.

Villas were a pricing story. Volume grew a more measured 11% to 34,727 deals (3,452 more than 2024), yet value leapt 25% to AED 209.10 billion on firmer pricing. The villa median reached AED 1,520 per square foot, up 13% on the year and 107% above its 2014 level, and the median ticket rose 10% to AED 3,613,888 — comfortably the largest of the three core segments. Villas, too, set series highs for both volume and price per square foot.

Commercial was the fastest mover in percentage terms. Transactions jumped 41% to 6,095 and value nearly doubled, up 88% to AED 18.26 billion. Pricing rose 30% to AED 1,820 per square foot — the highest per-square-foot figure among the three core categories — sitting 70% above 2014, with the median ticket up 31% to AED 1,822,126. From a smaller base, the segment still notched its own volume and price-per-square-foot records.

Every category, including plots and buildings

Beyond the core segments, plots added AED 125.93 billion across 4,388 transactions, ranking third by total value behind apartments and villas. Land carries by far the heaviest ticket of any category, the median plot trading at AED 6,400,000 — well above the villa median — even as its AED 556 per square foot reflects the raw-land basis. Buildings were a negligible slice, at 65 deals and AED 211.91 million.

Primary versus resale

Off-plan kept its dominance. Primary sales made up 70% of core volume and 68% of value — 147,054 deals worth AED 379.32 billion. The resale market took the remaining 64,076 transactions (30% of volume) but AED 180.76 billion, or 32% of value: a 2-point gap in which resale claims a slightly larger share of value than of volume, in line with completed stock trading at higher tickets than the average off-plan launch.

Where the activity was

Activity clustered in familiar places. Business Bay led by value at AED 34.15 billion, followed by Marsa Dubai (AED 28.47 billion), Dubai Investment Park Second (AED 23.27 billion), Al Barsha South Fourth (AED 21.28 billion) and Dubai South (AED 20.50 billion). By deal count, Al Barsha South Fourth headed the table with 18,688 transactions, ahead of Business Bay, Wadi Al Safa 5, Dubai South and Jabal Ali First. Three areas — Business Bay, Al Barsha South Fourth and Dubai South — show up on both the value and volume leaderboards, marking them as the market's true centres of gravity, where high prices and high turnover meet.

Rental market

The rental market firmed right across the board — every new and renewal line rose in 2025. New apartment leases grew 11.41% to 149,808 contracts, the median new rent up 9.09% to AED 72,000; renewals reached 173,316 contracts at a median AED 57,750. Villa demand grew fastest: new villa contracts rose 14.95% to 19,999, with medians of AED 185,000 for new leases and AED 157,500 for renewals. Commercial rents led on price momentum, new leases up 14.29% to a median AED 120,000 — a reminder that tenant costs rose on the apartment and commercial fronts as well as for villas.

Supply

Supply ran heavily toward the pipeline rather than handover. Developers launched 157,011 units across 588 projects while delivering 45,183 units across 167 — a launch-to-delivery ratio of roughly 3.5 to 1 and a net 111,828 more units launched than delivered, a sizeable forward book of stock still under construction.

Most expensive sales

Top apartment sales

1. AED 203,030,000 – Jumeirah Residences Asora Bay, Jumeirah First
2. AED 173,640,867 – Aman Residences Tower 1, Jumeirah Second
3. AED 170,000,000 – Peninsula Dubai Residences - Tower 1, Jumeirah Second
4. AED 116,000,000 – The Rings - 1, Jumeirah Second
5. AED 99,653,000 – Solaya 3, Jumeirah First

Top villa sales

1. AED 425,000,000 – Emirates Living
2. AED 350,000,000 – Jumeirah First
3. AED 300,000,000 – Palm Jumeirah
4. AED 250,000,000 – Jumeirah Second
5. AED 158,000,000 – Wadi Al Safa 3

Notes on methodology

Scope. Headline totals and the category table span every property category in the data, Plot and Building included. The primary/resale split, top-area rankings and the year-on-year series cover only Apartment, Villa and Commercial, so those figures are intentionally smaller than the headline and should not be summed across sections.

Rounding. The headline totals are the authoritative rounded figures. Category-level breakdowns are rounded on their own and may not add up exactly to the headline.

Definitions. Price figures are medians rather than averages. Year-on-year sets the period against the same period a year earlier. All values are in AED; areas in square feet.