Dubai Property Price Index 2026

In January–August 2026 the median Dubai apartment sold for AED 1.23M — about AED 1,717 per sqft — across 86,946 sales registered with the Dubai Land Department, worth AED 160.9B in total. The median is the honest yardstick here: the arithmetic average sits roughly 50% higher, dragged up by a thin luxury tail of nine-digit deals. The league table below tracks the same medians for every active area.

By registered DLD sales in Jan–Aug 2026 the highest median price per sqft was in Marsa Dubai (~AED 4,456/sqft), then Palm Jumeirah (~AED 3,615) and Business Park (~AED 3,586) — prime waterfront and central districts. These zones trade at 2–3× the citywide median of AED 1,717 per sqft, and it is where the period's record deals cluster. Compare districts per square foot rather than by headline price — unit sizes differ too much for totals to mean anything.

The lowest median price per sqft among active areas was International City Ph 1 (~AED 701/sqft, median AED 465k), followed by Remraam and Discovery Gardens — established, high-yield communities. Low entry prices in these zones usually pair with the city's highest gross rental yields — roughly 7–9% against 5–6% in prime districts. Check each area's median and per-sqft level in the table before shortlisting.

The DLD registered 86,946 apartment sales and 8,705 villa sales in January–August 2026 (residential, excluding land and commercial), together worth roughly AED 195 billion. Apartments contributed about AED 161 billion of that and villas the rest. Volume matters when you buy: high-transaction zones are easier to exit later, which is why liquidity deserves as much attention as price.

76% of apartment sales and 74% of villa sales in Jan–Aug 2026 were off-plan (bought from the developer before completion). The rest were ready, secondary-market homes. Launch-heavy zones such as Dubai South and Dubailand Residence Complex sit almost entirely off-plan, while beach districts like JBR are effectively resale-only. A zone's off-plan share is worth checking before reading its median as «the market».

The median Dubai villa sold for AED 3.25M (~AED 1,771 per sqft of built-up area) across 8,705 registered villa-type sales in Jan–Aug 2026 — roughly 2.6× the median apartment. Note the DLD registers townhouses as villas, so this median blends both; standalone luxury villas (Palm, Emirates Hills) trade far higher. Villa demand concentrates in family communities — DAMAC Hills 2 and Dubai South at the affordable end, Dubai Hills Estate and Tilal Al Ghaf in the mid-prime bracket.

Yes — every figure comes from registered Dubai Land Department sales transactions: deals that actually completed and were recorded, not advertised asking prices. We report medians (not averages) so a few very large deals don't skew the numbers, and we refresh the data monthly. Registered prices typically sit below portal asking prices, so this index reads lower — and closer to reality — than listing-based reports. If a number here differs from a portal report, the gap is usually asking-versus-registered, not an error.