Glossary

Dubai property market glossary

Every number on Market News, explained in plain English with simple examples. Tap a term in the list to jump to it.

How to use this pageShow

Terms are grouped by topic: prices, sales, off-plan and ready homes, rents, indices, dates and markets.
Each term has a one-line meaning, and often an example with round numbers.
On any Market News page, tap the ⓘ next to a heading to see just the terms used there.

What the dates mean

The latest data is for Thursday, 22 Oct 2026. Every period counts back from that day, and a change compares it with the period of the same length just before it.

Dates behind each period
Period	Covers	Compared with	Same time last year
1M · 1 month	23 Sept – 22 Oct 2026	24 Aug – 22 Sept 2026	23 Sept – 22 Oct 2025
3M · 3 months	25 Jul – 22 Oct 2026	26 Apr – 24 Jul 2026	25 Jul – 22 Oct 2025
6M · 6 months	26 Apr – 22 Oct 2026	28 Oct 2025 – 25 Apr 2026	26 Apr – 22 Oct 2025
1Y · 1 year	23 Oct 2025 – 22 Oct 2026	23 Oct 2024 – 22 Oct 2025	23 Oct 2024 – 22 Oct 2025

Tap the info button next to any heading for a short explanation. Full glossary →

Prices

AED/sqft (price per square foot): The sale price divided by the size of the home. It lets you compare a small flat and a large villa fairly.; Example: A 1,000 sqft apartment sold for AED 2,000,000 is AED 2,000 per sqft.
Median: The middle number when all sales are lined up from cheapest to most expensive. Half sold for more, half for less.; We use the median, not the average, so one very expensive penthouse can't make a whole area look pricier than it is.
Median price: The middle sale price (the full price of the home, not per sqft) in the period.
Like-for-like change: Price change that compares the same kind of home with itself: off-plan with off-plan, 2-bed flats with 2-bed flats.; If an area simply sold more cheap studios this month, a simple average would show a fake price fall. Like-for-like removes that effect, so the % is a real change in prices.
Price change (3M, 1M, 6M, 1Y columns): How much prices per sqft moved in the chosen period compared with the period of the same length just before it.; Example: "3M +2.0%" means prices in the last 3 months were 2% higher than in the 3 months before that.
1Y (vs a year ago): Prices in the last 3 months compared with the same 3 months one year earlier.; This removes seasonal effects, like quiet summers, because it compares the same time of year.
Green ▲ / red ▼ / grey ■: Green with ▲ means up, red with ▼ means down, grey ■ means almost no change (less than 0.05%).
12M trend (small line): A tiny chart of the monthly median price per sqft over the last 12 months. Up and to the right means rising prices.

Sales activity

Sales: The number of homes sold and registered with Dubai Land Department (DLD) in the period.; A sale shows up on the day it is registered, which can be a few days after the deal was agreed.
Value: The total money spent on all sales in the period, added together.; Example: 10 sales of AED 2M each = AED 20M value.
Latest session (market close): The most recent trading day with registered sales, and how it compares with the day before.
Trading day: A day with at least 80 sales registered. Quiet days, such as weekends and holidays, don't move the indices.
Breadth (up / down / flat): How many communities had prices go up, down or stay flat over the last 30 days.; If most communities are rising, the whole market is strong, not just a few hot areas.
Rank: Position by total sales value over the last 12 months. #1 is where the most money was spent.

Off-plan and ready homes

Off-plan (developer): A home bought directly from the developer before it is finished.
Off-plan resale: An unfinished home sold on by its first buyer to someone else before handover.; Lots of resales can mean investors are taking profits, or that a project is in demand.
Secondary (ready): A finished, ready home bought from its current owner.
Off-plan / resale / ready share: Out of every 100 sales in the last 12 months, how many were off-plan, off-plan resale and ready.
Resale premium (resale vs launch): How much more (or less) per sqft people pay when buying an off-plan unit from another buyer instead of from the developer.; Example: +15% means resale buyers paid 15% more per sqft than the developer's own prices.
First sale: The date the first sale in this project was registered, which is usually close to its launch.

Rents and yields

Median rent: The middle yearly rent of leases registered (through Ejari) in the period.
Rent change: How much rent per sqft moved, like-for-like, compared with the period just before.
New lease vs renewal: A new lease is a tenant moving in; a renewal is the same tenant signing again. New leases show today's asking rents best.
Gross yield: Yearly rent as a % of the price to buy the same kind of home. It tells you roughly what a landlord earns before costs.; We match rents and ready-home prices by property type and bedrooms. Service charges and fees are not taken off.; Example: Rent AED 100,000 a year on a home that costs AED 1,600,000 = 6.3% gross yield.

Indices and charts

BT index: One number that tracks a part of the market over time, like a stock market index does for shares.; Each index follows the median price per sqft (or rent, or number of sales) of the homes it covers.
Index level (Last): Where the index stands today. January 2024 = 1,000, so 1,100 means prices are 10% higher than in January 2024.
Chg and Chg %: How much the index moved since the previous trading day, in points and as a %.
52-week range: The lowest and highest level in the last 12 months. The dot shows where today sits between them.
Rebased = 100: Every line starts at 100 so you can compare how fast each one grew, even if their prices are very different.; Example: A line at 110 has grown 10% since the start; a line at 95 has fallen 5%.

Dates

1W, 1M, 3M, 6M, 1Y, 3Y: Look-back periods: 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year and 3 years, always counted back from the latest data day.
YTD (year to date): From 1 January this year until the latest data day.

Markets

Community: An area of Dubai, such as Dubai Marina or Jumeirah Village Circle, as recorded by DLD.
Project: A single building or development, such as a tower or a group of villas.
Developer: The company that builds and first sells the homes. Developers are compared with their own past, not ranked against each other.
Segment: A slice of the Dubai market, such as all villas, all 2-bed apartments or all homes under AED 2M.
Price band: Groups of homes by total sale price: under AED 2M, AED 2M–10M, AED 10M–50M and AED 50M+.

Source for all figures: Dubai Land Department sale and lease registrations. Medians need at least five sales.