Dubai Off-Plan Q3 2026: the benchmark report
Every priced off-plan unit we track, in one document: 2,962 projects, 231 communities and 681 developers, with medians and quartiles per sqft by community and by developer, payment plans ranked by how much cash is due before handover, the handover pipeline by quarter through 2029, and the full project list as CSV.
Same corpus as the free pages, ranked and cross-cut, with the CSV behind every table so you can rebuild any of them.
PDF plus every derived table as CSV. 2,962 off-plan projects, 53 pages.
Card checkout opens shortly. Requesting takes no payment and no card details, and puts you first in line for the payment link and the files. When you do pay: 14 days to change your mind: full refund if the file will not open, the link fails, or the contents are not what this page describes. You keep the files.
Dated, not “live”. Sources read to 30 July 2026, corpus merged 18 August 2026, these tables built 2 October 2026. Every table we ship carries all three.
Rather write to a person? hello@offplanindex.com.
- 77 Dubai communities ranked per sqft
- 681 developers benchmarked
- 42,490 priced unit records behind the medians
- 3,315 published payment plans, decomposed
- Full project list as CSV
What it actually looks like
Click any page to open the free sample: the cover, the contents, the method page and three full pages of analysis, lifted verbatim and in the order they are printed. It is 6 of 53 pages, and it is the same file a buyer gets, not a trimmed marketing edition. The sample is a dated document and states its own dates on its first page.
What is inside
The market in one page
Median, quartiles and the full price-per-sqft distribution across 42,490 priced unit records, with size and ticket-size context.
Communities ranked
Every Dubai community with enough evidence to rank: median AED per sqft, p25 to p75, median ticket, project count, developer count, pre-handover norm.
Developers benchmarked
681 developers by price position, volume, the communities they build in, and how their payment plans compare to the market.
Price by bedroom and by type
Studios through 4 plus bedrooms, apartments against townhouses and villas, per sqft and per unit, so a like for like comparison is possible.
Payment plans, ranked by cash
Booking, during construction, on handover and post handover, ranked by how much is actually due before you hold keys. The structures that look generous and are not.
The handover pipeline
Projects by delivery quarter through 2029, by community, so supply pressure is visible before it lands.
Sell-through and remaining stock
How much of the tracked book is already sold out, by delivery year, community, developer and build stage, including the projects that sold out before the structure topped out.
Method and provenance
Every figure traces to a stated query over the corpus. Sources, exclusions, outlier handling and known gaps are written down rather than implied.
The data, as CSV
Each derived table as a CSV plus the full project list: project, developer, community, starting price, median AED per sqft, pre-handover percentage, handover quarter.
Table of contents: The market in one page, Communities ranked, Developers benchmarked, Price by bedroom and by type, Payment plans, ranked by cash, The handover pipeline, Sell-through and remaining stock, Method and provenance, The data, as CSV. 53 pages of tables and charts, plus four CSV files (projects, communities, developers, payment plans) and a README.
Sample findings
- 01
Dubai off-plan is asking a median AED 2,021 per sqft. Across 42,507 priced unit records in 1,514 projects, the middle half sits between AED 1,608 and AED 2,649 per sqft. The mean, AED 2,259, sits above the median, which is the signature of a long tail of prime stock rather than a broad repricing.
- 02
Small stock carries the highest price per sqft, not the lowest. Studios ask a median AED 2,280 per sqft on 7,544 records, against AED 1,916 for 1 BR (15,867 records) and AED 2,027 for 2 BR (11,415 records). Per sqft the entry product is the expensive one, so a cheaper ticket is not a cheaper square foot.
- 03
17% of priced units are asking under AED 1M. That is 7,177 of 42,507 records. Under AED 1.5M the share is 39% (16,591 records). The sub 1M pool is concentrated: 32 communities carry five or more such units, spread over 424 projects.
- 04
The standard plan asks a median 60% of the price before you get the keys. Measured on 2,533 payment plans across 1,815 projects whose steps sum to 100 percent. 58% of plans demand 60 percent or more before handover, and only 20% ask 40 percent or less.
- 05
Only 16% of plans carry a post-handover component. That is 397 of 2,533 plans. Where a post-handover tail exists it is worth a median 40% of the price, so the marketing phrase covers a genuinely different deal in one plan out of six and nothing at all in the rest.
- 06
Payment terms differ more by developer than by community. Among the 30 developers with ten or more projects carrying a plan, Reportage asks a median 30% before handover and Nakheel asks 80%. That 50 point spread changes how much cash you need before you hold the keys, on the same purchase price.
Six of the findings from the report, quoted verbatim. Each one is reproducible from the CSV that ships with it.
Who it is for
Agents
Walk into a client meeting with the community median, the quartiles and the payment plan norm, instead of the one comparable you happen to remember.
Buyers comparing communities
See what a sqft actually costs across every community at once, and what the plan really asks of you before you hold keys.
Analysts
A clean, cited base for a valuation, a market note or a board paper, with the CSV so you can rebuild any table.
Developers
Benchmark a launch against the communities and competitors it will be compared to, before the price list is printed.
What it is not
- No transaction data. These are not DLD recorded sales. Nothing here tells you what a unit sold for.
- No resale listings. Off-plan inventory only, from developer and portal project pages. No secondary market.
- Asking prices, not achieved prices. Every figure is derived from published asking prices, so it describes what is being asked, not what is being paid.
- Developer-published dates. Handover quarters are what the developer states. Dubai has a long history of these moving. Read the pipeline as intent, not as schedule.
- No forecasts. We rank and describe what exists. Nothing in the report predicts a price.
- No investment advice. It is a benchmark, not a recommendation, and it does not know your situation.
The full sourcing and exclusion rules are on the methodology page, and they are repeated inside the report.
Why you can check us instead of trusting us
We have no customers to quote, and we are not going to invent one.
This is a new product. There is no logo wall here, no “trusted by” strip and no testimonial, because there is nothing true to put in one yet. What follows is the argument we would rather you judged us on anyway: you can check the numbers instead of trusting them.
Read six of the fifty six pages first.
The free sample is the cover, the contents, the method page and three full pages of analysis, lifted unedited and in the order they are printed. It is linked from the buy box above.
Most of the corpus is already published, free, on this site.
168 community pages and 392 developer pages are built from the same tables the paid products ship. Pick a community you know well and check the median against your own comparables before you spend anything.
Every figure states the base it was computed on.
A median taken over thirty records and a median taken over three thousand are not the same claim, so the count sits next to the number rather than being left out of it. A thin sample is visible instead of hidden, and anything under the evidence floor is not ranked at all.
The method is written down, including what is wrong with it.
Methodology names the validation bands, the exclusions and the known gaps. The data policy names what we will never publish and why. Both were written to be argued with.
The corpus is countable, and its dates are on the page.
4,045 records across 231 communities and 681 developers, of which 52,882 priced unit records clear every plausibility check and are allowed inside a published benchmark. Sources read to 30 July 2026, merged 18 August 2026, built 2 October 2026.
What you are risking
- 14 days, refunded in full. If the file will not open, if the link fails, or if the contents are materially not what this page describes. One email, no form, no reason required beyond which of the three it is.
- You keep the files. We do not ask for a deletion or revoke a download after a refund. There is no way to enforce it and pretending otherwise would be theatre.
- What is not covered. A number you disagree with. The report states its method and its base for every table, and the free sample is six of its pages, so the shape of what you are buying is visible before you pay.
- Who answers. One person reads hello@offplanindex.com and answers within one business day. There is no ticket system and no queue.
The same terms in legal form are on the terms page. If the two ever disagree, the more generous one applies.
Questions
How is the report delivered?
Instantly. Stripe returns you to a receipt page with two download buttons, one for the ZIP of PDF plus CSV files and one for the PDF alone. The links are signed and short-lived, and the receipt page re-issues them whenever you open it.
What format is it?
A print-ready PDF for reading and sharing, plus CSV files of every derived table, bundled together as a ZIP. The CSVs open in Excel, Numbers, Sheets or pandas without conversion.
What is the refund policy?
14 days from purchase, refunded in full, if the file will not open, if the download link does not work, or if the contents are materially not what the report page describes. Write to hello@offplanindex.com with the order reference from your receipt and say which of the three applies. You keep the files either way: chasing a deleted PDF is not a business we want to be in. What is not a refund reason: a figure came out lower or higher than you expected, or the conclusions were not the ones you were hoping for. We publish the method and the free sample precisely so that neither of those is a surprise.
How current is the data?
Sources were read to 2026-07-30, the corpus was merged on 2026-08-18, and these tables were computed on 2026-10-02. The report states all three dates on its first page, and every table carries them.
Can I get an invoice?
Yes. Stripe emails a receipt automatically, and you can add a company name and address during checkout. Reply to that email for a formatted invoice with a VAT field.
What licence do I get?
One commercial licence for you and your firm: use the figures in client decks, valuations and internal analysis, with attribution to OffplanIndex. You may not resell the files or redistribute the CSVs as a dataset.
When does the next edition come out?
Editions are dated rather than scheduled, and the last four have been quarterly. Buyers of this edition get a discount code for the next one at the address used at checkout, whenever it lands.
79 USD, once, for the quarter’s full book.
2,962 off-plan projects, 231 communities, 681 developers, 52,882 priced unit records, ranked and cross-cut. PDF plus the CSV behind every table, delivered the moment the payment clears.
Card checkout opens shortly. Requesting takes no payment and no card details, and a person replies within one business day from hello@offplanindex.com. When you do pay: 14 days to change your mind: full refund if the file will not open, the link fails, or the contents are not what this page describes. You keep the files.