How DataDXB calculates Dubai property data

Where the data comes from

Our market figures come from Dubai Land Department open data: registered property transactions, rental contracts and the building register, used under the Dubai Open Data Licence. We analyse these records ourselves, so DLD did not produce or check our figures and this is not an official DLD publication.

Our DLD records currently start on 1 January 2026. Each page shows the dates it covers, and we add new records regularly. Long-term trends in our research come from the sources named in each report.

Market data pages

The data dashboard and our area and project pages summarise DLD records directly. Three things are worth knowing when you read them:

• Dashboard totals include more than sales. The headline transaction count and average cover every registered transaction, including mortgages and gifts.
• Most figures are averages. A few large deals can pull an average up, so an average usually sits above the typical price.
• Implied yield is an estimate. It compares average sale prices with average rents in the same area, so it’s best read as a guide.

Dubai property map

The Dubai property map counts sales only, leaving out mortgages and gifts, and uses medians, the middle value, because large one-off deals barely move them. Prices and sizes cover homes, so land plots don’t skew them.

How rental yield is calculated

Gross yield compares rent with price per square foot. We use ready homes only and, wherever a rental record names a project, the same projects on both sides. Otherwise an area’s rents and sales can describe different buildings, which once produced a false 12.5% yield for one community in our testing.

How rents are grouped by bedroom type

DLD rental records have no usable bedroom field, so we estimate a flat’s type from its size, using the typical sizes of flats sold. Villas are recorded as villas. Bedroom-level rents are therefore estimates.

What each map view means

Median price

The middle sale price of homes sold this year, for one bedroom type.

Median rent

The middle annual rent on residential contracts registered this year, for one bedroom type.

Price change

Change in median AED per sq ft, compared within each bedroom type and within off-plan or ready. A shift in what sold doesn’t read as a price move. It needs at least 30 comparable sales.

Sales and Rentals

Counts of sale transactions and of residential rental contracts, new and renewed. Whole-building leases are left out.

Rental payback

Years of gross rent needed to recoup the price: median ready-home AED per sq ft divided by median annual rent per sq ft. Before costs.

Income score

Gross yield (50%), rent change this year (30%) and contract renewals (20%), each ranked across Dubai.

Value score

The better of two routes in. Ready: high yield (50%), prices that have cooled (25%), liquidity (25%). Off-plan: low premium over recent ready homes (60%), deal volume (40%).

Mortgage return

Annual return on the cash a buyer puts in, after mortgage interest. It assumes 80% loan-to-value at 4.5% over 25 years, 27.5% cash in, and 20% of rent lost to service charges and vacancy. Ready homes only.

Off-plan premium

How much more off-plan costs per sq ft than recently delivered ready homes in the same area, bedroom type by bedroom type. Much of a gap reflects building class and payment plans, not overpayment.

Market phase

Sorts areas by this year’s price and rent change against the Dubai average, and by how much of the market is still off-plan. Ten months of data, so read it as a snapshot.

Scores are percentile ranks: they compare areas with each other on this year’s data and say nothing absolute. They aren’t forecasts. Yield-based views need at least 10 sales and 10 rentals in an area, and areas without enough deals show as hatched.

Community boundaries

Community boundaries on our map are approximate and for general information only. We compiled them from publicly available geographic data, including OpenStreetMap, and adjusted them so that areas don’t overlap, which means each one can be selected on its own.

They are not official, surveyed or legal boundaries. They don’t show who owns land or where a plot or project begins or ends, and they aren’t published or endorsed by any government body or data provider. For an official position, check with Dubai Land Department or Dubai Municipality.

Some communities have no reliable outline, so their deals count towards the official area around them and the area panel names them. DLD records cover Dubai only, so areas in other emirates, such as Al Ghadeer and Masaar, are shown for location and have no DLD figures. If you hold rights in any data we use and have a concern, contact us and we’ll review it promptly.

Flight noise map for DXB, DWC, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi

The flight noise layer on our map is an estimate, not a measurement. We found no published noise maps for these airports, so we built one from real flight paths and estimated the sound each flight makes on the ground, using a simplified version of the ICAO Doc 29 method. It shows a 24-hour average (Leq) in decibels. It covers flights using these four airports only, so other airfields and road noise aren’t included.

The flight data

Flight paths come from adsb.lol open data under the ODbL licence. We sampled 24 days across 12 months, November 2025 to October 2026, and used 16. We left out 8 days when traffic in the data was far below normal, mostly March to mid-June 2026, because they wouldn’t represent normal operations. Aircraft size is taken from each flight, and larger aircraft count as louder.

How we tested it

We ran the same method for three UK airports and set the noise level using their published 2016 noise maps from the UK Civil Aviation Authority. The comparison below is for the area above 55 dB, on the Lden measure those reports use.

How far to trust it

• Treat levels as accurate to roughly 2 dB either way.
• It hasn't been checked against noise readings in the UAE.
• March to mid-June isn't well represented, because of the days we left out.
• The under-50 dB band is the least certain, and we only count flights below about 12,000 ft.
• It shows a general picture around flight paths. Don't use it to judge a specific building.

Research reports

Our research reports and charts are written analysis, so each one names its own sources, which can go beyond DLD records to include other land registers, developer material and listing sites. Where a figure rests on listings or asking rents, not registered contracts, the report says so. Reports are dated, so check when one was published before relying on it.

Known limits

We’d rather you hear these from us:

• Rental contracts listed more than once. Some contracts appear in the records once for each related project name, such as Remraam and Remraam - Al Ramth. That adds about 65,000 extra rows, about 57,700 of them residential. The map counts each contract once. The data dashboard and area and project pages currently count every row, so their rental totals can be higher.
• A short history. Our DLD records start in January 2026, so changes compare months within this year.
• Rentals with no project name. These stay with the official area, so a community sharing that area can look busier or quieter than it is.
• Thin samples. A median from a few deals can move a lot. We hide figures below set minimums, but small areas still deserve care.
• Registered price isn’t the whole cost. Yields and returns use our stated assumptions, not your actual costs, mortgage or tenant.

Common questions

Advice for your situation

Everything here is published for everyone, so it can’t take your budget, goals, timeline or finances into account. It’s a strong starting point, but the right decision depends on your circumstances.

For guidance on buying, selling or investing in Dubai property based on your own situation, get in touch with Virender Singh, a RERA-licensed real estate broker (BRN 70502). He can go through areas, projects, pricing and the numbers behind them with you. He works with Emaar Group’s Hamptons Int’l.

Disclaimer and corrections

The content on this site is general information. It isn’t personal investment, legal, financial or valuation advice, and it isn’t an official government publication. We work to keep it accurate but can’t guarantee that any figure, estimate or boundary is complete, current or free of errors. Check the details yourself and get advice for your own situation before making a decision. Our Terms of Use also apply.

DataDXB is run by Virender Singh, a RERA-licensed broker with Emaar Group’s Hamptons Int’l. DataDXB is a personal project, and its views and analysis are his own and don’t represent his employer. The figures on our data pages and map come from the method on this page, whichever developer or community they show.

Found something wrong? Tell us, with a link to the page if you can. We check every report and correct confirmed errors.