Dubai Real Estate Market Report — 2026

Dubai Real Estate Market Report – 2026

In 2026, Dubai's property market has logged 91,214 transactions across every property type, worth AED 301.41 billion, at a citywide median of AED 1,731/sqft. Because the year has not yet finished, these year-to-date totals compare unfavourably with a full 2025: on the apartment, villa and commercial basis, volume has fallen 58% to 89,448 deals and value has fallen 55% to AED 249.96 billion year on year.

Even so, that sharp drop in activity has not dented pricing. The median price per square foot has barely moved, and two categories reached new 13-year series highs on that measure despite the fall in deal counts.

Year-to-date: this reporting period has not yet closed, so every figure that follows is a year-to-date (YTD) reading and remains subject to change as the period completes.

Headline figures

The market in context

Transactions and value for Apartments, Villas and Commercial across the seven years leading up to 2026:

Year-on-year performance by category

Apartments were the main driver of the decline. The category recorded 72,482 transactions, a 57% annual drop and the weakest yearly volume since 2022, while value slipped 59% to AED 137.82 billion. Pricing, though, hardly shifted: the median stood at AED 1,725/sqft (unchanged year on year, and 44% above 2014), and the median ticket edged down just 2% to AED 1,268,375. What collapsed here was transaction count, not price.

Villas took the biggest hit on volume yet strengthened on price. Sales fell 61% to 13,372, the weakest annual volume since 2020, with value down 56% to AED 91.97 billion. Countering that, the median price per square foot climbed 13% to AED 1,717 — the highest annual figure across the 13-year series and 133% above 2014 — while the median ticket rose 12% to AED 4,042,000, a sign of demand shifting toward higher-value stock.

Commercial broke the pattern on value. Volume dropped 41% to 3,594 (its lowest level since 2022), yet value climbed 10% to AED 20.17 billion — the only one of the three tracked sale categories to post value growth this year. Pricing drove that gain: the median rose to AED 3,062/sqft, up 68% and a new 13-year series high (186% above 2014), while the median ticket surged 50% to AED 2,734,648.

When every property type is ranked by total value, the sequence reads Apartment, Villa, Plot, Commercial, then Building. Plots hold third place despite a much smaller number of deals, and they carry the largest median ticket of any category at AED 5,861,073 — evidence that value and volume are distributed quite differently across the market.

Every category, including plots and buildings

Plots posted 1,725 transactions worth AED 51.12 billion, enough to rank third by value ahead of commercial despite a modest deal count, at a median of AED 532/sqft. Their median ticket of AED 5,861,073 tops every other category. Buildings, meanwhile, were a negligible slice of the market — 41 deals worth AED 332.57 million.

Primary versus resale

Primary sales dominated the market, capturing 73% of volume and 71% of value — 64,869 deals worth AED 178.58 billion. Resale made up the balance, at 27% of volume and 29% of value, or 24,579 deals worth AED 71.38 billion, a slightly larger share of value than of volume.

Where the activity was

Business Bay ranked first by value at AED 16.62 billion, ahead of Dubai South, Al Yelayiss 1, Dubai Islands and Me'Aisem Second. On the volume measure, Dubai South came out on top with 9,452 transactions, ahead of Al Barsha South Fourth and Wadi Al Safa 5. Dubai South was the sole area to place on both the value and volume leaderboards.

Rental market

Rental contract volumes declined sharply across every segment. However, rent movements split by lease type: renewal rents increased across all three property types — apartments +3.90% (AED 60,000), villas +4.76% (AED 165,000) and commercial +5.26% (AED 120,000) — whereas new-lease rents were uneven, easing 1.39% for apartments and 2.70% for villas but rising 9.38% for commercial to AED 131,250.

Supply

Developers brought 34,397 units to market across 102 projects, while 21,607 units were completed across 92 — a launch-to-delivery ratio of 1.6 and a net of 12,790 more units launched than delivered.

Most expensive sales

Top apartment sales

1. AED 422,000,000 – Aman Residences Tower 2, Jumeirah Second
2. AED 356,232,500 – Aman Residences Tower 1, Jumeirah Second
3. AED 210,000,000 – Peninsula Dubai Residences - Tower 2, Jumeirah Second
4. AED 121,841,000 – Baccarat Residence T1, Downtown Dubai
5. AED 112,603,000 – Solaya 5, Jumeirah First

Top villa sales

1. AED 350,000,000 – Jumeirah First
2. AED 145,000,000 – Palm Jumeirah
3. AED 134,000,000 – Emirates Living
4. AED 96,300,000 – Hadaeq Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid
5. AED 85,000,000 – Jumeirah Bay Islands

Notes on methodology

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

Rounding. The headline totals stand as the authoritative rounded figures, while category-level breakdowns are rounded on their own and may not add up exactly to the headline.

Definitions. Price figures reflect medians rather than averages, and year-on-year comparisons set the period against the equivalent period twelve months earlier. All values are stated in AED; areas in square feet.