Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah property market 2023–2025: transactions, prices and what changed
Sharjah: about AED 27bn of transactions in 2023, AED 40bn in 2024 and a record AED 65.6bn in 2025. Ras Al Khaimah: AED 6.9bn in 2023 and over AED 15bn in 2024, then 2025 sales down 25% while apartment prices rose 13.4%. Year-by-year tables and the September 2026 status.
Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah are usually weighed as the cheaper alternatives to Dubai. Both grew several times over between 2023 and 2025, but for different reasons: Sharjah on domestic demand and its own citizens, Ras Al Khaimah on international demand for resort development around Al Marjan Island. This review sets out the official annual results, the price indices and what has changed by September 2026.
Sharjah: three record years in a row
| Year | Transaction value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | ≈AED 27bn | first nine months: 59,258 transactions worth AED 19bn (about $5.2bn) |
| 2024 | AED 40bn (+48%) | highest since 2008; buyers from 120 nationalities |
| 2025 | AED 65.6bn (+64.3%) | 132,659 transactions (+26.3%), 33,580 sales (+38.4%) |
| H1 2026 | AED 29.5bn (+9.3%) | 59,460 transactions (+23.7%) |
The source is Sharjah's Real Estate Registration Department. We did not find a separately published full-year 2023 total; AED 27bn is derived from the official 48% growth reported for 2024. The market's defining trait is the weight of local buyers: UAE nationals invested about AED 19.2bn in 2024, almost half the total. November 2025 was the biggest month in the emirate's history at AED 9.5bn.
Two rules matter more to an investor than turnover. Sharjah's 2024 rent law freezes the rent for the first three years of a tenancy unless the tenant agrees (our explainer). And foreign ownership is limited to designated projects, so the address decides whether you can hold a title at all.
Talk to a licensed broker: 📲 +971 50 120 32 64 on WhatsApp, @dubai_oleg on Telegram
Ras Al Khaimah: the 2024 surge and the 2025 pullback
| Year | Measure | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | All transactions (emirate data) | AED 6.94bn |
| 2024 | All transactions (emirate data) | over AED 15bn (+118%) |
| 2024 | Residential sales (Cavendish Maxwell) | ≈8,000 worth AED 16.4bn |
| 2025 | Residential sales (Cavendish Maxwell) | ≈6,600 (−17.4%) worth AED 12.4bn (−24.7%) |
| 2025 | Off-plan share of sales | ≈85% |
The two 2024 series differ because they measure different things — all registered transactions on one side, residential sales including developers' primary contracts on the other. Compare within a series, never across.
2024 was the launch year around the future Wynn resort on Al Marjan, with developers bringing out branded residences sold mostly off-plan. In 2025 sales fell by a quarter while prices kept rising: Cavendish Maxwell had apartments up 13.4%, villas up 9.7% and apartment rents up 10.2%. ValuStrat's index was up 14.9% year on year in the third quarter of 2025. We could not find the "+18.5%" sometimes quoted for the emirate in consultants' reports and do not use it.
What has changed by September 2026
Sharjah has slowed without stopping: AED 29.5bn in the first half of 2026, 9.3% up on a year earlier, with Muwaileh Commercial (2,385 transactions, AED 2.8bn) and Al Belaida the busiest areas. In Ras Al Khaimah the question is supply. After about 1,200 units delivered in 2025 and 1,300 due in 2026, Cavendish Maxwell counts some 5,200 for 2028. Whether that wave meets an open resort depends on Wynn, whose opening has moved to September 2027 (details here).
If you are looking at the northern emirates as an alternative to Dubai, start with our Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah pages and Ras Al Khaimah to 2030.
Video on this topic
The same subject on the English channel — each clip has a written version of its own.
19:45Oceano on Al Marjan Island: the Luxe Developers project and the island being built around it14 August 2026
15:43Nobu in Ras Al Khaimah and Abu Dhabi: why the RAK one is the more interesting asset10 December 2023
13:37Al Marjan Island plots: what the branded launches in Ras Al Khaimah are actually built on10 December 2023
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