United Arab Emirates real estate market — prices, rental yield and trend
- Average price: $5,760 / m²
- Gross rental yield: 4.94%
- 12-month price change (USD): 6.1%
- Transaction cost: 6.5%
- Price basis: local-market average
Residential property in United Arab Emirates averages $5,760 per square metre, +6.1% in dollar terms over the last twelve months. That makes it the 19th most expensive of the 70 markets in the set.
What a buyer pays in United Arab Emirates
The $5,760 figure is a local-market average across all residential property types: it describes the capital's market, not the country as a whole — most of the country trades well below it. Buying costs — transfer tax or stamp duty, notary, registration and agency — come to about 6.5% of the price here. On a 100 m² apartment at the average price that is roughly $37,440 on top of the $576,000 purchase price. That is below the 9.5% median across the set, which shortens the time it takes for a purchase to break even. Inside United Arab Emirates we track 3 local markets separately: Dubai at $7,244 (25.8% above the national figure) down to Abu Dhabi at $4,826.
What it earns
Long-term letting returns about 4.9% gross on the purchase price, 46th of 69 markets by gross yield. Measured against local earnings, the price-to-income ratio is 7.4 — that is how many years of an average local income one average home costs, and it says more about who can buy here than any price figure does.
How this figure is built
The price figure for United Arab Emirates comes from the source we judge most reliable for this market. It was last refreshed on 2026-07-23. We rate our confidence in this market’s data high: the underlying series is official and current. We recompute every market the same way; a figure that fails our checks is suppressed, not guessed.
Sources: GPG yields · globalpropertyguide.com. Snapshot: 2026-07-23.
Latest United Arab Emirates market analysis
- Dubai Home Prices Slipped Below Last Year's Level in August, a First Since 2021 — 2026-09-08
- Dubai Added 5,184 Branded Residence Units in Six Months While Sales Value Halved — 2026-09-08
- Business Bay Overtook Palm Jumeirah in Dubai Prime Deals as August Sales Fell 37% — 2026-09-07
- Abu Dhabi Property Transactions Reached AED 155bn in Eight Months, Past All of 2025 — 2026-09-05
- Ras Al Khaimah Rents Rose Up to 8% in the First Half of 2026 Before Stalling in Q2 — 2026-09-05
- Abu Dhabi Completes Its First Off-Plan Mortgage Registration Under Adrec's New Framework — 2026-09-05
- Dubai Logged 148,564 Property Deals Worth AED 523.44 Billion in Eight Months — 2026-09-04
- Dubai Mortgage Rates Stop Following the Fed as UAE Banks Absorb the Moves — 2026-09-02
- Dubai and Abu Dhabi Apartment Prices Both Fell 3% in the Second Quarter — 2026-08-31
- Dubai Faces 55,600 Home Completions in 2026, the Most Since 2008, While New Launches Collapse — 2026-08-22
- Al Hudayriyat Island Took 27% of Abu Dhabi's Home Sales in the First Half of 2026 — 2026-08-22
- Abu Dhabi Beat Its Full-Year 2025 Home Sales by Mid-August — 2026-08-14
Related markets: Abu Dhabi · Ras Al Khaimah · Dubai