Market Pulse: Dubai off-plan in Q3 2026

The numbers on our homepage update every day from registered DLD sales and Ejari rental contracts. This is the quarterly narrated edition: the same live figures, with the story around them. Everything below is stated as of the latest complete month — August 2026 — because September 2026 is still filling with registrations and would flatter or understate any comparison.

The quarter in four figures

• Median sale price: AED 1,710/sqft (up 1.6% month-on-month)
• Registered sales: 14,372 in August 2026 (up 5.1% month-on-month)
• Off-plan share of sales: 70% (up 1.3% month-on-month)
• Median residential rent: AED 88/sqft/yr (up 3.7% month-on-month)

Prices

The citywide median across all registered sales stood at AED 1,710 per square foot in August 2026, up 1.6% on the month before. One caution belongs next to any citywide median: it moves with the mix of what sold, not just with values — a month heavy in premium launches reads "up" even if no individual apartment got dearer. For decisions about a specific purchase, the per-area medians on our area pages are the better lens.

Volume and the off-plan share

14,372 sales were registered in August 2026 (up 5.1% month-on-month). Of those, 70% were off-plan — property bought before it exists. That share is the single most important number on this page: it means the typical Dubai buyer today is buying a promise and a construction schedule, which is exactly the exposure this site exists to monitor. What is due to arrive from that pipeline, quarter by quarter, is on the handover calendar.

Rents

Registered residential rental contracts put the citywide median at AED 88 per square foot per year in August 2026, up 3.7% on the prior month. For off-plan owners this is the number that becomes personal at handover — it is the income side of the yield on the unit you are waiting for.

Where these numbers come from

Every figure above is computed from official registered data — DLD sale registrations and Ejari rental contracts — in our own archive, which ingests the registry daily. Medians are used rather than averages so a handful of penthouse sales can't drag the number; obviously broken records are filtered; and month-on-month comparisons use complete months only, because the current month is always partially registered and would distort any direction. The same method, in full, is on the methodology page. Because this page reads the archive live, the figures you see are current as of the latest registry ingest — not as of the day this edition was written.

Related: the live Market Pulse on the homepage · what hands over, and when · how our numbers are made
Figures update daily from registered DLD and Ejari data; direction compares complete months only.