DPI Dubai Property Intelligence

Volume 1 • Issue 003 • 13 October 2026

Dubai Is Cooling -
But Unevenly.

Sales are slowing, rents are easing and buyer power is returning - but not at the same speed everywhere.

Read / Download Issue 003 Read the Evidence Open Market Monitors

DPI thesis: normalisation with pockets of correction - not a citywide downturn.

Issue 003 • Market Overview

Cooling is real - but local.

Transaction activity has weakened faster than prices. The ready market is holding better than off-plan, and the strongest cooling signals are concentrated in specific communities.

SEPTEMBER SALESResidential

10,373 sales

-7.0% MoM

Most of the monthly slowdown came from off-plan transactions.

OFF-PLANAugust → September

7,968 → 7,188

-9.8% MoM

Off-plan activity weakened much more clearly than ready/resale.

READY / RESALEAugust → September

3,189 → 3,185

-0.1% MoM

Ready-market activity was virtually unchanged.

READY-MARKET PRICESeptember 2026

AED 1,356 / sq ft

+1.8% YoY

Completed-home pricing remains more resilient than broad activity suggests.

Price + Rental Direction

Prices are splitting before they are falling everywhere.

BROAD MARKET

AED 1,650 / sq ft

-2.0% MoM • -2.4% YoY

Broad achieved pricing softened in September.

READY MARKET

AED 1,356 / sq ft

+0.5% MoM • +1.8% YoY

Ready-market prices are still holding better than the citywide mix.

RENTS

Apartments AED 70k

-4.1% YoY • Villas AED 205k • -14.6% YoY

The first meaningful relief may be appearing in rents before sale prices.

Community Analysis

Where is cooling showing up first?

Dubai Marina / Marsa DubaiSales -54.8% • PSF -13.2%
Dubai Hills EstateSales -47.5% • PSF -0.2%
JVCSales -34.9% • PSF +4.3%
Business BaySales -40.8% • PSF +5.3%
Palm JumeirahSales -20.5% • PSF +14.6%
Dubai SouthPSF +20.5% YoY • future-supply watch

What this really means: cooling is local before it becomes citywide. Marsa Dubai shows the clearest current price-and-volume cooling signal, while Dubai South remains a future-supply story rather than a current correction.

New DPI Intelligence

Capital & Delivery Intelligence

GLOBAL CAPITAL WATCHQ1 2026 • DLD

Capital is still arriving.

Total investmentAED 173B+22% YoY
Foreign investmentAED 148.35B+26% YoY
New investors29,312+14% YoY
Open Global Capital Watch →
DEVELOPER SCHEDULE HEALTHDLD snapshot • 15 Jun 2026

Schedule discipline is becoming a sharper investor filter.

DPI consolidates DLD project-owning legal entities to verified parent developer brands before comparison. The schedule-warning rate is not an on-time delivery or construction-quality score.

Open Developer Schedule Health →

DPI Method

Evidence before opinion.

DPI separates facts, analysis and interpretation.

Every statistic is tied to a traceable source and scope, and different datasets are not mixed without explanation.

Data → Context → Insight → Decision