Why Dubai property price figures disagree
Data through 16 Oct 2026 · updated with every weekly release
Three published measures of Dubai residential prices currently point in different directions. The median price of apartments and villas registered in the 12 months to 16 Oct 2026 was AED 1,736/sqft, +5.7% on the prior 12 months. The Dubai Land Department’s official residential index for Q4 2025 showed a year-on-year change of +8.9%. PropertyIndex.ae’s mix-adjusted index read -4% for September 2026. None of these is wrong: they count different sales, hold different things constant and cover different windows.
Three measures, three questions
Median price per sqft
AED 1,736+5.7% YoY
Answers: what did the typical apartment or villa registered over the last 12 months sell for, per square foot? Half of the sales were cheaper, half more expensive. It follows whatever is being sold, so a shift towards pricier or cheaper stock moves it even when no home changes in value.
This site · trailing 12 months · every registered built-residential sale · method
DLD residential sales price index
167.3+8.9% YoY
Answers: how did prices move according to the Land Department’s own official series? It is quarterly and published several quarters after the period it describes, so it is settled but late.
Dubai Land Department · quarterly · latest Q4 2025 · how we republish it
Mix-adjusted index
205.8-4% YoY
Answers: how did the price of comparable homes change? Sales are grouped into cells (area, property type, bedrooms) and each cell keeps a fixed weight, so a change in what is being sold does not move the index.
Example: Dubai Property Price Index (PIX), PropertyIndex.ae, September 2026 · source ↗ · checked 15 Oct 2026
The composition effect, on this site’s own data
Off-plan and ready homes sell at different prices per square foot, so the share of each in a month moves the overall median. Comparing September 2026 with September 2025 (the same calendar month, so seasonality cancels out):
| Median price per sqft | September 2025 | September 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ready (existing) homes | AED 1,343 | AED 1,429 | +6.4% |
| Off-plan homes | AED 1,794 | AED 1,753 | -2.3% |
| All registered sales | AED 1,699 | AED 1,695 | -0.2% |
| Off-plan share of sales | 70.5% | 64.8% | -5.7 pts |
Ready homes moved +6.4% and off-plan homes -2.3%, yet the median of all sales moved -0.2%, because the mix between the two changed. A mix-adjusted index removes that effect by design; a median keeps it, because it describes what was actually bought. Registrations for the most recent months are still arriving, so treat month-level figures as provisional; the headline figures on this site use 12-month windows for that reason.
Source: DLD via Dubai Pulse · Updated · public monthly off-plan and ready medians · same month a year apart · Methodology ↗
Other reasons the figures differ
- Window. A 12-month median, a single month, a three-month pooled index and a settled quarter are different periods. A turning market shows up first in the shortest window.
- Registration lag. Sales keep arriving in the register for weeks after the month ends, so the latest month is always undercounted and any month-on-month change read from it is unreliable. How this site handles it.
- Population. Some figures cover apartments and villas only, others add land, whole buildings, offices and shops. Price per square foot on this site covers built residential property only; transaction counts include every registered sale.
- Registered prices versus asking prices. Figures from listing portals describe what sellers ask; DLD figures describe what buyers paid and registered.
- Averages versus medians. A handful of record sales lifts an average sharply and barely moves a median. This site never publishes averages.
Where Dubai price figures come from
What each publisher states about its own headline figure, in alphabetical order. Taken from each provider’s own pages; see the links for current terms.
Bayut market reports
Method ↗- Operator
- Bayut.com
- Headline figure
- Trimmed means of advertised prices
- Data
- Listing prices advertised on Bayut; the reports state they are not representative of transaction prices unless stated
- Cadence
- Half-yearly market reports
- Access
- Free
Dubai Data (datadubai.ae)
Method ↗- Operator
- Continental Club Property, a licensed Dubai brokerage
- Headline figure
- Medians with IQR over trailing 12 complete months
- Data
- DLD open data, the project register and developer-supplied register fields
- Cadence
- Daily imports, monthly report
- Access
- Free; reuse welcome with attribution
Dubai Land Department: Residential Sales Price Index
Method ↗- Operator
- Dubai Land Department (launched with Property Finder in 2020)
- Headline figure
- Hedonic index: a regression on property characteristics, per its 2020 methodology
- Data
- Sales registered with the DLD
- Cadence
- Quarterly on the DLD open-data gateway, published several quarters after the period
- Access
- Free
Dubai Real Estate Data (this site)
Method →- Operator
- Independent; not affiliated with the DLD
- Headline figure
- Median price per sqft of built residential property with IQR, trailing 12 months
- Data
- DLD open data: registered sales, Ejari rents, project and unit registers
- Cadence
- Weekly
- Access
- Free, no sign-up to read
Property Finder transaction pages
Method ↗- Operator
- Property Finder
- Headline figure
- Transaction prices after outlier cleanup
- Data
- DLD residential transactions, per its own page
- Cadence
- Not stated
- Access
- Free
Property Monitor: Dynamic Price Index
Method ↗- Operator
- Property Monitor
- Headline figure
- Moving average of median prices with the Dutot formula, 42 communities, January 2008 = 100 (per its 2020 release note)
- Data
- Not stated in the method note
- Cadence
- Monthly, subject to backward revision
- Access
- Reports free; PMiQ platform by subscription
PropertyIndex.ae: PIX
Method ↗- Operator
- GXM Ventures FZE LLC, trading as Property Index
- Headline figure
- Chained stratified median: area × type × bedroom cells, 3-month pooled window, fixed weights, January 2012 = 100
- Data
- Sales registered with the DLD, apartments and villas
- Cadence
- Monthly; the latest month may be revised
- Access
- Index and CSV free; Pro from AED 500 a month
REIDIN: UAE residential price indices
Method ↗- Operator
- REIDIN
- Headline figure
- Moving average of median price per square metre, January 2014 = 100
- Data
- Not stated in the index note
- Cadence
- Monthly, about two weeks after the month
- Access
- Monthly reports free; platform and API paid
ValuStrat Price Index (VPI)
Method ↗- Operator
- ValuStrat, an RICS-regulated firm
- Headline figure
- Valuation-based index of capital values from RICS registered valuers
- Data
- Expert valuations of sample properties, not a transaction median
- Cadence
- Monthly for Dubai residential capital values
- Access
- Free download after registration
Which figure to quote
- What does a home cost per square foot? The median price per sqft, with its window and date, for the city or an area.
- Are like-for-like prices rising? A mix-adjusted index, or this site’s ready-resale momentum by area on the market page.
- The official view: the DLD index, noting the quarter it describes.
Whichever you use, name the measure, the window and the date: “median AED 1,736/sqft over the 12 months to 16 Oct 2026 (Dubai Real Estate Data, based on DLD open data)” is a complete citation. Monthly figures and their sources are in the market report.