The headline figure for the quarter: the median Dubai apartment sold for AED 1,359 per square foot between July and September 2026, up 5.2% from AED 1,292 in the same three months of 2025.
It is a true number. It is also a misleading one, because over the same period 13 of Dubai's 21 busiest apartment communities got cheaper. Palm Jumeirah, Downtown, Business Bay, JVC and Dubai Creek Harbour all sold for less per square foot than a year before.
Both facts come from the same registered sales. This post explains how they fit together, and why it matters if you are trying to work out what a home is really worth.
What happened community by community
These are the 21 communities with at least 100 completed apartment sales in both Q3 2025 and Q3 2026, ranked by the change in median price per square foot.
| Community | Q3 2025 (AED/sqft) | Q3 2026 (AED/sqft) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai Marina | 1,796 | 1,997 | +11.2% |
| Silicon Oasis | 906 | 969 | +6.9% |
| Dubai Sports City | 893 | 940 | +5.3% |
| Dubai South | 1,034 | 1,087 | +5.1% |
| Dubailand Residence Complex | 821 | 856 | +4.4% |
| Arjan | 1,281 | 1,334 | +4.1% |
| International City Phase 1 | 638 | 658 | +3.2% |
| Discovery Gardens | 874 | 893 | +2.2% |
| Town Square Dubai | 1,314 | 1,309 | -0.4% |
| Al Furjan | 1,239 | 1,233 | -0.5% |
| Dubai Hills Estate | 2,250 | 2,214 | -1.6% |
| Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT) | 1,440 | 1,410 | -2.1% |
| Jumeirah Village Circle (JVC) | 1,235 | 1,200 | -2.8% |
| Business Bay | 1,794 | 1,723 | -3.9% |
| Dubai Creek Harbour | 2,326 | 2,236 | -3.9% |
| Downtown Dubai | 2,477 | 2,378 | -4.0% |
| Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) | 1,635 | 1,555 | -4.8% |
| Sobha Hartland | 2,031 | 1,933 | -4.8% |
| Meydan One Community | 1,938 | 1,820 | -6.1% |
| Dubai Production City (IMPZ) | 919 | 862 | -6.2% |
| Palm Jumeirah | 2,573 | 2,408 | -6.4% |
Median AED per square foot, completed ready-sale apartment transactions, 1 July to 30 September of each year. Communities shown have at least 100 sales in each period.
Two patterns stand out. The more affordable communities, mostly under AED 1,000 per square foot, rose. Much of the prime end, from Palm Jumeirah to Downtown to Business Bay, softened.
Dubai Marina looks like the exception, up 11%, but it is the same effect at community level. Three prime towers (Liv Waterside, Liv Marina and Jumeirah Living Marina Gate) went from 12 of Marina's apartment sales in Q3 2025 to 122 in Q3 2026. Leave those three out and the rest of Marina's median fell 2.1%, from AED 1,775 to AED 1,738 per square foot. The headline rise is a change in which Marina homes sold.
So where did the 5% come from?
From what sold, rather than from prices rising.
A citywide median is the middle sale of everything that changed hands. If the mix of homes being sold shifts toward pricier areas and bigger tickets, the median rises even when individual communities stay flat or fall. That is what the registered sales show this year:
- Apartments sold for under AED 1 million fell from 47.5% of sales in Q3 2025 to 42.3% in Q3 2026.
- Apartments sold for AED 2 million or more rose from 22.3% to 26.1%.
- Communities whose median was under AED 1,000 per square foot fell from 25.3% of sales to 23.4%, while those above AED 1,500 rose from 31.4% to 34.4%.
Fewer budget sales and more premium ones push the citywide middle upward on their own.
The like-for-like number
To strip the mix out, hold it fixed. Take the 21 communities above, weight each one by how many apartments it sold in Q3 2025, and apply each community's Q3 2026 median instead. If prices had genuinely risen 5%, this figure would rise 5% too.
It does not. The fixed-mix figure moves from AED 1,457 to AED 1,445 per square foot, down 0.8%. Pool the same 21 communities' sales directly and the median edges up 0.7%. Either way, for the communities where most Dubai apartments actually trade, prices were broadly flat year on year, not up 5%.
What this means if you are buying or selling
A headline median tells you about the market's mix as much as its prices. It is a fair summary of "what sold", and a poor guide to "what is my home worth".
For a specific property, three things matter far more than the citywide figure:
- The community, and the property type. Apartment and villa prices per square foot behave differently, and so do communities at similar price levels. JVC (AED 1,200) and Arjan (AED 1,334) moved in opposite directions this year.
- A fixed, labelled window. Compare like with like: the same months, the same length of period. A 12-month median and an all-time median for the same building can both be correct and still disagree.
- Enough sales to be honest. A median of a handful of sales is noise. Every community in the table above has at least 100 sales in each period.
If someone quotes you "prices are up 5%" to justify an asking price in a community that fell 4%, you now know which number to check.
How we measured this
All figures are medians of completed, DLD-registered ready-sale apartment transactions, 1 July to 30 September 2026 against the same period in 2025, from the KhaleejKeys database as of 7 October 2026. Off-plan sales are excluded entirely. The most recent weeks of any period can still fill in as late registrations arrive, so sale counts for September 2026 may rise slightly. We lead on medians because they are robust to a few unusual sales.
You can look up the registered sales behind any community, building or deal on KhaleejKeys, free and with no sign-up.
Source: DLD completed ready-sale transactions, 400,000+ records. This article is general information, not investment advice.