Sales edged up from September but stayed about 40% below a year earlier, while rental activity kept growing. Dubai recorded 11,730 property sales worth AED 33.4 billion in October 2026, 39.7% fewer than in October 2025 and 5.3% more than in September. Registered rental contracts reached 108,563, up 10.3% year on year. Apartment prices per square foot eased 3.2% over the year, while villa and townhouse prices rose 3.0%.
One bulk registration stands out: 536 mixed-use land plots in Al Ruwayyah, worth AED 2.6 billion, were registered on two days in October. Without them, sales were 11,194, level with September.
All figures are computed from individual registered transactions in the Happy Endpoint Dubai dataset (1.36 million sales since 1997 and 8.82 million rental contracts since 2010). Mortgages and gifts are not included.
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Key figures
| October 2026 | October 2025 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales transactions | 11,730 | 19,444 | -39.7% |
| Sales value | AED 33.4bn | AED 58.1bn | -42.5% |
| Off-plan share of sales | 60.1% | 70.4% | -10.3 pts |
| Median apartment price per sq ft | AED 1,660 | AED 1,715 | -3.2% |
| Median villa/townhouse price per sq ft | AED 1,684 | AED 1,635 | +3.0% |
| Rental contracts registered | 108,563 | 98,445 | +10.3% |
| New leases as share of contracts | 52.0% | 45.0% | +7.0 pts |
Sales
- Volume: 11,730 sales, up from 11,137 in September and down from 19,444 in October 2025. Total value was AED 33.4 billion against AED 58.1 billion a year earlier.
- Bulk land registration: 536 of the month’s sales were mixed-use land plots in Al Ruwayyah, all ready (not off-plan) and registered on 2 and 22 October. They add AED 2.6 billion to the month’s value.
- Off-plan: 60.1% of sales were off-plan (63.0% without the Al Ruwayyah plots), down from 70.4% a year earlier and 67.8% in September.
- Apartments: 8,633 sales at a median price of AED 1.15 million and AED 1,660 per sq ft.
- Villas and townhouses: 1,649 sales at a median price of AED 4.04 million and AED 1,684 per sq ft.
Most active areas for sales, October 2026
| Area | Sales | Median price (AED) | Off-plan share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jumeirah Village Circle (JVC) | 841 | 996,960 | 52% |
| Dubai South | 795 | 745,000 | 87% |
| Al Ruwayyah (bulk land registration) | 536 | 2,448,062 | 0% |
| Downtown Jebel Ali | 482 | 1,154,280 | 99% |
| Business Bay | 452 | 2,000,000 | 29% |
| Dubai Land Residence Complex (DLRC) | 399 | 804,685 | 88% |
| DAMAC Lagoons | 385 | 1,247,040 | 74% |
| Majan | 334 | 1,050,000 | 83% |
| Motor City | 302 | 1,100,000 | 87% |
| Arjan | 256 | 985,000 | 58% |
Rentals
- Volume: 108,563 rental contracts, 0.8% fewer than in September and 10.3% more than in October 2025. Of these, 64,318 were residential and 44,245 commercial.
- New leases vs renewals: new leases made up 52.0% of contracts, up from 45.0% a year earlier.
- Rents: median annual apartment rents were flat for studios and rose 3% to 4% for larger units.
Median annual apartment rent by size
| Unit | Contracts | Median rent, Oct 2026 (AED) | Oct 2025 (AED) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | 12,275 | 40,000 | 40,000 | 0.0% |
| 1 bedroom | 23,577 | 60,000 | 58,000 | +3.4% |
| 2 bedrooms | 17,391 | 80,000 | 77,000 | +3.9% |
| 3 bedrooms | 3,662 | 122,914 | 118,000 | +4.2% |
Most active areas for residential leasing, October 2026
| Area | Contracts | Median annual rent (AED) | New leases |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deira | 5,766 | 45,000 | 46% |
| Bur Dubai | 3,483 | 68,000 | 29% |
| Jumeirah Village Circle (JVC) | 3,396 | 62,705 | 64% |
| Business Bay | 2,488 | 90,000 | 65% |
| International City | 2,429 | 38,650 | 38% |
| Al Nahda (Dubai) | 2,401 | 54,857 | 27% |
| Al Qusais | 2,170 | 48,000 | 21% |
| Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO) | 1,782 | 55,000 | 33% |
| Dubai Marina | 1,747 | 105,000 | 60% |
| Discovery Gardens | 1,600 | 48,000 | 35% |
Method
- Source: individual registered sales and rental contracts, compiled by Happy Endpoint from publicly available Dubai property transaction records, with data through 2 November 2026.
- Late registrations: a few records arrive after the month ends. Between 24 October and 2 November, September’s counts rose by 10 sales (0.1%) and 231 rental contracts (0.2%), so September is shown here as 11,137 sales and 109,387 contracts. October’s daily counts run at normal levels to the last working day of the month.
- Prices: medians, not averages, so that a small number of very large deals does not distort them. Price per sq ft is the median of each transaction’s price per square metre, converted at 10.7639 sq ft per square metre.
- Rents: annual rent is the monthly rent (contract value divided by contract length) multiplied by 12. Contracts covering several units are counted once per unit, so commercial contract counts can be higher than per-contract totals.
- Areas: areas are the broad districts Dubai uses for registration, such as Business Bay or Dubai Marina.
- Not included: mortgages, gifts and other non-sale registrations.
Happy Endpoint is an independent data provider and is not affiliated with the Dubai Land Department.
The data behind this note
- Free: monthly medians and deal counts for the 50 most active areas, November 2025 to October 2026, on Hugging Face: Free Dubai Real Estate Monthly Market Dataset (CC BY 4.0).
- Free datasets: 500 sales and 500 rental contracts with every field: Free Dubai Property Sales Dataset and Free Dubai Rental Contracts Dataset.
- Full dataset: the Dubai Real Estate Transactions dataset: every registered sale since 1997 and rental contract since 2010, one row per transaction, with property type, size, bedrooms, off-plan or ready status, area, building and coordinates. Available as a one-time file or an annual subscription with monthly or quarterly updates, in CSV or SQLite, for all of Dubai or any area, period or property type.
Contact: hello@happyendpoint.com
Please cite as: Happy Endpoint, Dubai Real Estate Market Data Note, October 2026.
