Dubai Market Report — August 2026

The month in one look

Dubai's property market cooled in August 2026: 11,746 sales worth AED 28.1B were registered with the Dubai Land Department — -11.9% vs July and -34.8% vs August 2025. Off-plan led the market at 69% of all sales (71% a year earlier). Our citywide price index stands at 1.74 (-0.6% on the month, -4.5% on the year), 10.8% below its March 2026 high. Year to date, 2026 has recorded 108,686 sales (-19.0% vs the same period of 2025) worth AED 339.9B.

Sales activity

So far in 2026 the market has registered 108,686 sales worth AED 339.9B, -19.0% against the same months of 2025. Total value in August 2026 was AED 28.1B (-15.4% on the month, -43.7% on the year). Off-plan accounted for 8,071 of the 11,746 sales and ready homes for 3,675.

Prices — where we stand

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 and a June 2021 low of 1.07: today's prices are +33.4% against that previous peak and +62.8% against the low. Put differently, AED 1M buys about 596 sqft (55 m²) of ready apartment today, against about 858 sqft (80 m²) in 2016. The index is 10.8% off its March 2026 high — the first sustained softness since 2022.

The index month by month

What a ready apartment sold for in Aug 2026

What buyers paid

Apartments, villas and townhouses; land and whole buildings are left out.

Where the action was

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 (Meydan One, Sobha Hartland, MBR City District 1) (25 Aug)
• AED 125.00M — land parcel in Palm Jumeirah (5 Aug)

18 new off-plan projects appeared on the market this month — among them Sky Level 1 (Object 1), The Archive by Imtiaz (Imtiaz Developments), Weston by Wadan (Wadan Developments).

From the wider market:

• Dubai secondary (ready) property transactions +24.6% in Jul–Aug 2026 vs May–Jun. Dubai's secondary (ready) residential property market posted its strongest summer recovery in years by mid-2026. (Arabian Business)
• Dubai developer rankings January–August 2026. From 1 January to 31 August 2026, Emaar Properties led all Dubai developers in total residential sales value with AED 32.3 billion across 6,039 transactions — extending its H1 position (AED 30.6 billion through June) with approximately AED 1.7 billion added in July–August despite the summer slowdown. (Zawya / Emaar press release)
• Dubai ultra-prime ($10M+) market Jan–Aug 2026. Dubai recorded 335 residential transactions priced at $10 million (Dh36.7 million) or above across January–August 2026, per fäm Properties data cited by Khaleej Times and Zawya on September 28, 2026. (Khaleej Times)
• Dubai Ejari structural reversal August 2026. In August 2026, Dubai's Ejari freehold system recorded new residential rental contracts (20,611) outnumbering renewals (19,034) for the first time since the dataset's January 2023 inception — ending a streak of 36 consecutive months in which renewals had led new leases. (Khaleej Times)

Rents & yields

Registered leases in 2026 average AED 86,322/year across 456,220 contracts (+3.1% vs 2025). The best net rental yields right now — after service charges — among communities with at least 200 sales to measure:

The live market check — asking vs sold

Our deal radar tracks 96,590 live sale listings and 109,792 rentals against actual sold prices. As of publication, sellers are asking a median +3.2% versus what identical units actually sold for (building-level comps) — a realistic pricing environment. 37,880 listings are currently asking below their building's sold median → ranked by opportunity at dxbpropy.ai/deals.

Across 96,590 active sale listings, asking prices are being lowered 2.2× more often than raised (avg −7.5%), with a median 41 days on market.

Dubai against world cities

Dubai's ready apartments averaged AED 1,715/sqft over the 12 months to Aug 2026. The same budget buys about 3.5 times the floor space in Dubai as in Hong Kong, and about 2.0 times as in London.

Compiled by dxbpropy.ai from each source's published figures, converted at European Central Bank reference rates of 2 October 2026. Cities measure homes differently, so read this as a rough guide.

Macro backdrop

The wider indicators feeding into Dubai real estate this month:

Sourced from Dubai Statistics Center / data.dubai and the World Bank, independent of the sales records above.

Construction costs — the leading signal for off-plan pricing

What this means in practice: the index tracks what it costs a developer to build — materials, labour, machinery — separate from land or sale price.

• Off-plan launch prices: a rising cost index is the main reason developers price new launches above the previous phase in the same community. At the current pace, expect launch prices to keep climbing even where absorption is only moderate.
• Ready prices: built stock was completed at the old cost, so a rising index does not lift it month to month — it raises the replacement cost, which supports resale values over time.
• Value read for buyers: when a launch price runs well ahead of the construction-cost trend, the difference is demand and positioning — check it against ready AED/sqft in the same community.

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 (-4.5% YoY on the index) and the high supply pipeline, our scenario read:

• Base case — roughly flat (±1%). Prices plateau while record supply is absorbed; villas and prime hold up best.
• Higher case — +5%/yr. Wealth migration and villa/prime scarcity reignite a demand-led leg, as in 2021–24.
• Lower case — -8% then stabilising. Heavy supply 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.

What it means for you

Buyers and investors

• The price index is 10.8% below its March 2026 high, so asking prices have more room for discussion than a year ago.
• Off-plan apartments sold for 14% more per sqft than ready ones this month. A ready home in the same community is the natural price check for a new launch.
• For rental income, Living Legends apartments return about 7.2% net after service charges, the highest among communities with enough sales and leases to measure.

Sellers and landlords

• 11,746 sales is 35% fewer than August 2025. Homes priced close to recent sold prices in their building are the ones finding buyers.
• Ready apartments averaged AED 1,678/sqft, +2.6% on the year — the reference point for pricing a resale.
• Registered rents in 2026 average AED 86,322 a year, +3.1% vs 2025 — the reference point for a renewal or a new lease.

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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.