Report Scope
The scope of this report is limited to registered sales transactions of apartments, villas, and offices in Dubai, across both the Primary Market and the Secondary / Resale Market.
Accordingly, land plots, buildings, shops, showrooms, industrial properties, warehouses, and other asset types fall outside the scope of this report. The purpose of this report is to analyse Dubai’s residential real estate and office market, not the full universe of transactions registered with the Dubai Land Department (DLD).
In H1 2026, total transactions registered with the Dubai Land Department exceeded 114,000 transactions, with a total value of more than AED 426.8 billion. However, the analytical scope of this report is narrower: within Primary and Secondary Market sales transactions of apartments, villas, and offices, more than 84,000 transactions were registered, with a total value exceeding AED 241 billion.
This distinction is important for reading the report correctly. The figures and analysis in this report should not be read as a complete picture of all real estate transactions in Dubai; rather, they should be interpreted within this clearly defined scope.
Introduction
Dubai’s real estate market cannot be read through a single number. The number of transactions, transaction value, median prices, occupancy rates, mortgage share, supply volume, economic news, infrastructure projects, and capital flows each reveal part of the market picture; but none of them is sufficient on its own for decision-making.
This report has been prepared to analyse Dubai’s real estate market in H1 2026, with a focus on Primary and Secondary Market sales transactions of apartments, villas, and offices. The Primary Market, meaning direct purchases from developers, and the Secondary / Resale Market are analysed separately in this report, because pricing logic, transaction registration timing, buyer behaviour, liquidity, and risk profile are not the same across these two markets.
In H1 2026, the market showed a decline in some indicators compared with the comparison periods. However, this decline should not be simplistically interpreted as a general fall in prices or weakness across all parts of the market. In some segments, the median price per square foot increased; in some areas or projects, asset quality and limited tradable supply may have played a role; and in some segments, the decline in transaction volume points more to the importance of accurate pricing, liquidity, and careful asset selection.
For this reason, the report seeks to read the market not through one broad narrative, but through several complementary lenses: transaction performance, median prices, the Primary Market, the Secondary Market, the geography of price growth and decline, occupancy rates, mortgage share, residential supply, influential news, and finally a decision guide for buyers, sellers, investors, owners, and advisors.
When reading this report, it is important to note that a highly transacted area is not necessarily the best area. A lower price is not necessarily an opportunity. A higher price is not necessarily a sign of superior quality. Growth in the median price of an area does not necessarily mean that the value of all assets in that area has increased. A decline in the number of transactions does not necessarily mean that the value of all properties has fallen.
The purpose of this report is not to oversimplify the market, but to create a framework for more precise decision-making. A real estate decision in Dubai should be assessed based on the buyer’s or owner’s objective, asset type, area, project, entry price, liquidity, rental appeal, costs, future supply, payment terms, and exit potential.
Methodology and Data Interpretation Limitation
The data in this report has been extracted based on transactions registered in the Dubai Land Department (DLD) system. In the Primary Market, the registration date is usually the Oqood issuance date, which may be several weeks apart from the reservation date or the initial purchase decision. In the Secondary Market, the registration date is usually closer to the title deed transfer date, although it may also occur several weeks after the sale and purchase agreement has been signed. Therefore, the figures in this report should be read as registered data, not necessarily as the exact timing of demand formation.
The transaction data in this report has been prepared based on specific cleaning rules. During the cleaning process, rows with a transaction value below AED 200,000 and a price per square foot below AED 200 were removed from the analytical scope. In this report, the apartment family includes apartments and serviced or hotel apartments, provided they are included within the residential scope in the underlying dataset. The villa family includes residential villas and townhouses.
For price measurement, this report uses median sale price and median price per square foot, not the average. The main reason for this choice is that Dubai’s real estate market is highly diverse in terms of unit size, location, project type, asset quality, and price level. In such a market, a few very large, ultra-luxury, or unusual transactions can materially shift the average and present a misleading picture of the general market level.
The median represents the midpoint of transactions: half of the transactions are above it and half are below it. For this reason, the median usually provides a more stable and reliable reference price, especially when the purpose of the report is to analyse general trends and compare periods, rather than measure the effect of a few exceptional transactions. However, even the median should be read with caution, because changes in transaction mix, project type, unit size, and the active geography of transactions can affect it.
This report has been prepared solely to provide analytical insight and support decision-making. It should not be considered financial, legal, tax, or investment advice.
