Dubai Real Estate Market Report — March, 2026

fäm Properties · Dubai Real Estate Market Report · March 2026

Dubai property sales fall 11% in March 2026

AED 43.39 billion in sales, with a median price of AED 1,726/sqft across all property types.

By Fateh Al Msaddi, Founder, DXBinteract. Updated 2026-10-17; source data retrieved 2026-10-16.

Dubai recorded 13,501 property sales worth AED 43.39 billion in March 2026, across all property types. Sales count fell 10.9% year on year, while the median sale price per sqft rose 9.7% to AED 1,726. DXBinteract analysis of Dubai Land Department records provides the figures behind this fäm Properties report.

Fewer sales did not mean a lower median price per sqft

March brought a decline in sales count and total value compared with a year earlier, while the median price per sqft increased. That divergence is the central finding: less activity and a higher median can occur together when the properties that trade differ from the earlier period.

The figures offer no support for assuming that every seller faced the same conditions. Apartment, villa and townhouse transactions sit in different price bands, and primary purchases are a different population from resales. For a realistic reading of March, the segment and channel matter as much as the citywide direction.

The underlying figures and their source report are available in the DXBinteract March 2026 market report. This fäm Properties edition interprets the same snapshot for buyers, sellers, tenants and landlords.

Sales count fell 20.8% from February 2026

Dubai recorded 13,501 sales in March 2026, compared with 17,040 in February 2026, across all property types. The 20.8% decrease is a comparison of the two saved snapshots. The year-on-year comparison remains the primary reference because adjacent periods can be affected by seasonality and transaction mix.

Developer purchases make up 76.4% of transactions

In Dubai, March 2026 primary purchases totalled 10,312 transactions worth AED 31.24 billion, representing 76.4% of all sales by count and 72.0% by value. The resale segment recorded 3,189 sales worth AED 12.15 billion. These are all-property-type figures from DXBinteract analysis of DLD records.

Primary means a purchase directly from a developer. It can include ready developer stock. Resale means a secondary-market purchase, which can include an off-plan resale. The channel split therefore cannot be relabelled as off-plan versus ready. Differences between these medians also do not establish that one channel offers a discount on a comparable property.

Apartment transactions lead the property-type split

Dubai recorded 10,680 apartment sales in March 2026, the highest transaction count among the property types in this snapshot. The table separates counts, total value, median ticket price and median price per sqft, so a change in activity is not mistaken for a change in unit pricing.

For a household, the median sale price gives a different reference from the median price per sqft: one describes the transaction ticket and the other its unit rate. Neither includes an individual buyer’s financing and transaction costs. Medians from categories with fewer than 50 sales are particularly sensitive to the mix of properties sold; they are shown with their counts rather than treated as a broad pricing signal.

Al Yelayiss 5 leads the reported area table by value

For Dubai in March 2026, Al Yelayiss 5 heads the supplied area table by sales value at AED 3.41 billion, while Dubai South leads by count with 1,000 sales. These rankings cover apartments, villas and commercial property only, excluding townhouses, plots and buildings. They use a narrower basis than the citywide headline.

Activity rankings show where transactions were concentrated, not which area delivered the highest investment return. Area names are retained as recorded. An official DLD land district may contain several communities, so its figures should not be assigned to one smaller community without a matching geographic breakdown.

New apartment leases show a median annual rent of AED 71,000

Dubai’s March 2026 rental snapshot records 7,899 new apartment contracts at a median annual rent of AED 71,000. Apartment renewals numbered 13,471 at a median of AED 58,000. These are different populations of recorded contracts, according to DXBinteract analysis of DLD records.

For a tenant considering a move, the new-contract median is the relevant population to distinguish from renewals. For a landlord reviewing a renewal, the gap between the two medians is not a permitted or expected increase on a particular lease. The report does not specify the underlying rental date basis, so the figures are described as recorded contracts, and rental growth rates are not inferred from rounded percentages alone.

Rental yield is not calculated by dividing these rental medians by unrelated sales medians. A property-level yield needs matched purchase and rental information, and a net yield also depends on ownership costs. Those inputs are outside this snapshot.

7,096 units launched; 2,079 delivered

Dubai’s March 2026 supply summary records 7,096 launched units across 26 projects and 2,079 delivered units across 12 projects. These figures describe two different stages of the development process, not a single measure of stock available for sale.

A launch introduces units into a project’s sales cycle; a delivery brings a completed project into use. Units delivered now may have sold years earlier. Subtracting launches from deliveries therefore does not establish unsold stock, and comparing launched units with transaction count does not produce a reliable absorption rate. No future handover schedule or forecast is asserted here.

What the report means for property decisions

For March 2026, the key distinction is fewer transactions alongside a higher median price per sqft. Buyers and sellers face a market in which aggregate activity and the unit rate moved in different directions. That is a reason to use property-level evidence, rather than assume that one headline describes every segment.

For tenants and landlords, the rental table is a separate set of evidence. New leases and renewals should remain distinct, and neither median alone describes an individual lease negotiation. The useful next step is to identify the relevant property and contract population before comparing prices.

Source, coverage and definitions

Source: DXBinteract analysis of Dubai Land Department (DLD) records.

This fäm Properties edition uses the same saved figures as the corresponding DXBinteract report, retrieved on 2026-10-16. Editorial copy was updated on 2026-10-17. The retrieval date is not a confirmed last-registration date, and figures may be revised when the source snapshot is refreshed.

The sales headline and category table cover all property types. Area rankings and the historical series cover Apartment, Villa and Commercial only. Rental counts cover the listed categories and separate new contracts from renewals; their underlying date basis is not supplied. Currency is AED and floor area is sqft. Category and channel values may differ slightly from overall totals because source figures are rounded separately.

Year-on-year sales changes are recalculated from the same reporting period in the saved 2025 and 2026 rows. Current annual data are labelled YTD, with no full-year comparison. A median is the middle observation, not an average; segment medians are not combined into a citywide median. Where period snapshots do not reconcile, the difference is disclosed rather than treated as a measured market change.

Related market reports

• All fäm Properties market reports
• Source report: DXBinteract March 2026
• 2026 year-to-date review
• Q1 2026
• February 2026
• Same period in 2025