Dubai's property market exhibits remarkable resilience, with rental activities increasing by 1.9% year-on-year, supported by over 214,000 tenancy contracts registered in the first seven months of 2026. One-bedroom apartments continue to dominate demand, and popular areas include Al Warsan and Jebel Ali First. The sales market also remains active, with a strong preference for off-plan transactions. Additionally, a new shared housing law will soon regulate room-sharing, necessitating landlord consent for subletting.

Dubai's property market exhibits remarkable resilience, with rental activities increasing by 1.9% year-on-year, supported by over 214,000 tenancy contracts registered in the first seven months of 2026. One-bedroom apartments continue to dominate demand, and popular areas include Al Warsan and Jebel Ali First. The sales market also remains active, with a strong preference for off-plan transactions. Additionally, a new shared housing law will soon regulate room-sharing, necessitating landlord consent for subletting.

Dubai's property market exhibits remarkable resilience, with rental activities increasing by 1.9% year-on-year, supported by over 214,000 tenancy contracts registered in the first seven months of 2026. One-bedroom apartments continue to dominate demand, and popular areas include Al Warsan and Jebel Ali First. The sales market also remains active, with a strong preference for off-plan transactions. Additionally, a new shared housing law will soon regulate room-sharing, necessitating landlord consent for subletting.

Despite geopolitical challenges, Dubai’s property market remains resilient, with rental activities reporting a 1.9 per cent hike compared to the same period last year. Over 214,445 tenancy contracts were registered in the first seven months of 2026, according to a market analysis by Dubai-based real estate firm fäm Properties.

July, which saw the Middle East stabilise, saw 38,197 rental contracts being registered. This includes 18,431 new agreements and 19,766 renewals, according to a market analysis from fäm Properties.

The most-sought after property continues to be one-bedroom ones, accounting for 41 per cent of all agreements registered to date in 2026. This comes to around 88,327 contracts. Two-bedroom units followed with 23 per cent and three-bedroom units with 10 per cent.

The areas which saw brisk rental activity include Al Warsan with 20,830 contracts so far in 2026, followed by Jebel Ali First with 18,478 and Al Barsha South Fourth with 16,489. Business Bay and Nadd Hessa ranked fourth and fifth with 13,728 and 11,710 contracts, respectively.

Not just rental, the sales market also remained active in July, with 13,872 transactions worth AED 34.5 billion. Off-plan transactions continued to dominate, accounting for 9,585 deals worth AED20.5 billion, compared with 4,287 resale transactions valued at AED14 billion.

“The level of rental activity overall is a good sign of market resilience,” said Firas Al Msaddi, CEO of fäm Properties. “The volume of renewals alone shows that, regardless of regional uncertainty over the last few months, people still see Dubai as one of the best places in the world to live and work.”

Room-sharing regulations

As per the new shared housing law introduced by the Dubai government, and said to take effect from August 26, the informal practice of renters renting out bedrooms or bed spaces to third parties has to be with required authorisation. One of the most significant clauses is that renters cannot independently sell out a room or a portion of their apartment in exchange for rent without the landlord's written approval.

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