Dubai rental index: how the Smart Rental Index prices rent building by building

On 2 January 2025 the Dubai Land Department replaced its district-average rent index with the Smart Rental Index. Under the old system a new tower with a full amenity deck and a twenty-year-old block across the road shared one benchmark. Now every residential building carries its own rating of one to five stars, and that rating sets the market rent your lease is measured against.

How a building earns its stars

The rating draws on more than 60 criteria: age and condition, quality of finishes, maintenance and facility management, amenities such as pools, gyms and parking, security, energy efficiency and position within the community. It is built on registered lease data and, unlike the old annual index, can be refreshed at any time. DLD officials were explicit at launch that an owner who wants a building moved from three stars to four has to renovate it. For now the system covers residential buildings only. The rating and the permitted increase can be checked in the DLD rental calculator and the Dubai REST app.

What did not change: the caps

Current rent below the index by	Maximum increase at renewal
up to 10%	0%
11–20%	5%
21–30%	10%
31–40%	15%
over 40%	20%

The bands come from Decree 43 of 2013. A 20% rise is only available when a lease has fallen more than 40% behind its building’s benchmark, and any change to terms has to be notified in writing at least 90 days before the lease expires — miss the window and the lease renews on the old terms.

What it means for a buy-to-let investor

Building quality is now part of the yield, not only of the price. A well-run, amenity-rich building gets a higher benchmark and more room to move rent; tired stock gets a lower one. Service quality matters too: poor maintenance can drag down the rating, and with it the permitted rent for every owner in the tower. When you buy with a sitting tenant, model rent at what the index lets you reach over the next two or three renewals, not at the asking rents in listings — a lease signed well below market can only catch up in steps.

The index caps increases; it does not guarantee them. Rents in several communities fell in 2026, as covered in our note on The Lakes and Jumeirah Park.

For the full arithmetic of what reaches the landlord after Ejari, service charges and fees, see Renting in Dubai: rates, deposits, Ejari.