Dubai Market Report, September 2026
Dubai registered 11,353 sales worth AED 27.67B in September 2026. Volume slipped 5.0% on the month and 18.2% on the year. The median sale was AED 1,321,267, or AED 1,677 per square foot, which slipped 1.5% from last month. Off-plan took 73.0% of the month once developer sales filed as title deed are counted back in, up from a raw Oqood share of 66.2%. Resale was 26.8%. Buyers who borrowed did so at a median 80.0% of price. Priced per square foot, the market now sits 4.3% below its Q1 2026 high, so the read is a market off its peak rather than one turning.
Every figure below comes from official Dubai Land Department records for 1 to 30 September 2026.
Median prices: Apartments AED 1,165,000 · Villas & Townhouses AED 3,500,000 · Commercial AED 2,097,540 · Plots AED 5,000,000.
Where this sits in the cycle
A price is only meaningful next to the prices that came before it. Median price per square foot today, measured against the last cycle high, the 2020 low, and the most recent peak.
The long view, Dubai since 2008
Median price per square foot across the emirate, by quarter.
Monthly overview, last 13 months
| Month | Median AED/sq ft | MoM | QoQ | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2026 | AED 1,677 | -1.5% | -0.7% | -1.4% |
| August 2026 | AED 1,702 | +0.3% | +3.8% | -0.9% |
| July 2026 | AED 1,697 | +0.5% | -8.0% | +2.4% |
| June 2026 | AED 1,689 | +3.0% | -2.3% | +2.5% |
| May 2026 | AED 1,640 | -11.1% | -6.7% | +2.2% |
| April 2026 | AED 1,845 | +6.7% | +1.4% | +15.8% |
| March 2026 | AED 1,729 | -1.6% | -4.8% | +8.1% |
| February 2026 | AED 1,757 | -3.4% | -0.4% | +13.2% |
| January 2026 | AED 1,820 | +0.2% | +7.6% | +18.0% |
| December 2025 | AED 1,817 | +2.9% | +6.9% | +14.5% |
| November 2025 | AED 1,765 | +4.4% | +2.8% | +16.7% |
| October 2025 | AED 1,691 | -0.5% | +2.0% | +6.3% |
| September 2025 | AED 1,700 | -1.0% | +3.2% | +10.4% |
Off-plan and resale
The raw Oqood share puts off-plan at 66.2% of the month. That undercounts it, because 764 developer-first sales were filed as title deed rather than Oqood. Counting those back gives an adjusted off-plan share of 73.0%, and the rest of the month is resale at 26.8%. Resale is up from 24.9% the month before.
| How the month splits | Sales | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Off-plan, adjusted | 8,283 | 73.0% |
| Resale | 3,039 | 26.8% |
| Other procedures | 31 | 0.3% |
| Total | 11,353 | 100.1% |
A title-deed sale is counted as developer-first when it is filed under a Development or Payment Plan procedure, or when it sits in a project not yet marked finished and is not land. Plots are excluded because a plot holds a real title deed even inside an unfinished masterplan. Other procedures are lease-to-own and similar registrations, which are neither an off-plan sale nor a resale.
Sales volume, last 25 months
Where the money went, price tiers
Share of the month's sales by price bracket, against last month.
Top areas of the month
| Area | Sales | Value | Median AED/sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai South | 928 | AED 1.46B | AED 1,650 |
| Jumeirah Village Circle | 813 | AED 1.30B | AED 1,423 |
| Wadi Al Safa 3 | 657 | AED 813.2M | AED 1,416 |
| Jabal Ali Industrial Second | 624 | AED 719.1M | AED 1,731 |
| Jebel Ali | 542 | AED 1.26B | AED 1,661 |
| Wadi Al Safa 5 | 467 | AED 859.3M | AED 1,375 |
| Business Bay | 437 | AED 1.50B | AED 2,115 |
| Al Hebiah Fifth | 410 | AED 724.6M | AED 1,638 |
Which areas moved on price
Ranking areas by how many units sold tells you where the volume was. Ranking them by what a square foot costs tells you where the price moved. Of 47 areas with enough sales to measure in both months:
Biggest gains
| Area | Median AED/sq ft | MoM | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| International City | AED 900 | +18.2% | 185 |
| Al Hebiah First | AED 1,843 | +8.6% | 407 |
| Madinat Dubai Almelaheyah | AED 3,202 | +7.4% | 117 |
| Dubai Production City | AED 1,511 | +7.4% | 234 |
| Downtown Dubai | AED 2,833 | +6.7% | 171 |
Biggest falls
| Area | Median AED/sq ft | MoM | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nad Al Shiba First | AED 2,538 | -23.6% | 100 |
| Dubai Investment Park First | AED 1,042 | -9.5% | 346 |
| Dubai Marina | AED 2,065 | -9.1% | 222 |
| Dubai Sports City | AED 1,256 | -7.5% | 214 |
| Jumeirah Lake Towers | AED 2,016 | -4.7% | 240 |
Areas with fewer than 30 cleaned sales in either month are excluded. A median built on a handful of deals moves on which units happened to sell, not on price.
Where the money is, prime and luxury
Dubai's totals are carried by a small number of large deals. Sales at AED 10M and above were just 2.8% of transactions but 26.1% of the money spent. Read the median for what a typical buyer paid, and this block for where the value sits.
What is still being built
Across the emirate, 375,705 units sit in 1,556 projects that are active, pending or not yet started. 222,393 of those have a planned completion date still ahead of them, starting with 27,404 units due in 2026.
The number worth watching is the one underneath that. 81,793 units are already past the date recorded against them and still not finished. That is late supply, not lost supply: 35,919 of those units are in projects already at least half built. It will arrive, and when it does it competes with everything standing today, which is why a pipeline read only off future dates understates what is coming.
| Planned handover | Projects | Units |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 118 | 27,404 |
| 2027 | 395 | 83,694 |
| 2028 | 277 | 68,752 |
| 2029 | 103 | 32,390 |
| 2030 | 12 | 9,579 |
| 2031 | 2 | 574 |
| Past their planned date | 385 | 81,793 |
| Cancelled | 16 | 6,842 |
| No date on file | 248 | 64,677 |
| Total under way | 1,556 | 375,705 |
Counts from the DLD project register, not a forecast. Dates are the planned end date recorded against each project, not a construction estimate. Announced dates move, and this reports what is on file today.
The month's highest sale
Best-selling projects
Ranked on resale only. Developers register off-plan sales in batches, so an off-plan ranking would show which developer filed paperwork this month rather than which project buyers actually chose.
| Project | Resales | Median price |
|---|---|---|
| The Greens at Sobha Sanctuary | 59 | AED 4,170,870 |
| Binghatti Apex | 44 | AED 720,000 |
| The Brooks at Sobha Sanctuary | 36 | AED 5,765,728 |
| The Grove at Sobha Sanctuary | 36 | AED 9,538,246 |
| Dune Residency Dubai | 32 | AED 651,188 |
Most active developers, last 12 months
Ranked by recorded sales. This measures activity, not quality. Figures in brackets are transaction counts.
| Developer | Sales | Share | Busiest projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azizi Developments | 14,631 | 14.6% | AZIZI VENICE 14 (1998), Azizi Venice 6 (983), Azizi Venice 15 (796) |
| Binghatti Developers | 7,326 | 7.3% | Binghatti Vintage (1077), Binghatti Titania (545), Binghatti Aquarise (375) |
| Sobha | 3,545 | 3.5% | Sobha Central Phase II (506), Skyvue (464), Sobha Solis (360) |
| Island Oasis Properties | 2,633 | 2.6% | DAMAC LAGOONS - VALENCIA (1122), DAMAC LAGOONS - LAGOON VIEWS 13 (518), DAMAC LAGOONS - PORTOFINO (115) |
| Emaar Development | 2,518 | 2.5% | The Valley - Vindera (298), The St. Regis Residences, Downtown Dubai (97), Downtown Views II (68) |
The rental market
Over the three months to Sep month-end, 184,626 residential Ejari contracts were registered across Dubai. 47% were new leases and 53% renewals. Median annual rents came in at AED 69,300 for apartments and AED 180,000 for villas and townhouses.
Median annual rent over median sale price, city-wide, residential only. It indicates what the market yields, not what any single property returns, because the rent sample and the sale sample are different units.
Over the last 13 months, apartment sales went from 11,738 to 8,949 a month (-24%), and villas and townhouses from 793 to 992 (+25%).
Mortgages
3,883 mortgages were registered in September 2026 (▲ +11.2% MoM), at a median of AED 1,480,000. Of those, 3,533 were new registrations, 190 modifications and 21 portfolio loans.
Across the 1,522 purchase mortgages we can match to their own sale, the median loan was 80.0% of the price paid, with the middle half falling between 70.0% and 80.0%. That is the regulatory ceiling for a first home, so most buyers who borrow are borrowing as much as the rules allow.
Matched purchases are 39.2% of the month's mortgage registrations. Refinancing and portfolio lending have no matching sale and are not included.
City-wide medians are a starting point, not a valuation. What matters to an owner is what sold in their own building this month.
- Send us your building name and we will reply with what actually sold there last month, unit sizes and prices included.
- Ask for a valuation range on your own unit, based on comparable sales rather than an asking-price average.
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