Dubai Property Market H1 2026: Record January, Cooler Summer
January delivered AED 72.5 billion in turnover — more than Dubai’s entire market in 2020. By June, volumes had returned to typical levels. Here’s the month-by-month breakdown of deal count and price per square foot.
The first half of 2026 on Dubai's market split into two distinct parts: a record start and a quiet summer. Here are the numbers by month, so the trend shows through rather than the headline.
January — a record
17,457 transactions worth AED 72.5 billion. Turnover in a single month exceeded Dubai's entire market for all of 2020. Compared with December, the number of deals fell about 6% — seasonal — but compared with January the year before, the market grew more than 22% by volume and more than 60% by value.
Average price per square foot: AED 1,800, against AED 1,804 in December — flat month-on-month, up about 15% year-on-year.
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February — an expected cooldown
16,979 transactions worth AED 60.8 billion: down 2.8% on January by volume and down by value too, but up 5.1% and up 18.4% respectively versus February the year before. Average price per square foot: AED 1,740 — down 2.9% on January, up 12.2% year-on-year.
Top areas by transaction count in February: JVC, Dubai South, Al Yelayiss 1, Dubai Residence Complex and Majan. January's list was similar — Damac Islands 2, JVC, Dubai South, Business Bay, Dubailand.
April and June — the new normal
April: 13,977 transactions worth $13.1 billion, down 22–23% versus April 2025 both by count and by value. June: 13,933 transactions worth $9 billion.
How to read this
The year-on-year decline after a record January looks alarming only in the headline. In fact the market came down from peak mode to something ordinary: transaction counts are holding near fourteen thousand a month, and the average ticket size fell faster than the count — meaning part of the large-ticket activity left, not the buyer altogether.
The practical takeaway for a buyer is simple: year-on-year comparisons on a market like this are misleading, because the prior-year base was itself an anomaly. What matters is your own district and your own unit type, not the emirate's average temperature.
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