Dubai recorded 17,279 property sales worth AED 71.73 billion in January 2026, across all property types, according to DXBinteract analysis of Dubai Land Department (DLD) records. Transaction count rose 21.6% year on year, while the median price per sqft rose 16.0% to AED 1,686. Developer sales represented 69.0% of transactions.

Sales value rose 60.7% year on year

Sales value grew faster than transaction count, so January’s increase in traded value was not simply a rise in the number of sales. The median price per sqft also increased, but a citywide median cannot measure the appreciation of an individual home.

Developer purchases account for 69.0% of sales

Dubai developer sales numbered 11,922 in January 2026, or 69.0% of all-property-type transactions, according to DXBinteract analysis of DLD records. Resales numbered 5,357. Primary means bought directly from a developer; it is not a synonym for off-plan, and resales can include homes still under construction.

Apartment sales lead with 12,612 transactions

Dubai recorded 12,612 apartment sales in January 2026, the largest count among the property categories in this report. Category medians describe the properties sold; they are not valuations of an unchanged home.

Categories with fewer than 50 sales have small samples: their medians can move sharply when the mix changes. Total medians are calculated for the full population; they are not averages of category medians.

Me'Aisem Second leads the reported area ranking by value

Dubai’s January 2026 area table puts Me'Aisem Second first by sales value at AED 6.13 billion, for apartments, villas and commercial property only. This ranking excludes townhouses, plots and buildings, so its values and counts are not the basis for shares of the all-property headline.

Area names are reproduced as recorded. A DLD land district can contain several communities; the figures have not been reassigned to a narrower community name.

New apartment leases have a median annual rent of AED 70,000

Dubai recorded 14,656 new apartment rental contracts in January 2026, with median annual rent of AED 70,000; 17,619 apartment renewals had a median of AED 56,642. These are separate groups of recorded contracts, not a measure of the increase faced by an individual renewing tenant.

The rental section covers the listed apartment, villa and commercial categories. The contract date basis is not specified in the stored report, so rental year-on-year changes are not reproduced here without underlying comparison values. Gross or net rental yields cannot be inferred by dividing unrelated citywide rent and sale medians.

13,329 units launched and 2,431 delivered

Dubai’s January 2026 supply summary records 13,329 launched units across 38 projects and 2,431 delivered units across 14 projects. Source: DXBinteract analysis of DLD records. Launches and deliveries describe different stages of supply; their difference is not unsold inventory.

Launched units are not necessarily sold in the same period, and delivered units may have sold in earlier years. These figures do not establish an absorption rate or a forecast of future completions.

The highest listed apartment sale was AED 71,563,574

Dubai’s January 2026 notable-sale list is led by an apartment transaction of AED 71,563,574 at Aman Residences Tower 1. The villa list is led by AED 134,000,000 in Emirates Living. These are the highest entries in the supplied lists, not claims about all-time records.

What these figures mean for buyers, landlords and market observers

Buyers

The Dubai-wide median of AED 1,686/sqft in January 2026 is a context figure. Location, building, condition, size and the sales channel can all differ from this population. A change in the median is not a like-for-like valuation.

Tenants and landlords

New apartment contracts at a median AED 70,000 a year and renewals at AED 56,642 describe different groups. Their gap is not an individual tenant’s rent increase or a property’s net rental yield.

Developers and market observers

Developer purchases represent 69.0% of transaction count, while the supply summary records 13,329 launched units. Transaction counts, launched units and completed units measure different events, so they cannot alone establish how much new supply has been absorbed.

Methodology and definitions

Source: DXBinteract analysis of Dubai Land Department (DLD) records.

Figures are taken from the stored January 2026 report, retrieved on 2026-10-16. The retrieval date is not a confirmed registration cutoff. Sales count, value and median AED/sqft in the headline cover every property type. Area rankings and the historical series cover apartments, villas and commercial property only; they exclude townhouses, plots and buildings.

Sales are recorded transactions rather than listings or asking prices. Values are in AED and areas in sqft. Primary is a purchase directly from a developer; resale is a secondary-market purchase. Neither category establishes construction status. A median is the middle recorded value and cannot be averaged across segments.

Year-on-year sales comparisons, where shown, are recalculated from the corresponding stored 2025 and 2026 period rows on the same property-type basis. Monthly changes use the previous stored month and quarterly changes use the previous stored quarter. Figures may be revised as registrations and stored snapshots change; separately rounded category or channel values can differ slightly from totals.

The 2026 yearly row is incomplete and lacks a precise cutoff. No annual year-on-year percentage, full-year record claim, matched-window historical ranking or annualised forecast is asserted. Rental percentage changes are omitted where prior raw values or date definitions are not supplied. Named supply-project forecasts and rental yields are omitted because this report does not establish their basis.

Related reports

• Market reports
• 2026 year-to-date report
• Q1 2026
• Same period in 2025