AED 41 Billion in a Month: What Dubai’s Market Peak Looked Like
In February 2025, Dubai property transactions reached AED 41 billion — 17% more than a year earlier. Off-plan made up 59% of deals, villa prices rose 60%, apartments 30%. Worth remembering as the baseline the current correction is measured from.
To gauge the scale of the current correction, it helps to remember what it's measured from. February 2025 was one of the most telling months of the previous cycle.
The month's numbers
- AED 41 billion in total sales — 17% more than a year earlier.
- 59% of deals were off-plan.
- Villas: average price up 60%, to AED 11.48 million.
- Apartments: up 30%, to AED 2.26 million.
- The most sought-after formats: one-bedroom apartments and four-bedroom villas.
Emaar led sales volume — AED 4.11 billion for the month — followed by Sobha, Damac, Omniyat and Dubai Properties.
What actually matters in these numbers
A 60% rise in average villa price over a year is not the same as a specific house getting 60% more expensive. The average transaction price depends on what actually sold: when the share of expensive units in the mix rises, the average jumps without prices moving in any single segment. 2024–2025 brought a wave of upper-tier villas to the Dubai market, and that's what shows up in the number.
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Second, the 59% off-plan share. It means most deals that period were commitments on the future, not purchases of finished homes. Those commitments are exactly what's coming due now, in 2026–2027, as the projects reach handover.
Why look at this today
The 2026 correction — sale prices down about 2.6%, rents down 9.5% — is measured from a base that had just added tens of percent. These are different orders of magnitude, and talk of a "market crash" doesn't sit well against them. What actually changed is liquidity and the structure of demand, not the price level.
Based on Dubai property transaction data for February 2025 and Property Finder's H1 2026 report.
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