Fewer homes sold than a year ago. Resale apartment prices are at their high. New apartment leases cost about what they did in January 2026, and renewals cost more.
The month in 4 numbers
Down 21% on February. 10,605 apartments and 1,252 villas.
At the high for the last two years.
Renewals rose 1.6%.
The highest since our records start.
An apartment that sold for AED 1.15M in Mar 2025 would sell for about AED 1.22M now.
Fewer resales usually means more room to negotiate.
A new apartment lease that cost AED 68k in January 2026 would cost about the same now.
Same-building prices are at their high, so a sale now catches the top of the last two years.
2,494 resales
and 9,143 off-plan sales. Against Mar 2025, resales fell 42% and off-plan rose 3%. With land and offices, AED 43.5B changed hands, against AED 47.7B a year earlier.
220 sales in Majan, all at about AED 851 per sq ft, were registered on one day. That's a bulk registration, so we keep it apart from resales and prices.
Resale apartments in the same buildings cost about 6% more than in March 2025. A plain typical apartment price rose about 3% over the same year. We left two cheap bulk lots out of last March's figure. With them in, the rise would read about 4%.
Change in price since January 2024, comparing each project and bed count with itself.
All 20
busy areas have dearer apartments than a year ago, in the same buildings, over the last 3 months. Dubai Silicon Oasis rose the most.
Dubai South sold the most, 992 homes. 4 of the top 8 sold more than a year ago, and 3 sold less.
Not comparable: DLD stopped tagging some of this area's buildings in February 2026.
47
new projects made their first sale, against 32 in Mar 2025. Damac Lagoons - Valencia sold the most, 159 homes at about AED 771k each.
17%
That's how much more a new tenant paid than a renewing tenant, for the same size of apartment in the same area, against 19% in January 2026.
How much more new tenants pay than renewing ones, last 3 months
Change in rent since January 2026, comparing the same size of apartment in the same area. 11,424 new leases and 25,734 renewals in March. Lease records start in January 2026, so there's no year-ago figure yet.
3,179
mortgages were registered, down from 3,798 in February. This counts every property loan DLD registers, refinancing included.
Quick answers, from the same deals as the rest of this page.
Against a year earlier, resale apartment prices in the same buildings rose. The trend chart above shows each month, and hovering gives the figure.
A typical price moves when cheaper or dearer buildings sell more. We compare each project and bed count with itself, so a change in what sold can't look like a change in price.
Deal records show what moved, and they can't show why. We report what was registered and leave the reasons out.
The DLD lease records we hold start in January 2026, so rents compare with January until a full year has passed.
Once the next month's deals are in.