The highest rental yields in Dubai are in mid-market areas where homes are cheap per sq ft but rents are not. Rukan, Dubai Investment Park 1, Arabian Ranches 1, The Greens, JVC and JLT all yielded more than 6% gross on 2025 registered sales and leases. Service charges then take just under a point off in a typical area. Prime areas such as Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Water Canal and Dubai Marina sit near the bottom, at 3.3% to 4.3% gross.
This guide gives both figures for 40 areas, explains what sits between them, and flags where a high number deserves a second look. We refresh it each quarter. For this month's rents, see the Rent & Yield Monitor.
What is the difference between gross and net rental yield?
Gross yield is one year's rent divided by the price you pay. Net yield is what is left after the owner's running costs, divided by the same price. In Dubai the largest running cost is the service charge, which the owners' association bills each year per sq ft.
Take JVC's 2025 figures as a worked example. A 700 sq ft flat at the area's AED 1,485 per sq ft costs AED 1,039,500. A 6.3% gross yield means about AED 65,500 a year in rent. JVC's service charge of about AED 14 per sq ft comes to AED 9,800 a year, which leaves AED 55,700, a net yield of 5.4%. If the flat sits empty for a month between tenants, the net yield drops to about 4.8%. Our Rent & Yield Monitor puts JVC higher, at 7.3% gross and 6.2% net, because it compares rents with ready apartments sold in Q3 2026 only, where this guide uses all of the area's registered sales in 2025.
The figures below are net of service charges only. Vacancy, maintenance, letting fees and mortgage interest come off too, and they differ from one owner to the next.
Dubai rental yields by area, gross and net
Table: gross and net rental yield by Dubai area, full-year 2025, areas with at least 300 registered sales. Service charge is the community's 2023 Mollak figure in AED per sq ft per year; * marks the citywide median (AED 14.69) where none is filed. Price is AED per sq ft. Median rent covers all residential leases in the area. Source: DLD registered sales and Ejari registrations, Peak Trust Research.
| Area | Gross yield | Net yield | Service charge | Price, AED/sq ft | Median annual rent | Sales, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rukan | 9.6% | 8.5% | 14.69* | 1,320 | AED 78,000 | 2,862 |
| Dubai Investment Park 1 | 7.7% | 6.5% | 12 | 964 | AED 65,000 | 622 |
| Arabian Ranches 1 | 7.6% | 6.8% | 14.69* | 1,757 | AED 60,128 | 2,275 |
| The Greens | 6.8% | 5.9% | 17.5 | 1,908 | AED 99,732 | 1,104 |
| Nad Al Sheba | 6.7% | 5.1% | 14.69* | 907 | AED 41,000 | 353 |
| Jumeirah Village Circle | 6.3% | 5.4% | 14 | 1,485 | AED 56,000 | 24,924 |
| Jumeirah Lakes Towers | 6.3% | 5.6% | 14 | 1,955 | AED 80,000 | 7,168 |
| Dubai Silicon Oasis | 6.3% | 5.4% | 13 | 1,450 | AED 48,000 | 5,418 |
| Arjan | 6.3% | 5.5% | 11 | 1,429 | AED 53,000 | 5,385 |
| DAMAC Lagoons | 6.3% | 5.6% | 11 | 1,498 | AED 60,000 | 3,729 |
| Dubai Sports City | 5.9% | 5.0% | 13 | 1,473 | AED 45,000 | 5,617 |
| DAMAC Hills 2 | 5.8% | 4.9% | 11 | 1,171 | AED 38,000 | 4,240 |
| Downtown Jebel Ali | 5.7% | 4.4% | 17 | 1,330 | AED 48,000 | 1,091 |
| Dubai Investment Park 2 | 5.5% | 4.7% | 12 | 1,573 | AED 60,000 | 9,823 |
| Barsha Heights | 5.5% | 4.5% | 17.5 | 1,764 | AED 71,400 | 737 |
| Jumeirah Village Triangle | 5.4% | 4.5% | 14.69* | 1,556 | AED 53,000 | 7,047 |
| Mudon | 5.4% | 4.6% | 11 | 1,451 | AED 67,500 | 817 |
| Town Square | 5.3% | 4.3% | 14.69* | 1,405 | AED 54,000 | 3,664 |
| Dubai Design District | 5.3% | 4.8% | 14.69* | 3,090 | AED 162,750 | 835 |
| Dubai Production City | 5.2% | 4.3% | 13 | 1,426 | AED 40,000 | 7,594 |
| Wadi Al Safa 5 | 5.1% | 4.3% | 11 | 1,372 | AED 42,504 | 15,757 |
| Damac Hills | 5.1% | 4.1% | 14.69* | 1,520 | AED 52,000 | 2,656 |
| Dubai Science Park | 5.0% | 4.1% | 15 | 1,731 | AED 57,750 | 7,270 |
| Dubai Creek Harbour | 5.0% | 4.4% | 14.69* | 2,452 | AED 120,000 | 5,361 |
| Nad Al Sheba 1 | 5.0% | 4.2% | 16 | 2,040 | AED 88,000 | 2,009 |
| Al Kifaf | 5.0% | 4.3% | 14.69* | 2,184 | AED 125,000 | 1,065 |
| Dubai Hills Estate | 4.8% | 3.9% | 21 | 2,389 | AED 95,000 | 6,622 |
| Wadi Al Safa 3 | 4.6% | 3.9% | 11 | 1,573 | AED 52,500 | 9,121 |
| Al Satwa | 4.5% | 3.8% | 14.69* | 2,042 | AED 64,500 | 1,862 |
| Business Bay | 4.4% | 3.7% | 18 | 2,503 | AED 83,000 | 17,443 |
| Dubai Marina | 4.3% | 3.7% | 17 | 2,921 | AED 105,000 | 9,899 |
| Al Furjan | 4.2% | 3.3% | 15 | 1,668 | AED 50,000 | 10,167 |
| Mirdif | 4.2% | 3.1% | 11 | 1,025 | AED 60,900 | 389 |
| Downtown Dubai | 4.1% | 3.6% | 14.69* | 2,916 | AED 125,000 | 6,416 |
| Sobha Hartland II | 3.9% | 3.3% | 14.69* | 2,421 | AED 86,250 | 6,222 |
| Culture Village | 3.9% | 3.1% | 14.69 | 1,917 | AED 68,200 | 4,063 |
| Madinat Jumeirah Living | 3.9% | 3.2% | 20 | 2,808 | AED 140,000 | 483 |
| Wadi Al Safa 4 | 3.7% | 3.1% | 11 | 1,823 | AED 57,500 | 3,435 |
| Palm Jumeirah | 3.4% | 2.8% | 21.3 | 3,479 | AED 160,000 | 2,203 |
| Dubai Water Canal | 3.3% | 2.8% | 14.69* | 3,156 | AED 129,231 | 2,854 |
Twenty of the 40 areas yield 5.2% or more gross, ten yield 6% or more, and six fall below 4%. After service charges, eleven areas still make 5% or more net.
Yields depend on which sales and rents you compare. This table is the full-year 2025 picture; the Rent & Yield Monitor gives the latest quarter.
Why do cheaper areas yield more?
Rents in Dubai vary less than prices do. A flat in Dubai Marina costs about twice as much per sq ft as one in Dubai Sports City, but going by the two areas' yields, it rents for only about 1.4 times as much per sq ft. Tenants pay for space and commute first and for the address second, so yields are highest where the price per sq ft is lowest relative to what local tenants will pay.
Service charges push the other way. They follow a building's running costs, not its price, so they take a bigger bite of the rent in cheaper areas. In Nad Al Sheba, at AED 907 per sq ft, the charge costs 1.6 points of yield. On Palm Jumeirah, at AED 3,479 per sq ft, a higher charge of AED 21.3 per sq ft costs only 0.6 points.
When a high yield deserves a second look
- Thin samples. We list only areas with at least 300 registered sales in 2025. Zabeel shows a 10.9% gross yield on our rental yields page, but that rests on 190 sales and an AED 500,000 median rent, so we left it out.
- Mixed stock. An area's rent and price medians can come from different kinds of home, such as villa rents set against mostly apartment sales. Check the yield on the type of home you would actually buy.
- District roll-ups. Large registration districts such as Dubai Land, Dubai South, Meydan, International City and Motor City pool communities with widely different prices. They are excluded here, as are industrial zones, where block leases distort rents.
- Price growth. Yield is only part of the picture. Rukan's 9.6% came with a 71% rise in price per sq ft from 2021 to 2025, Mirdif's 4.2% with 23% (see /analytics/price-growth). Past growth says nothing certain about future growth, but a low-yield, low-growth area needs a clear reason to buy.
- Rents have levelled off. Comparing the same area and size of flat, apartment leases registered in September 2026 were only 0.8% above June, and 88 of 232 area-and-size groups went down. A yield struck on 2025 rents may not improve at the next change of tenant.
Why do other yield figures differ?
Broker pages often quote yields for the same area that are two points apart. The usual reasons are the period (one month against a full year), the source (portal asking rents and prices against registered ones), the home type (studios only, or the whole area) and whether the figure is gross or net. Our own figures show it: the Rent & Yield Monitor, on ready apartments sold in Q3 2026, runs above this table, which uses all of 2025's sales. Neither is wrong, but only compare yields measured the same way.
How to check a yield on a specific home
- Find recent registered sales in the building, not asking prices, and work out the price per sq ft.
- Look up recent Ejari rents for similar-sized flats in the same building or the one next door.
- Ask the owners' association or the seller for the current service charge per sq ft.
- Work out gross, then net, then allow for a month of vacancy and a letting fee.
- Compare the result with the area's row above. If yours is far higher, find out why.
How these figures are defined
- Period: registered sales and Ejari leases for the full year 2025, the latest complete year. Updated October 2026.
- Gross yield: the area's median annual rent divided by its median sale price, shown only where the result falls between 3% and 12%. Results outside that band almost always mean mixed stock rather than a real yield.
- Price per sq ft: the area's 2025 sale price per sq ft.
- Service charge: the community's 2023 owners'-association charge per sq ft filed with Mollak, the latest complete year. Where an area has no filed charge, or one outside AED 8–30 per sq ft, we use the citywide median of AED 14.69.
- Net yield: gross yield minus the service charge as a share of the price per sq ft.
These are area figures. A single building can sit well above or below its area, so ask for the building's own service charge and recent lets before you buy.
What it means for investors
- Start with net, not gross. Across these 40 areas, service charges took 0.5 to 1.6 points off the gross figure (0.8 at the median), before any vacancy.
- Match the yield to how long you plan to hold. High-yield areas suit owners who want income now. Lower-yield prime areas have leaned more on price growth, which is never assured.
- Check liquidity as well as yield. JVC's 6.3% sits on 24,924 sales in 2025, so buyers are there when you sell. Nad Al Sheba's 6.7% sits on 353.
- Budget for a month of vacancy. In the JVC example it costs about half a point of net yield.
- The dirham is pegged at AED 3.6725 to the US dollar, so for a dollar-based owner the yield moves with rent, price and costs, not with the exchange rate.
If you want a building-level view before you commit, see how we work with investors. For this month's rents by size, read the Rent & Yield Monitor, September 2026, and for the price side, Are Dubai property prices falling?