What the Dubai off-plan data says
Long form reads built from the same corpus as the benchmark pages: 2,924 UAE off-plan projects, 52,882 priced unit records, 230 communities and 676 developers, as of July 2026. A note about Dubai counts the Dubai slice of that, 42,490 priced unit records, and says so. Every figure is a count, a median or a quartile with its base attached, and nothing is forecast.
Dubai off-plan market, Q3 2026: twelve findings from the priced record
The free read of the Q3 2026 edition, quoted as published on 3,297 Dubai projects and 48,651 priced unit records: the median asking price per sqft, the community spread, why studios cost the most per sqft, what payment plans really ask before handover, where the 2027 completion wave lands, and one gap the data cannot fill. The corpus has since been reclassified, so the medians and charts on the page are live and the edition counts are not.
Read the noteDubai off-plan payment plans 2026: what you pay before the keys
The booking, construction and handover shares developers actually publish across 3,315 Dubai off-plan plans, the p25 to p75 spread of what is due before keys, how many carry a post-handover tail and how large it is, and the developers and communities that ask the least up front, all computed from the plan tables behind the benchmark pages.
Read the noteDubai off-plan handovers 2026 to 2030: where the wave lands
Projects scheduled to complete by year and quarter through 2030, the peak year and its share of the window, the communities and developers carrying the largest 2027 and 2028 books, what later delivery years ask per sqft, and why published dates are a schedule rather than a forecast.
Read the noteDubai off-plan by bedroom: what a studio, 1 BR or villa costs
Every bedroom type in Dubai off-plan priced three ways: median ticket, median floor area and median price per sqft, across 42,489 labelled records in 2,337 tracked projects. Studios ask the most per sqft of any rung, the second bedroom is the dearest floor area to add, and the size bands barely overlap.
Read the noteDubai off-plan under AED 1M: what the entry end actually buys
31% of the Dubai off-plan projects that publish a starting price start under AED 1M, and across every published from price the figure sits a median 30% below its own community's median asking price. 36% of that sub-1M book is already recorded as sold out. Ten findings on where the entry tickets are, what AED 1M covers in square feet, and why waiting for a later handover does not buy a cheaper one.
Read the noteDubai off-plan developers 2026: pipeline, price and payment terms
A small group of majors carries most of the 2,337 tracked Dubai off-plan projects, while the long tail of the 676 named developers has one or two projects to its name. Ten findings scoring the majors against that tail on pipeline, price per sqft, cash collected before handover, community concentration and the published 2026 to 2030 handover book.
Read the noteDubai off-plan sell-through 2026: how much stock is left
Of 2,337 tracked Dubai off-plan projects, 2,054 publish a sale status: 61% of that book is still buyable and 35% has already gone. Sell-through runs hardest during construction, not after it, with 703 projects sold out while the building is still going up. Ten findings by delivery year, community, developer and build stage.
Read the noteDubai post-handover payment plans 2026: who really lets you pay after the keys
Fewer than a fifth of the Dubai off-plan projects that publish a payment plan let any of the price run past handover, and the median tail defers about 40% of it. Ten findings on which developers and communities write them, why tails peak on the 2028 handover book rather than the far-out launches, and the pre-handover cash they buy down.
Read the noteOff-plan outside Dubai 2026: what the other five emirates actually cost
587 of the 2,924 tracked off-plan projects sit outside Dubai, and the price order is not the one the headlines imply: Ras Al Khaimah asks more per sqft than Dubai, Umm Al Quwain more again, Ajman far less. Ten findings on booking deposits that halve at the border, post-handover tails written on half of Ajman plans, single addresses that carry a whole emirate, and the bedroom curve that inverts once you leave Dubai.
Read the noteThe handover ladder: why a 2030 key costs more per sqft than a 2026 one
2,756 UAE off-plan projects carry a handover date between 2026 and 2030, and the asking price per sqft climbs at every step of the calendar, from AED 1,673 to AED 2,499. The share already sold out runs the other way, 57% to 17%. Ten findings on launch vintage, survivorship, the December bulge in every year, payment terms that harden with the horizon, and why almost nothing at the far end is still on paper.
Read the noteApartment, villa or townhouse: at the same bedroom count the flat costs the most
At the same bedroom count an off-plan apartment asks more than a townhouse on less floor area, across 52,880 typed priced records. Ten findings on what the type label is really pricing: the bedroom rung each label sells, booking deposits that halve on ground product, post-handover tails written on flats rather than villas, and an emirate spread inside a single type that beats the whole spread between types.
Read the noteThe square foot gets dearer as the budget climbs, and the choice gets thinner
Off-plan under AED 1M asks a median AED 1,774 per sqft. Above AED 10M asks AED 4,091, 2.3x the rate for many times the floor area. Ten findings on the 52,882 priced records sorted by ticket: why half the book sits at the bottom, how fast the list of addresses collapses as the money grows, a booking deposit that is not a ladder, and the floor area the same money buys outside Dubai.
Read the noteAddress beats bedroom count: the same 2 BR, priced worlds apart
The same two bedroom rung asks AED 504 per sqft at one UAE address and AED 5,757 at another, a spread of 11.4x, while walking the entire bedroom ladder inside one community moves the rate far less. Eight findings on which of the two filters actually sets the price, across 249 community and bedroom pairs: the second bedroom bought at a discount to the first, the floor area a million buys at each end, booking deposits set by postcode rather than unit, and the rungs already sold out at every project selling them.
Read the noteThe community median is priced for the flat next door
A community headline describes whatever that address mostly sells, which almost everywhere means apartments. Across 50 community and product pairs the product a buyer actually wants asks a large multiple of the community ticket, while ground product trades under the community rate per sqft and sky product trades over it. Seven findings on reading a benchmark for the right product: the rate gaps, the townhouse as the market's one commodity, and the booking deposit that is set by product rather than postcode.
Read the noteA developer premium does not travel
Move one builder between the addresses it publishes and its rate per sqft moves more than swapping the builder at a single address does, so the postcode is the bigger lever. Seven findings across 155 developer and community pairs: the builders that are dearer than one address and cheaper than another, booking deposits far apart inside a single community, and the side of the local rate where stock actually sells out.
Read the noteAbu Dhabi is not the cheaper emirate, it is the bigger one
Abu Dhabi asks about the same per sqft as Dubai and 2.4x the ticket, because its median unit is 2.4x the floor area. Eight findings on where the two markets genuinely disagree: the rung where the premium changes sign, the townhouse Abu Dhabi prices above Dubai, the penthouse Dubai prices above Abu Dhabi, a booking deposit at half the Dubai level that costs the same cash, and one builder holding a quarter of the emirate.
Read the noteThe headline price is a number attached to a schedule
Every off-plan payment plan defers most of the price for years, so the headline overstates what the unit costs in today's money. Discounting 1,937 published schedules to present value at 5.0 percent puts the median plan at 5.29 percent off its own headline. Eight findings on where the softest terms are written, why the discount is time rather than generosity, why the league table survives any sane discount rate, and the third of the live book the metric cannot reach.
Read the noteThe one thing every off-plan buyer wants to know, and cannot be told
No portal in this market scores a developer, and the reason is that a listing record carries one handover date where measuring punctuality needs two. So there is no on-time rate here and no proxy for one. Seven findings from six sourced measures across 255 developers instead: 27.4 percent of the live off-plan book is sold by names with no completion on record, the delivery evidence is six years deep with half of it held by twenty builders, one developer runs 19 live projects per building it has delivered, and price and payment terms turn out to be completely unrelated.
Read the noteThe buildings finish in one year and the money is due in another
Every consultancy publishes when UAE off-plan buildings complete and nobody publishes when the money is due, so we put 1,660 tracked projects and their published payment plans on one quarterly cash calendar. Seven findings: half the money is called a year before half the buildings exist, from 2029 Q1 most of the sum still owed is owed on buildings that already stand, and the heaviest community concentration in the market turns out to be one tower once every project is weighted equally.
Read the noteDefinitions, exclusion rules and sources are in the methodology. For the ranked tables behind these notes, start from the rankings.
The full report: every community, every developer, ranked.
The free notes in context: price per sqft by community and developer, payment plan structures ranked by cash due before handover, the 2026 to 2029 delivery pipeline, and the CSV behind every table. PDF plus data, delivered instantly.