Dubai's median apartment rent slipped in October 2026, to AED 65,000 a year. The median, the middle lease, was AED 68,000 in September. That looks like a fall. Compare the same size of flat in the same area, though, and nothing moved. Like for like, the median move was 0.0% across 230 cells. Gross yields on ready apartments over August to October ran from 4.9% to 9.1% across 23 areas. Service charges take about a point off that. The figures cover leases and sales registered with the Dubai Land Department to 31 October 2026.
How much do Dubai apartments rent for?
The lease record stopped recording bedroom counts in April 2026. We sort apartments by floor area instead. Roughly, a studio is under 550 sq ft. A one-bedroom is usually 550 to 850 sq ft, a two-bedroom 850 to 1,300 sq ft, and bigger flats have three bedrooms or more.
Table: median annual apartment rent (AED) by size band, Dubai, July–October 2026. Every median is well above the 20-lease minimum. Source: Ejari registrations, Peak Trust Research.
| Size band | July | August | September | October |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 550 sq ft | 40,000 | 42,000 | 43,000 | 44,000 |
| 550–850 sq ft | 55,800 | 60,500 | 63,000 | 62,000 |
| 850–1,300 sq ft | 69,300 | 75,000 | 78,175 | 77,175 |
| Over 1,300 sq ft | 100,000 | 115,000 | 115,000 | 120,000 |
| All apartments | 62,000 | 67,000 | 68,000 | 65,000 |
The table has a puzzle in it. Every size band is higher than in July, by 10% to 20%. The all-apartments line is up only 4.8% over the same months, and it fell from September. Both facts come from the mix of flats let, not from what a given flat costs. October's leases leaned a little more to the smaller bands than September's, so the overall median dropped more than any single band did.
To strip the mix out, we set each area-and-size cell against its own earlier value. For October against September there are 230 such cells, each with 20 or more leases in the two months being compared. The median change was 0.0%: 113 cells went up, 35 did not move and 82 went down. Against July the median cell was up 1.7%, across 214 cells. Against June it was up 0.8%, across 235 cells.
The longer view says the same thing. April was the first month of the current lease record. Set against April, the matched cells show a median rise of 0.9% across 226 of them: 130 up, 13 unchanged and 83 down. The citywide median has moved up and down since the spring. The rent on the same flat has not.
Table: median annual apartment rent (AED) by area and size band, October 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 September |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jumeirah Village Circle | 45,000 | 65,000 | 78,000 | 107,702 | 60,000 | −4.8% |
| Dubai Creek Harbour | – | 90,000 | 130,000 | 200,000 | 110,000 | +2.8% |
| Downtown Dubai | 68,000 | 120,000 | 179,306 | 290,000 | 175,000 | +6.4% |
| Business Bay | 63,000 | 85,000 | 99,389 | 140,000 | 85,000 | −4.5% |
| Dubai Marina | 60,000 | 90,000 | 112,000 | 180,000 | 115,000 | −4.2% |
| Meydan | 50,000 | 85,000 | 120,000 | 180,000 | 72,000 | 0.0% |
| Al Furjan | 43,000 | 60,000 | 67,000 | 92,000 | 58,000 | 0.0% |
| International City | 30,000 | 41,000 | 50,410 | – | 38,000 | −1.3% |
| Arjan | 45,000 | 62,000 | 75,000 | 110,000 | 60,000 | +9.1% |
| Dubai Production City | 40,500 | 65,000 | 90,000 | 131,831 | 62,000 | −4.6% |
| Dubai Silicon Oasis | 42,000 | 53,000 | 61,500 | 90,000 | 53,000 | −1.9% |
| Jumeirah Lakes Towers | 55,000 | 78,875 | 92,500 | 148,000 | 83,439 | +0.5% |
| Dubai Sports City | 40,000 | 55,000 | 66,000 | 90,000 | 48,510 | −6.7% |
In the last column, most of the movement is the size mix shifting between months rather than rents changing. Read the size-band columns for what a particular flat costs. JVC shows why. Its all-apartments median fell 4.8% in a month. Its one-bedroom band did not move at all, at AED 65,000. Seven of the 13 areas show a lower all-apartments figure, two are unchanged and four are higher.
Villas moved less. Across the city, the median villa lease was AED 175,500 in October. September's figure was AED 178,011. June's was AED 172,850.
Table: median annual villa rent (AED), June, September and October 2026, areas with at least 60 villa leases in October. Source: Ejari registrations, Peak Trust Research.
| Area | June | September | October |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai Hills Estate | 270,000 | 272,500 | 263,750 |
| Dubai Sports City | 250,000 | 295,000 | 240,000 |
| Damac Hills | 190,000 | 212,500 | 235,000 |
| Al Furjan | 220,000 | 210,000 | 210,000 |
| Emirates Living | 210,000 | 215,000 | 200,000 |
| Wadi Al Safa 5 | 165,000 | 165,000 | 163,500 |
| DAMAC Lagoons | 150,000 | 145,000 | 150,000 |
| Town Square | 143,000 | 150,000 | 150,000 |
| Rukan | 152,710 | 150,000 | 149,458 |
| Dubai South | 110,000 | 125,500 | 125,000 |
| Mirdif | 120,000 | 120,000 | 120,500 |
| DAMAC Hills 2 | 95,000 | 91,103 | 93,000 |
Villa medians in the smaller areas jump about from month to month, because a few dozen leases decide them. Dubai Sports City's villa median was AED 295,000 in September. In October it was AED 240,000. Treat one month there as a reading, not a trend.
What do Dubai rental yields look like after service charges?
Gross yield takes an area's apartment rent per sq ft a year and divides it by what ready apartments there sold for per sq ft. Both sides use the same window, August to October 2026. On the rent side we average the three monthly medians. On the sale side we take the median of every ready apartment sale registered in those three months. Net yield then deducts each community's own service charge per sq ft. We take that from the 2023 Mollak filings in our service charge index, the latest complete year. If no charge is filed for a community, or the filed figure sits outside AED 8 to 30 per sq ft, we substitute AED 14.69 instead. That is the citywide median, and the row is marked *. Net here means after the service charge and nothing else. Vacancy, maintenance, agency fees and mortgage interest are not deducted. Industrial zones and district roll-ups are left out as well.
Table: gross and net rental yield on ready apartments by area, August–October 2026. n = ready apartment sales registered August–October 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 | 91.8 | 1,010 (215) | 9.1% | 13 | 7.8% |
| Dubai Sports City | 77.5 | 937 (245) | 8.3% | 13 | 6.9% |
| Damac Hills | 100.5 | 1,272 (99) | 7.9% | 14.69* | 6.7% |
| Town Square | 101.9 | 1,338 (153) | 7.6% | 14.69* | 6.5% |
| Wadi Al Safa 5 | 62.4 | 838 (158) | 7.4% | 11 | 6.1% |
| Jumeirah Village Circle | 92.4 | 1,265 (1,090) | 7.3% | 14 | 6.2% |
| Al Furjan | 78.0 | 1,073 (426) | 7.3% | 15 | 5.9% |
| Arabian Ranches 1 | 100.7 | 1,378 (50) | 7.3% | 14.69* | 6.2% |
| Dubai Silicon Oasis | 69.7 | 998 (267) | 7.0% | 13 | 5.7% |
| Jumeirah Village Triangle | 95.2 | 1,382 (119) | 6.9% | 14.69* | 5.8% |
| Jumeirah Lakes Towers | 103.2 | 1,515 (351) | 6.8% | 14 | 5.9% |
| Arjan | 85.2 | 1,358 (296) | 6.3% | 11 | 5.5% |
| Downtown Dubai | 155.0 | 2,545 (401) | 6.1% | 14.69* | 5.5% |
| Dubai Hills Estate | 133.1 | 2,184 (278) | 6.1% | 21 | 5.1% |
| Business Bay | 114.0 | 1,872 (870) | 6.1% | 18 | 5.1% |
| The Greens | 108.2 | 1,822 (108) | 5.9% | 17.5 | 5.0% |
| Wadi Al Safa 3 | 71.1 | 1,238 (199) | 5.7% | 11 | 4.9% |
| Dubai Marina | 108.2 | 1,954 (640) | 5.5% | 17 | 4.7% |
| Barsha Heights | 83.2 | 1,525 (67) | 5.5% | 17.5 | 4.3% |
| Dubai Creek Harbour | 123.4 | 2,257 (254) | 5.5% | 14.69* | 4.8% |
| Culture Village | 88.4 | 1,685 (134) | 5.2% | 14.69 | 4.4% |
| Palm Jumeirah | 126.3 | 2,548 (167) | 5.0% | 21.3 | 4.1% |
| Dubai Water Canal | 137.4 | 2,784 (72) | 4.9% | 14.69* | 4.4% |
Cheaper entry prices give the higher yields. Four areas price at roughly AED 1,000 a sq ft or less: Dubai Production City, Dubai Sports City, Wadi Al Safa 5 and Dubai Silicon Oasis. They yield 7.0% to 9.1% gross. Dubai Water Canal costs 2.76 times as much per sq ft as Dubai Production City and yields 4.9%. Service charges bite hardest where the price is low against the running cost. The gap is widest in Dubai Sports City, at 1.4 points. In Downtown Dubai it is 0.6.
Both sides of the sum are apartments on purpose. Villa rents and villa prices run on their own cycle, and a villa rent set against an apartment price overstates the yield. Keeping to apartments gives a fair reading for the typical buy-to-let flat.
Our rental yields page shows lower figures, because it covers the full year 2025 and all registered sales, not only ready apartments. The area-by-area yields guide puts JVC at 6.3% gross on that basis, and 5.4% after service charges. That guide is the better long-run anchor. The table above barely moved from last month: JVC was 7.3% gross in the September issue and is 7.3% now.
Ready or off-plan: how wide is the price gap?
Table: median AED per sq ft, ready vs off-plan residential sales, October 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jumeirah Village Circle | 1,292 (406) | 1,637 (442) | +26.7% |
| Dubai South | 1,078 (96) | 1,659 (727) | +53.9% |
| Wadi Al Safa 3 | 1,299 (108) | 1,455 (440) | +12.0% |
| Wadi Al Safa 5 | 1,302 (97) | 1,486 (388) | +14.1% |
| Business Bay | 1,911 (319) | 2,648 (135) | +38.6% |
| Al Furjan | 1,056 (151) | 2,780 (276) | +163.3% |
| Arjan | 1,375 (107) | 1,686 (153) | +22.6% |
| Dubai Creek Harbour | 2,277 (97) | 2,528 (144) | +11.0% |
| Meydan | 2,016 (182) | 2,007 (52) | −0.4% |
| Jumeirah Village Triangle | 1,321 (51) | 1,743 (163) | +31.9% |
| Dubai Sports City | 943 (92) | 1,571 (109) | +66.6% |
| Culture Village | 1,758 (56) | 1,966 (142) | +11.8% |
| Jumeirah Lakes Towers | 1,526 (118) | 2,591 (79) | +69.8% |
| Dubai Production City | 1,016 (80) | 1,530 (98) | +50.6% |
| Dubai Hills Estate | 2,204 (112) | 2,488 (55) | +12.9% |
Off-plan sold above ready in 14 of these 15 areas. The premium runs from 11.0% in Dubai Creek Harbour to 163.3% in Al Furjan. Meydan is the exception, with off-plan 0.4% below ready. Citywide, the median ready residential sale in October was AED 1,431 per sq ft. The median off-plan sale was AED 1,802.
Some of the gap is age and specification, a new tower against stock that is ten years old. Some is payment terms. An off-plan buyer pays in stages while the building goes up, and staged payment has a value of its own. The comparison is loose as well. Off-plan towers often stand in a different part of the area from the ready stock, and sell larger units. At handover, though, the ready buildings nearby decide the rent. That ready rent is the number to test a launch price against.
Rates and rules this month
- The central bank kept its base rate at 3.90% on 28 October 2026 (Gulf News, 28 October). The rate has stood there since the rise from 3.65% on 17 September. A variable-rate mortgage only changes at its reset date, so a borrower already on the new rate sees nothing new this month. The arithmetic is simple: a quarter point on a loan of AED 1 million is AED 2,500 a year. That equals about 3.8% of the median apartment rent for a year.
- The Dubai Land Department launched an enhanced Ejari service in the DubaiNow app on 2 November, after the month closed (Khaleej Times, 2 November). A tenant or landlord can now register, renew and cancel a tenancy contract in one journey. The Ejari certificate is issued on approval, and the DEWA deposit is paid in the same flow. It changes the paperwork, not the rent.
Risks this month. Matched cell for cell, rents are where they were in April, and the base rate has not come down. A landlord who priced a purchase off September's AED 68,000 headline now sees a lower headline and the same rent for the same flat. On a mortgaged purchase, the interest line stays at the higher rate, and the rent line is not moving to cover it.
Myth of the month. "October's lower median means Dubai rents are falling." The citywide median did fall, by 4.4% from September. Within the same area and size band the median change was 0.0%, and 113 of the 230 cells went up. Verdict: a change in which homes were let, not a fall in rents.
What it means for investors
- Landlords have little room to raise rents at renewal, since the same flat lets for what it did in April. Against September, 82 of 230 area-and-size cells were lower. A small concession on renewal costs less than an empty month.
- Off-plan holders should price their unit off the ready rent nearby rather than the brochure. In JVC, ready flats went for AED 1,292 per sq ft in October, against AED 1,637 off-plan. At handover the unit will compete for tenants with that ready stock.
- Buyers should work from net yield and request the building's actual service charge. The gross-to-net gap in the 23 areas above is between 0.5 and 1.4 points.
- The widest margin after service charges this month is in Dubai Production City. A ready flat bought there at AED 1,010 per sq ft over August to October yields 7.8% net, the highest of the 23 areas.
If you want this read for one building or a portfolio, start with how Peak Trust works with investors. For the long-run view, read the Dubai rental yields by area guide. The rental index has current rent levels by area, and last month's figures are in the September issue.