Staying-Power Series · ResidentsAugust 2026
Is Anyone Actually Leaving Dubai?
Nine numbers that tell you what property sales can't.
August 2026 · 4 pages · PDF 1.4 MB
Free with a DataDXB account.
At a glance
9
indicators
Schools, telecoms, utilities, rents, tolls, airport and licences
+19,803
new DEWA accounts
A record first quarter, Q1 2026
+9.0%
contract phone lines
du postpaid lines year on year, to 2.1M
−6.4%
toll-road trips
Salik Q1 2026: a real but shallow dip
What the data says
Key findings
01
Visitors left. Residents stayed.
Passengers, tourist SIMs and hotel occupancy dropped hard, but schools, contract phone lines, home internet, electricity meters and rental renewals kept growing through the war quarter.
02
The doom forecast missed by about five times.
A widely reported forecast put Q2 hotel occupancy near 10%. CoStar data shows an Eid rebound to 82.2%, then a summer in the high-40s to low-50s.
03
Fear is mispricing resident-driven property.
Housing demand comes from residents, not tourists. Tourism-linked assets deserve the discount; resident-driven stock mostly carries borrowed fear.
What's inside
Contents
- p. 1
The headline test
Why staying-power data leads property sales, and the doom forecast against what hotels actually did.
- p. 2
The nine-indicator dashboard
Schools, phone and internet lines, utilities, rents, tolls, tourist SIMs, airport and business licences.
- p. 3
The verdict
What it means for property, and how to prove this report wrong.
- p. 4
Sources
Every number, numbered.
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The author works in Dubai real estate with Hamptons International, part of Emaar Group. DataDXB is a personal project; all views and analysis are the author's own and do not represent the author's employer. This report is market commentary, not investment advice.