Two things happened at once in the second quarter. DLD's project register recorded 58 projects as completed, more than in any quarter since at least 2023. Transactions, meanwhile, fell by about 13% on the first three months of the year, and their value by a third.
Buyers came back slowly. May was the quietest month of the quarter, and June brought buyers back.
Prices barely moved. What changed was the number of people buying, and the amount of new stock arriving to meet them.
Where the quarter landed
DLD's figures, reported by Emirates 24/7 on 20 July, put the first half at AED 419.94bn across 112,850 transactions. Take away the first quarter's AED 252bn and 60,303 transactions and Q2 comes to about AED 168bn across 52,547. That is 13% fewer transactions than in Q1 and 33% less value. Like the Q1 figure, it includes mortgages, gifts, land and commercial deals. Sales alone came to AED 286.44bn for the half year.
For homes alone, our records hold 35,788 residential sales registered with DLD in Q2, worth AED 77.0bn.
Our 2026 sales records come through a changed feed, so we compare their counts only within 2026 and never with earlier years. Medians, shares and rankings are comparable across years.
- Q1 20231,332
- Q2 20231,391
- Q3 20231,450
- Q4 20231,493
- Q1 20241,534
- Q2 20241,551
- Q3 20241,542
- Q4 20241,581
- Q1 20251,600
- Q2 20251,665
- Q3 20251,712
- Q4 20251,759
- Q1 20261,767
- Q2 20261,726
- Q3 20261,700
Our median price was AED 1,726 per sq ft, 2.4% lower than in Q1 and 3.7% higher than a year earlier. By June, our monthly median of AED 1,706 per sq ft was level with June 2025.
How we worked it out
Look at DLD's two falls side by side. Transactions dropped 13% but value dropped 33%, so the typical deal got smaller. Our records show the same thing for homes: the median deal fell from about AED 1.56m in Q1 to about AED 1.28m in Q2, roughly a fifth less. Sales of AED 10m and above slipped from 2.2% of our recorded deals to 1.9%.
That is why we lead with medians. An average adds every sale together and divides by the number of deals, so a handful of expensive homes can pull it a long way. A median is the middle deal once all sales are lined up by price. In our Q2 records the average sale was about AED 2.15m, against a median of about AED 1.28m.
The price change is plainer arithmetic. Our median went from AED 1,767 per sq ft in Q1 to AED 1,726 in Q2, a 2.4% fall. Year on year (YoY), meaning against the same quarter of 2025, it went from AED 1,665 to AED 1,726, a rise of 3.7%.
What we count: residential sales of apartments and villas registered with DLD. Land, whole buildings and commercial units are left out.
- Apr13,075
- May9,745
- Jun12,968
Our monthly records have May as the low point and June recovering: 9,745 sales in May, then 12,968 in June, a rise of 33%.
What sold, and where
- Under 1M36.4%
- 1–2M33.3%
- 2–3M14.6%
- 3–5M9.7%
- 5–10M4.1%
- 10M+1.9%
Off-plan was 77.9% of the sales in our records and 79.5% of the value, 11.7 points more than a year earlier by count, and up from 70.6% in Q1. Off-plan sold at a median AED 1,771 per sq ft, ready homes at AED 1,469.
Deal sizes moved down. Sales under AED 1m were 36.4% of our records, up from 26.3% in Q1. The bedroom chart, which covers apartments only, shows the same shift.
- Studio33.1%
- 1 bed40%
- 2 bed21.2%
- 3 bed5%
- 4+ bed0.7%
Studios rose to 33.1% of apartment sales, from 25.4% in Q1. One-bedrooms held at 40.0%.
| Area | Share | Off-plan | AED/sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai South | 13.4% | 99.7% | 1,707 |
| Jumeirah Village Circle | 5.9% | 60.2% | 1,500 |
| Dubai Land Residence Complex | 4.4% | 92% | 1,441 |
| Business Bay | 4% | 56.2% | 2,543 |
| Dubai Islands | 3.8% | 100% | 3,045 |
| Majan | 3.8% | 94.4% | 1,415 |
| Jabal Ali First | 3% | 98.4% | 1,712 |
| Al Hebiah Fifth | 2.9% | 100% | 1,862 |
| Dubai Investment Park First | 2.9% | 96.5% | 1,212 |
| Arjan | 2.4% | 68.1% | 1,625 |
Dubai South was the busiest area in our records by a long way: 13.4% of sales, almost all off-plan, at a median AED 1,707 per sq ft. Jumeirah Village Circle (JVC) came second with 5.9% and a much bigger ready share, at 60.2% off-plan. Dubai Islands was the dearest area in the table at AED 3,045 per sq ft, and third by sales value in our records at AED 5.2bn, behind Business Bay and Dubai South. Dubai Investment Park First sat at the other end, at AED 1,212.
What we noticed
Ready homes recovered first. Ready sales in our records rose 25% from May to June, from 2,275 to 2,843. Ready buyers had pulled back hardest in March, and they came back soonest.
Supply caught up with demand. DLD figures, reported by WAM on 20 August, put first-half completions at 104 projects and 24,537 units, against 75 projects and 18,043 units a year earlier. In the project register in our records, 58 projects were marked complete in Q2, against 38 in Q1. Launches went the other way: 60 new projects were registered in Q2 in our records, about half of Q1's 117.
Rents softened. The median residential rent in our Ejari records was AED 65,000, 7.1% below Q2 2025 and 4.4% below Q1.
Policy tilted towards buyers and tenants. On 29 April, DLD removed the AED 750,000 minimum property value for sole owners applying for the two-year investor visa; joint owners need at least AED 400,000 each. In June the First-Time Home Buyer Programme grew to 22 developers, with more than 3,200 purchases worth over AED 5bn so far. From 23 June, Flexi Rent let tenants of 11 participating companies pay monthly, quarterly or every six months. The UAE Central Bank held its base rate at 3.65% in April and again in June.
For developers
- Use the quieter launch calendar. About half as many projects were registered in Q2 as in Q1, so there was less competition for attention. Launches still had to price in line with their area, which in Dubai South meant a median AED 1,707 per sq ft in our records.
- Plan for the handover wave. Buyers can now set an off-plan unit against plenty of finished stock nearby. A clear delivery date, backed by visible progress on site, carries more weight when buyers can walk round a ready flat down the road.
- Build for the demand that exists. Studios and one-bedrooms made up 73% of apartment sales in our records, and more than a third of deals were under AED 1m.
- Adjust terms before list prices. Off-plan sells from published price lists, and this quarter the market adjusted through volume. Payment-plan structure and handover terms are what you can change while the price list stays put.
- Consider the First-Time Home Buyer Programme. With 22 developers in it, it is another route to people buying their first home.
For investors
- Check rent building by building. More handovers mean more choice for tenants, and the median rent in our records was 7.1% below a year earlier. Registered Ejari contracts in the building you are considering tell you more than an area average.
- Weigh ready against off-plan on price per sq ft. Ready homes in our records sold at AED 1,469 per sq ft and off-plan at AED 1,771, a gap of about 21%. The ready unit can earn rent now. The off-plan unit is newer and spreads the payments.
- Confirm visa eligibility first. The two-year visa rules changed in April, so check the current conditions with DLD before they become part of a purchase decision.
- Allow for a slower exit. With transactions down 13% on Q1, resale can take longer, and service charges keep running while a unit sits on the market.
Previous: Q1 2026. Next: Q3 2026, when prices settled and rates turned up. For current figures, see /analytics.
Residential sales (apartments and villas) registered with DLD. Land, whole-building and commercial deals excluded. Prices are medians in AED per sq ft.