Off-plan buyers in Dubai have moved down a size. Studios were 42.7% of off-plan apartment sales in Q3 2026, double their 2023 share, and for the first time in our four-year record they outsold one-bedroom flats. Two-beds lost the most ground. They went from about a quarter of sales to one in six.
Dubai South accounts for almost a third of off-plan studio sales, but the studio share climbed outside it as well. The ready market barely moved over the same period. To us that points at what developers are launching and what buyers can afford, rather than a change in how people want to live.
The figures are apartment sales registered with the Dubai Land Department from January 2023 to September 2026, split by the bedroom count on each record. Villas, land and commercial units are excluded. Between 1% and 4% of off-plan apartment records each year have no usable bedroom count, and we leave those out of the shares.
How has Dubai's off-plan unit mix changed since 2023?
In 2023 and 2024 the mix hardly changed. One-beds took about 45% of off-plan sales, two-beds about a quarter and studios about a fifth. Studios started to gain in 2025, and the move sped up after the first quarter of 2026.
Table: share of off-plan apartment sales by bedroom count, by year. 2026 covers January to September. n = off-plan apartment sales with a bedroom count. Source: DLD registered sales, Peak Trust Research.
| Year | Off-plan apartment sales (n) | Studio | 1 bed | 2 bed | 3 bed | 4+ bed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 78,021 | 21.5% | 44.4% | 25.1% | 7.6% | 1.4% |
| 2024 | 126,044 | 21.2% | 45.8% | 26.4% | 6.0% | 0.7% |
| 2025 | 164,313 | 25.7% | 45.3% | 23.4% | 4.9% | 0.7% |
| 2026 (Jan–Sep) | 94,291 | 32.4% | 40.1% | 22.1% | 4.9% | 0.6% |
The quarterly figures show when it broke. Q1 2026 looked much like late 2025. In Q2 the studio share rose by about ten points, and in Q3 by another seven and a half. Two-beds gave up more of that ground than one-beds did.
Table: share of off-plan apartment sales by bedroom count, by quarter, Q1 2025 to Q3 2026. Source: DLD registered sales, Peak Trust Research.
| Quarter | n | Studio | 1 bed | 2 bed | 3 bed | 4+ bed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | 29,254 | 23.9% | 43.3% | 26.3% | 5.9% | 0.6% |
| Q2 2025 | 37,474 | 25.2% | 44.2% | 24.2% | 5.4% | 0.9% |
| Q3 2025 | 50,723 | 25.0% | 48.1% | 22.0% | 4.3% | 0.6% |
| Q4 2025 | 46,862 | 27.9% | 44.4% | 22.5% | 4.6% | 0.7% |
| Q1 2026 | 46,128 | 25.7% | 42.0% | 25.9% | 5.7% | 0.7% |
| Q2 2026 | 25,193 | 35.2% | 39.7% | 20.0% | 4.5% | 0.5% |
| Q3 2026 | 22,970 | 42.7% | 36.6% | 16.7% | 3.6% | 0.5% |
Don't read the sample sizes as market volumes. DLD's public record feed changed in February 2026, and our 2026 counts cover a smaller slice of the market than our 2025 counts. The shares within each period hold up. For market totals, use DLD's published figures.
Is it just Dubai South?
Dubai South is the biggest single driver. About one in five of its off-plan apartment sales were studios in 2025. In January–September 2026 the figure was 45.7%, and by Q3 the area accounted for 30.3% of every off-plan studio sold in the city.
Take Dubai South out and the trend is still there. Elsewhere in Dubai, studios were 25.0% of off-plan apartment sales in Q3 2025 and 37.5% in Q3 2026.
Much of that is one developer, though. Azizi's studio-heavy projects sit in Jebel Ali and City of Arabia as well as Dubai South. Our Off-Plan Monitor for September 2026 takes Azizi out instead of an area, and on that cut studios were between 24.6% and 29.0% of all off-plan sales in each month from June to September 2026.
Table: studio share of off-plan apartment sales, all Dubai and excluding Dubai South (DLD area Madinat Al Mataar). Source: DLD registered sales, Peak Trust Research.
| Quarter | Studio share, all Dubai | Studio share, excluding Dubai South | Dubai South's share of all off-plan studios |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | 23.9% | 24.9% | 5.1% |
| Q3 2025 | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.2% |
| Q1 2026 | 25.7% | 26.3% | 6.3% |
| Q2 2026 | 35.2% | 31.4% | 28.3% |
| Q3 2026 | 42.7% | 37.5% | 30.3% |
Where are off-plan studios selling?
The studio-heavy areas look alike. They are outer, mid-market, and priced so a studio comes in under AED 750,000. In Majan, City of Arabia and two Jebel Ali sub-areas, studios were 60–66% of off-plan apartment sales in 2026. Jumeirah Village Circle, long the default studio market, sat lower at 34.4%.
Table: off-plan apartment sales and studio share by area, January–September 2026, areas with at least 1,000 off-plan apartment sales, ranked by studio sales. Area names are DLD registry names except where a common name is shown. Source: DLD registered sales, Peak Trust Research.
| Area | Off-plan apartment sales (n) | Studios sold | Studio share | 2-bed share | Median studio price (AED) | Median studio size (sq ft) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai South (Madinat Al Mataar) | 13,652 | 6,236 | 45.7% | 18.7% | 650,000 | 365 |
| Jumeirah Village Circle | 5,892 | 2,028 | 34.4% | 12.9% | 745,000 | 407 |
| Dubai Land Residence Complex | 4,203 | 2,017 | 48.0% | 12.0% | 699,000 | 427 |
| Majan | 3,008 | 1,922 | 63.9% | 9.3% | 675,000 | 407 |
| City of Arabia | 2,467 | 1,626 | 65.9% | 5.1% | 590,000 | 340 |
| Wadi Al Safa 5 | 2,404 | 943 | 39.2% | 16.2% | 703,000 | 427 |
| DAMAC Lagoons (Al Hebiah Fifth) | 1,797 | 913 | 50.8% | 11.5% | 733,000 | 386 |
| Jabal Ali Industrial Second | 1,393 | 869 | 62.4% | 7.8% | 676,000 | 390 |
| Business Park | 1,291 | 857 | 66.4% | 9.8% | 1,372,000 | 387 |
| Down Town Jabal Ali | 1,352 | 809 | 59.8% | 9.3% | 593,000 | 349 |
| Wadi Al Safa 3 | 1,697 | 716 | 42.2% | 19.9% | 698,000 | 374 |
| Arjan | 1,502 | 682 | 45.4% | 12.2% | 792,000 | 431 |
One row doesn't fit. In the DLD area recorded as Business Park, the median studio sold for AED 1.37m, roughly twice the price of a studio anywhere else on the list. So the studio boom isn't only about cheap units.
What is driving it: price, size or supply?
We can see three forces in the record, and they overlap.
The ticket
In 2026, 61.7% of off-plan studios sold for AED 500,000–750,000, up from 47.2% in 2025. The share selling for AED 1m or more nearly halved, from 21.2% to 11.5%. Studio buying has bunched at the bottom of the price range, where an off-plan one-bed, at a 2026 median of AED 1.29m, isn't an option.
Table: off-plan studio sales by price band, 2025 and January–September 2026. Source: DLD registered sales, Peak Trust Research.
| Price band (AED) | 2025 share (n = 42,214) | 2026 share (n = 30,543) |
|---|---|---|
| Under 500,000 | 3.9% | 4.1% |
| 500,000–750,000 | 47.2% | 61.7% |
| 750,000–1m | 27.8% | 22.7% |
| 1m and over | 21.2% | 11.5% |
The box
The median off-plan studio measured 412–416 sq ft from 2023 to 2025 and 387 sq ft in 2026. In City of Arabia it was 340 sq ft, in Dubai South 365. The price per sq ft barely changed, at AED 1,798 in 2025 and AED 1,776 in 2026. So when the median studio price fell from AED 744,000 in 2025 to AED 696,000 in 2026, almost all of the drop came from selling less floor area.
Table: median off-plan apartment size, price and AED per sq ft by bedroom count, 2023 and January–September 2026. Source: DLD registered sales, Peak Trust Research.
| Unit | 2023 sales (n) | 2023 median size (sq ft) | 2023 median price (AED) | 2026 sales (n) | 2026 median size (sq ft) | 2026 median price (AED) | 2026 median AED/sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | 16,750 | 412 | 594,000 | 30,543 | 387 | 696,000 | 1,776 |
| 1 bed | 34,663 | 753 | 1,258,000 | 37,771 | 775 | 1,293,000 | 1,696 |
| 2 bed | 19,607 | 1,206 | 2,319,000 | 20,809 | 1,237 | 2,300,000 | 1,877 |
| 3 bed | 5,920 | 1,827 | 3,924,000 | 4,591 | 1,848 | 4,232,000 | 2,284 |
What was launched
Buyers can only buy what is on offer, so the off-plan mix tells you about supply as much as demand. Of the homes in projects DLD registered in the first half of 2026, 90.0% were apartments (47,196 of 52,413), and in no half-year since 2023 has the figure been below 75%.
The ready market is a useful control. There, studios rose only from 21.2% of apartment sales in 2023 to 24.2% in 2026, and one-beds still lead at 41.8%. If tenants and end users had turned to studios across the board, the resale record would show it too. It hardly does.
We can't split the shift cleanly between buyers choosing studios and developers offering little else at that price. The register records what sold. It doesn't record what was available.
What it means for developers
- The entry ticket matters more than the bedroom count. The band that grew was AED 500,000–750,000. A one-bed laid out to land in that band may sell like a studio, and a studio pushed past AED 1m is in the thin part of the market unless it sits somewhere buyers have already paid that, as in Business Park.
- Concentration cuts both ways. When one area supplies 30% of a unit type, the handovers of that type will bunch there too, and small investor-owned studios will chase the same tenants on completion. Check the handover pipeline before adding more of the same.
- Two-beds are now the scarcer product. At 16.7% of off-plan sales they are down by a third on 2023. In family areas, a scheme that keeps a real share of two- and three-beds faces less direct competition from nearby launches.
- Watch the quarter, not the year. The 2026 annual studio share of 32.4% hides a Q3 figure of 42.7%. Our Off-Plan Monitor tracks the mix every month.
For investors
Studios are selling because they are the cheapest way in. The same fact means more identical units chasing tenants and resale buyers in the same areas once they complete. Before you buy, set the area's studio share against its rental yields and its scheduled handovers. Remember too that registered off-plan sales include investors who plan to sell before completion.
Peak Trust works with developers on unit mix and launch timing. If that question is open on your next scheme, see our work with developers.
Related: How off-plan project registration and escrow work in Dubai · Dubai market dashboard