Dubai Market Report — August 2026
volumes cooled · prices off their peak · off-plan at 69% of sales
Price trend
Median AED per sqft over the period.
Busiest communities — Aug 2026
The month in one look
Dubai's property market cooled in August 2026: 11,373 sales worth AED 26.9B were registered with the Dubai Land Department — -14.7% vs July and -36.9% vs August 2025. Off-plan continued to dominate the market at 69% of all sales. Our citywide price index stands at 1.74 (-0.7% on the month, -4.8% on the year), 11.1% below the March 2026 peak. Year to date, 2026 has recorded 108,339 sales (-19.3% vs the same period of 2025) worth AED 338.8B.
What happened in August
The biggest deals registered this month:
- AED 725.00M — entire building in DownTown Dubai (28 Aug)
- AED 160.00M — land parcel in Al Merkadh (25 Aug)
- AED 125.00M — land parcel in Palm Jumeirah (5 Aug)
14 new off-plan projects appeared on the market this month — among them Address Residences (Emaar), Verdana 5 (Reportage Properties Developer), Verdana 10 (Reportage Properties Developer).
From the wider market:
- NAS Gardens Community Mall (Nad Al Sheba Gardens): Shamal Holding's Waitrose-anchored community retail hub; opens August 2026; 10 minutes from Downtown Dubai. Shamal Holding is opening NAS Gardens Community Mall — also referred to as Nad Al Sheba Gardens Mall — inside its Nad Al Sheba Gardens residential master community in August 2026, providing the first purpose-built retail and lifestyle amenity hub for the neighbourhood. (Arabian Business)
- Town Square Dubai by Nshama: 750-acre freehold masterplan in Dubailand; 18,000 apartments + 3,500 townhouses; mid-income target market; Vida Hotel + Reel Cinemas + Dubai International Academy. Town Square Dubai is a 750-acre (approximately 3 km²) fully freehold residential masterplan in Dubailand, developed by Nshama Development — a company established in 2014 by former Emaar Properties executives — and launched in March 2015. (Nshama official)
- "The Grand" — official retail brand for Nad Al Sheba Gardens community mall; Phase 1 opens August 19 2026 with Waitrose (area-first), MMI, Maple Bear Nursery; full fit-out complete by early 2027. Shamal Holding's Nad Al Sheba Gardens community retail centre, previously announced under the working title "NAS Gardens Community Mall," has been branded "The Grand" ahead of its August 2026 debut. (Gulf News)
- BXB Estates AED 110M villa sale sets all-time Jumeirah Golf Estates residential record (August 2026); prior record was AED 58M. BXB Estates completed the highest residential transaction in the history of Jumeirah Golf Estates in August 2026, with an AED 110 million sale of a six-bedroom luxury villa covering 21,714 sq ft of built-up area on a 15,873 sq ft plot — an implied price of approximately AED 5,064 per sq ft. (BusinessWire/Zawya)
- ValuStrat July 2026 VPI community breakdown: Dubai Silicon Oasis sole apartment community with positive monthly growth (+1.3% MoM, ~6% YoY); mid-market outperformers — Dubai Sports City +5.4% YoY, Al Quoz Fourth +5% YoY, Jumeirah Village Triangle +4.1% YoY. Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO) was the only apartment community in ValuStrat's fixed-sample Residential VPI to record positive monthly price growth in July 2026, rising 1.3% month-on-month against a backdrop of citywide apartment values declining approximately 0.24% MoM (apartment sub-index: 168.7 points). (Economy Middle East / ValuStrat Dubai Residential VPI July 2026)
Prices — where we stand
| Segment | Avg AED/sqft in Aug 2026 | vs August 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Apartments — ready | 1,674 | +2.3% |
| Apartments — off-plan | 1,918 | -8.5% |
| Villas / townhouses | 1,655 | +12.4% |
Ready and off-plan are priced in different markets and are never blended in our statistics.
The long view. The citywide index at 1.74 compares with a 2014-cycle peak of 1.31 — today's prices are +33.1% above that previous cycle top after the 2015–19 correction and the 2021–2026 run. Put differently: AED 1M buys about 597 sqft of ready apartment today, versus about 858 sqft in 2016 — 30% less space for the same money. The index is currently 11.1% off its March 2026 high — the first sustained softness since 2022.
Where the action was
| Community | Sales in Aug 2026 | Share | Avg AED/sqft |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai World Central | 1,770 | 15.6% | 1,756 |
| Down Town Jabal Ali | 893 | 7.9% | 1,695 |
| City Of Arabia | 838 | 7.4% | 1,668 |
| Jumeirah Village Circle | 722 | 6.3% | 1,478 |
| Business Bay | 399 | 3.5% | 2,583 |
| Dubai Land Residence Complex | 333 | 2.9% | 1,395 |
| Majan | 250 | 2.2% | 1,547 |
| DAMAC Lagoons | 233 | 2.0% | 1,689 |
Rents & yields
Registered leases in 2026 average AED 85,389/year across 397,843 contracts (+2.2% vs 2025). Best net rental yields right now — after service charges, which most published yields ignore:
| Community | Net yield | Gross yield |
|---|---|---|
| Palm Jumeirah | 9.5% | 9.7% |
| Business Bay | 7.5% | 7.7% |
| Mirdif | 7.4% | 7.8% |
| Palm Jumeirah | 7.3% | 7.4% |
| Mirdif | 4.1% | 4.3% |
The live market check — asking vs sold
Our deal radar tracks 96,613 live sale listings and 105,932 rentals against actual DLD sold prices. As of publication, sellers are asking a median +2.5% versus what identical units actually sold for (building-level comps) — a realistic pricing environment. 40,629 listings are currently asking below their building's sold median → ranked by opportunity at dxbpropy.ai/deals.
Supply pipeline
Handover pressure is high: 2026–2028 completions run well above the 2018–23 norm — apartment-heavy districts will feel it first in rents, then prices. Area-by-area handover schedules: dxbpropy.ai/supply.
Outlook — the next 12–24 months
Anchored to today's momentum (-4.8% YoY on the index) and the high supply pipeline, our scenario read:
- Base case — roughly flat (±1%). Moderation, not a crash: prices plateau while record supply is absorbed; villas and prime hold up best.
- Bull case — +5%/yr. Wealth migration and villa/prime scarcity reignite a demand-led leg, as in 2021–24.
- Bear case — -8% then stabilising. A supply glut meets an external shock; history (2014–16) says such corrections are shallow, area-specific and recover.
The full interactive outlook with the fan chart lives at dxbpropy.ai/predictions. Scenarios are a data-grounded read, not a guaranteed forecast.
Every figure above is computed from the dxbpropy.ai database — official Dubai Land Department records (through August 2026) plus 200 million+ live-market datapoints, growing daily — not estimates. Ready and off-plan segments are never blended. For a report on a specific area, building or budget, ask the AI at dxbpropy.ai.