Are Dubai rents still rising? Barely. The median apartment lease registered in September 2026 was AED 68,000 a year, up from AED 62,000 in June, but when we compare the same area and the same size of flat, September was only 0.8% above June. On ready apartments, gross yields in Q3 2026 ran from 4.9% to 8.9% across 23 areas, and service charges take roughly a point off that.
How much do Dubai apartments rent for?
Since April 2026 the lease record no longer says how many bedrooms a flat has, so we group apartments by floor area instead. As a rough guide, under 550 sq ft is a studio, 550–850 sq ft a one-bedroom, 850–1,300 sq ft a two-bedroom, and anything larger a three-bedroom or more.
Table: median annual apartment rent (AED) by size band, Dubai, June–September 2026. Every median is well above the 20-lease minimum. Source: Ejari registrations, Peak Trust Research.
| Size band | June | July | August | September |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 550 sq ft | 40,000 | 40,106 | 42,000 | 44,000 |
| 550–850 sq ft | 55,000 | 56,000 | 60,162 | 65,000 |
| 850–1,300 sq ft | 68,355 | 69,500 | 75,000 | 80,000 |
| Over 1,300 sq ft | 100,000 | 100,000 | 117,000 | 118,723 |
| All apartments | 62,000 | 62,000 | 67,052 | 68,000 |
Read that table with care. Every band rose by 10% to 19% between June and September, which looks like a rent surge. It isn't one. We compared each area-and-size cell with itself, using the 232 cells with at least 20 leases in both months. The median change from June to September was +0.8%: 122 cells went up, 22 didn't move and 88 went down. From August to September the median change was +0.3%. The citywide figures rose because more of September's leases were in pricier buildings and areas.
A longer look tells the same story. Against April, the first month on the current lease record, the median like-for-like change to September was +0.1% across 222 cells: 112 went up, 15 didn't move and 95 went down. Like for like, rents have been flat since the spring.
Table: median annual apartment rent (AED) by area and size band, September 2026, for the areas with the most leases. Cells need at least 20 leases; "–" means too few. Source: Ejari registrations, Peak Trust Research.
| Area | Under 550 sq ft | 550–850 | 850–1,300 | Over 1,300 | All apartments | All vs August |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jumeirah Village Circle | 48,000 | 65,000 | 79,000 | 110,000 | 62,400 | +0.6% |
| Dubai Creek Harbour | – | 90,000 | 125,000 | 180,000 | 105,000 | −10.3% |
| Downtown Dubai | 66,000 | 115,000 | 165,000 | 250,000 | 165,000 | −5.7% |
| Business Bay | 63,000 | 85,000 | 100,000 | 140,000 | 88,132 | +3.7% |
| Dubai Marina | 60,000 | 85,000 | 117,500 | 165,000 | 120,000 | +4.3% |
| Meydan | 49,675 | 83,250 | 115,000 | 170,000 | 73,000 | −2.7% |
| Al Furjan | 44,000 | 62,000 | 65,000 | 90,000 | 57,750 | −3.7% |
| International City | 30,000 | 42,000 | 52,920 | 96,600 | 39,000 | +1.8% |
| Arjan | 44,000 | 55,000 | 75,000 | 99,875 | 55,000 | −8.3% |
| Dubai Production City | 40,000 | 65,000 | 100,000 | 125,000 | 65,000 | +8.3% |
| Dubai Silicon Oasis | 42,000 | 50,000 | 62,142 | 97,488 | 54,450 | −1.0% |
| Dubai Sports City | 40,000 | 55,000 | 70,000 | 90,000 | 51,000 | −3.8% |
| Jumeirah Lakes Towers | 55,000 | 77,000 | 95,000 | 150,000 | 84,000 | −2.4% |
The "all apartments" change against August mostly reflects which sizes were let in each month, so the size-band columns are the better guide to what a given flat fetches. Villa rents were steadier: the citywide villa median was AED 176,700 in September against AED 173,000 in June.
Table: median annual villa rent (AED), June and September 2026, areas with at least 60 villa leases in September. Two mixed areas whose villas sit in differently named sub-communities are left out. Source: Ejari registrations, Peak Trust Research.
| Area | June | September |
|---|---|---|
| Dubai Hills Estate | 270,000 | 280,000 |
| Emirates Living | 210,000 | 215,000 |
| Arabian Ranches | 239,681 | 214,500 |
| Al Furjan | 220,000 | 210,000 |
| Mudon | 185,000 | 191,250 |
| Mira | 160,000 | 165,000 |
| Wadi Al Safa 5 | 165,000 | 160,000 |
| Rukan | 152,000 | 157,500 |
| Town Square | 143,799 | 150,000 |
| DAMAC Lagoons | 150,000 | 145,000 |
| Dubai South | 110,000 | 130,000 |
| Mirdif | 120,000 | 121,138 |
| DAMAC Hills 2 | 95,000 | 90,956 |
What do Dubai rental yields look like after service charges?
Gross yield here is the area's annual apartment rent per sq ft (the average of the July, August and September medians) divided by the median price per sq ft of ready apartments sold in Q3 2026. Net yield also takes off the community's service charge per sq ft, using the 2023 Mollak figure, the latest complete year, from our service charge index. Where a community has no filed charge, or one outside AED 8–30 per sq ft, we use the citywide median of AED 14.69 (marked *). Net means after service charges only. It does not allow for vacancy, maintenance, agency fees or mortgage interest. District roll-ups and industrial zones are left out.
Table: gross and net rental yield on ready apartments by area, Q3 2026. n = ready apartment sales in Q3 2026. Source: DLD registered sales and Ejari registrations, Peak Trust Research.
| Area | Rent, AED/sq ft/yr | Sale price, AED/sq ft (n) | Gross yield | Service charge, AED/sq ft | Net yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai Production City | 89.5 | 1,005 (216) | 8.9% | 13 | 7.6% |
| Dubai Sports City | 76.0 | 965 (243) | 7.9% | 13 | 6.5% |
| Damac Hills | 97.5 | 1,284 (94) | 7.6% | 14.69* | 6.4% |
| Town Square | 99.1 | 1,317 (140) | 7.5% | 14.69* | 6.4% |
| Jumeirah Village Circle | 90.3 | 1,238 (1,159) | 7.3% | 14 | 6.2% |
| Al Furjan | 78.3 | 1,071 (421) | 7.3% | 15 | 5.9% |
| Wadi Al Safa 5 | 62.1 | 861 (151) | 7.2% | 11 | 5.9% |
| Arabian Ranches 1 | 96.2 | 1,377 (67) | 7.0% | 14.69* | 5.9% |
| Dubai Silicon Oasis | 68.3 | 978 (286) | 7.0% | 13 | 5.7% |
| Jumeirah Lakes Towers | 99.7 | 1,515 (333) | 6.6% | 14 | 5.7% |
| Jumeirah Village Triangle | 91.8 | 1,421 (101) | 6.5% | 14.69* | 5.4% |
| Arjan | 83.9 | 1,353 (286) | 6.2% | 11 | 5.4% |
| Dubai Hills Estate | 131.4 | 2,168 (258) | 6.1% | 21 | 5.1% |
| The Greens | 106.4 | 1,775 (104) | 6.0% | 17.5 | 5.0% |
| Business Bay | 111.4 | 1,866 (811) | 6.0% | 18 | 5.0% |
| Downtown Dubai | 144.5 | 2,511 (399) | 5.8% | 14.69* | 5.2% |
| Wadi Al Safa 3 | 68.8 | 1,247 (152) | 5.5% | 11 | 4.6% |
| Dubai Creek Harbour | 120.4 | 2,244 (244) | 5.4% | 14.69* | 4.7% |
| Palm Jumeirah | 121.1 | 2,352 (133) | 5.2% | 21.3 | 4.2% |
| Culture Village | 84.5 | 1,648 (114) | 5.1% | 14.69 | 4.2% |
| Barsha Heights | 85.8 | 1,683 (78) | 5.1% | 17.5 | 4.1% |
| Dubai Marina | 105.0 | 2,117 (692) | 5.0% | 17 | 4.2% |
| Dubai Water Canal | 133.6 | 2,724 (77) | 4.9% | 14.69* | 4.4% |
Cheaper entry prices give higher yields. Dubai Production City and Dubai Sports City trade at about AED 1,000 per sq ft or less and yield 7.9% to 8.9% gross. Palm Jumeirah and Dubai Marina cost more than twice as much per sq ft and yield about 5%. Service charges bite hardest where prices are low relative to running costs: Dubai Sports City loses 1.4 points between gross and net, Downtown Dubai only 0.6.
We measure on apartments only because villa rents and villa prices move on their own cycle, and setting a villa rent against an apartment price inflates the yield. Keeping both sides to apartments gives a like-for-like figure for the most common buy-to-let purchase.
These quarterly figures sit above the full-year 2025 yields on our rental yields page, because they cover a different period and only ready apartments. JVC, for example, is 6.3% gross and 5.4% net in our guide to Dubai rental yields by area, which sets rents against all of the area's registered sales in 2025 rather than ready apartments sold in Q3 2026. That page is the steadier long-run reference.
Ready or off-plan: how wide is the price gap?
Table: median AED per sq ft, ready vs off-plan residential sales, September 2026, areas with at least 50 sales of each. n in brackets. Source: DLD registered sales, Peak Trust Research.
| Area | Ready (n) | Off-plan (n) | Off-plan premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai South | 1,095 (56) | 1,660 (766) | +51.6% |
| Jumeirah Village Circle | 1,266 (361) | 1,532 (439) | +21.0% |
| Wadi Al Safa 3 | 1,351 (65) | 1,417 (577) | +4.9% |
| Al Furjan | 1,089 (143) | 1,941 (360) | +78.2% |
| Wadi Al Safa 5 | 1,092 (122) | 1,435 (314) | +31.4% |
| Business Bay | 1,792 (280) | 2,651 (153) | +47.9% |
| Dubai Creek Harbour | 2,286 (89) | 2,583 (304) | +13.0% |
| Jumeirah Lakes Towers | 1,512 (143) | 2,527 (83) | +67.1% |
| Arjan | 1,361 (85) | 1,610 (135) | +18.3% |
| Dubai Production City | 1,111 (58) | 1,545 (146) | +39.1% |
| Dubai Sports City | 977 (95) | 1,483 (88) | +51.8% |
| International City | 735 (120) | 1,258 (58) | +71.2% |
Off-plan costs more per sq ft in every one of these areas, from 5% more in Wadi Al Safa 3 to 78% more in Al Furjan. Some of the gap is age and specification: new towers against ten-year-old stock. Some is payment terms, because an off-plan buyer usually pays in stages during construction, and that is worth something. The comparison is also loose, since an area's off-plan sales are often in a different corner of it, or in larger units, than its ready sales. Even so, a buyer paying the off-plan price needs the rent at handover to justify it, and that rent will be set by the ready stock next door.
Rates and rules this month
- The central bank raised its base rate from 3.65% to 3.90% with effect from 17 September 2026 (Gulf News, 16 September). Variable-rate mortgages reprice at their next reset. As plain arithmetic, a quarter-point rise on an AED 1 million loan adds about AED 2,500 a year in interest, roughly 4% of the median apartment's annual rent. On a mortgaged purchase, that comes straight out of the net yield.
- Like for like, September apartment rents were 0.1% above April, with 95 of 222 area-and-size cells lower. Tenants have room to compare before they sign.
Risks this month. Rents have stopped rising; service charges and borrowing costs have not. An investor who bought expecting rents to keep rising faces a flat rent at the next change of tenant.
Myth of the month. "Dubai yields are 8–10%." Some are, gross, in a few mid-market areas. Across the 23 areas above, the median gross yield is 6.2% and the median net yield after service charges is 5.4%, before vacancy and upkeep. Verdict: true at the top of the table, misleading as a rule.
What it means for investors
- Landlords should expect little room to raise rents, since like-for-like rents have not moved since April. An empty month costs more than a modest discount on renewal.
- Off-plan holders should look at the ready rent next door, not the launch brochure. In JVC, ready flats sold for AED 1,266 per sq ft in September against AED 1,532 off-plan, and the ready flats set the rent your unit will compete with.
- Buyers should compare net yield rather than gross, and ask for the building's own service charge. Across the 23 areas above, the gap between gross and net ran from 0.5 to 1.4 points.
- The dirham is pegged at AED 3.6725 to the US dollar, so for a dollar-based owner the income moves with rent and price, not with the exchange rate.
For a view on a specific building or portfolio, see how we work with investors. The longer-run picture is in our guide to Dubai rental yields by area, and current rent levels are on the rental index.