Dubai Market Data
Registered sales and Ejari contracts, organized for clear comparisons and better property decisions.
Public records · Dubai Land Department
Annual report
Dubai property market — 2018
Every figure below comes from sale transactions registered with the Dubai Land Department and dated inside 2018. Mortgages and gifts are excluded; the register's own record of a sale is the only source.
In a sentence
The Land Department registered 32,186 property sales in 2018, worth AED 74.59B in total, across 161 communities. That is 30% fewer than the year before.
The median sale was AED 1,106,888 at AED 1,018/sqft, 1.9% above the year before. 48% of sales were off-plan.
Business Bay was the busiest community with 2,877 registered sales, and also took the most money at AED 5.55B.
Against the previous year, Al Merkadh rose 236% to 1,742 sales, while Wadi Al Safa 7 fell 77% to 272.
Sales by year
Price per square foot by year
Where the sales were
The fifteen communities with the most registered sales in 2018, and how each moved against the year before.
| Community | Sales | vs prior | Total value | Median price | Price/sqft | Off-plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business Bay | 2,877 | -8.2% | 5.55B | 1.02M | 1,534/sqft | 69% |
| Marsa Dubai | 2,481 | -22.8% | 4.92B | 1.58M | 1,493/sqft | 37% |
| Al Warsan First | 2,302 | +28.9% | 1.57B | 370K | 774/sqft | 38% |
| Al Barsha South Fourth | 2,061 | -30.8% | 2.98B | 736K | 941/sqft | 62% |
| Al Merkadh | 1,742 | +236.3% | 2.89B | 643K | 1,477/sqft | 96% |
| Burj Khalifa | 1,357 | -24.8% | 4.63B | 2.15M | 1,844/sqft | 56% |
| Al Thanyah Fifth | 1,202 | -28.2% | 1.86B | 1.00M | 866/sqft | 7% |
| Nadd Hessa | 1,117 | -9.4% | 1.11B | 546K | 751/sqft | 38% |
| Al Hebiah Fourth | 1,089 | -24.3% | 1.02B | 625K | 891/sqft | 17% |
| Jabal Ali First | 1,045 | -55.8% | 1.36B | 600K | 949/sqft | 29% |
| Hadaeq Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid | 1,010 | -43.1% | 2.68B | 1.55M | 1,275/sqft | 81% |
| Palm Jumeirah | 937 | -7.0% | 3.24B | 2.00M | 1,807/sqft | 30% |
| Al Yelayiss 2 | 872 | -45.1% | 1.03B | 1.32M | 706/sqft | 79% |
| Wadi Al Safa 5 | 840 | +106.9% | 2.70B | 1.44M | 695/sqft | 49% |
| Al Khairan First | 757 | -44.3% | 1.60B | 1.75M | 1,651/sqft | 100% |
Where the money went
Ranked by total registered value rather than count — a different list, and the one that shows where capital actually landed.
| Community | Value | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Business Bay | 5.55B | 2,877 |
| Marsa Dubai | 4.92B | 2,481 |
| Burj Khalifa | 4.63B | 1,357 |
| Palm Jumeirah | 3.24B | 937 |
| Al Barsha South Fourth | 2.98B | 2,061 |
| Al Merkadh | 2.89B | 1,742 |
| Wadi Al Safa 5 | 2.70B | 840 |
| Hadaeq Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid | 2.68B | 1,010 |
| Al Thanayah Fourth | 1.87B | 417 |
| Al Thanyah Fifth | 1.86B | 1,202 |
Biggest movers
Change in registered sales against the previous year. Limited to communities with at least 50 sales in both — below that a swing is noise.
| Community | Sales | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Al Merkadh | 1,742 | +236.3% |
| Wadi Al Safa 5 | 840 | +106.9% |
| Wadi Al Safa 7 | 272 | -76.9% |
| Al Wasl | 192 | -75.2% |
| Al Yelayiss 1 | 149 | -74.0% |
| Al Yufrah 2 | 341 | -73.3% |
| Saih Shuaib 2 | 93 | +69.1% |
| Madinat Al Mataar | 733 | -63.3% |
| Wadi Al Safa 2 | 299 | -63.3% |
| Jabal Ali Industrial First | 73 | -62.0% |
The largest sales of 2018
Each row links to its own register record, so any figure in this report can be traced to the transactions behind it.
| Date | Community | Project / building | Type | Beds | Size | Price/sqft | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Jun 2018 | Business Bay | U-BORA TOWERSBusiness Bay | BuildingOther · Existing Properties | Not specified | 1,723,935 sqft | AED 435/sqft | AED 750,000,000 |
| 7 Aug 2018 | Burj Khalifa | —DownTown Dubai | BuildingCommercial · Existing Properties | Not specified | 62,443 sqft | AED 10,117/sqft | AED 631,734,649 |
| 19 Feb 2018 | Business Bay | Avarra by PalaceBusiness Bay | LandResidential · Existing Properties | Not specified | 56,937 sqft | AED 7,904/sqft | AED 450,000,000 |
| 12 Sept 2018 | Jumeirah First | —LA MER | LandMulti-Use · Existing Properties | Not specified | 334,392 sqft | AED 1,110/sqft | AED 371,225,681 |
| 27 Jun 2018 | Al Merkadh | —SOBHA HARTLAND | BuildingOther · Existing Properties | Not specified | 411,363 sqft | AED 875/sqft | AED 360,000,000 |
| 18 Jun 2018 | Business Bay | —Business Bay | BuildingResidential · Existing Properties | Not specified | 40,468 sqft | AED 8,649/sqft | AED 350,000,000 |
| 3 Jan 2018 | Ras Al Khor Industrial First | — | LandCommercial · Existing Properties | Not specified | 50,029 sqft | AED 6,364/sqft | AED 318,375,000 |
| 8 Oct 2018 | Wadi Al Safa 4 | —City Of Arabia | LandResidential · Existing Properties | Not specified | 1,551,249 sqft | AED 186/sqft | AED 288,750,000 |
| 2 Apr 2018 | Muhaisanah First | — | LandResidential · Existing Properties | Not specified | 625,446 sqft | AED 442/sqft | AED 276,226,203 |
| 28 May 2018 | Al Qusais Industrial Second | — | LandCommercial · Existing Properties | Not specified | 199,758 sqft | AED 1,277/sqft | AED 255,000,000 |
Source: Dubai Land Department open data, retrieved from the Digital Dubai data.dubai platform. Figures cover registered transactions and Ejari-registered tenancy contracts, and are statistical summaries of public record — not a valuation of any individual property. Registration data can be amended or backdated by the source after first publication. Refresh times vary by dataset; records shown here are not a live feed.