CRESCO INSIGHTS · CRESCO RESEARCH
Studios are 39% of the market. Four bedrooms are 0.5%. What the registered transaction data says about the Dubai you are actually buying into.
Americans arrive at Dubai expecting a luxury market. The registered data says something different.
We took 18,587 residential sales registered with the Dubai Land Department between 30 June and 18 August 2026 and sorted them by what was actually bought and what was actually paid.
| Unit type | Sales | Share of market | Median price | Median size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | 7,299 | 39.3% | $176,991 | 380 sq ft |
| 1 bedroom | 6,414 | 34.5% | $322,579 | 756 sq ft |
| 2 bedroom | 3,232 | 17.4% | $545,950 | 1,239 sq ft |
| 3 bedroom | 753 | 4.1% | $966,644 | 1,799 sq ft |
| 4 bedroom | 90 | 0.5% | $2,778,897 | 3,553 sq ft |
Studios and one bedrooms are 74% of the entire market.
Three bedroom apartments are 4.1% of registered sales. Four bedrooms are half of one percent. The Dubai that fills Instagram is a rounding error in the transaction data.
| Price band | Sales | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $150,000 | 1,166 | 6.3% |
| $150,000 to $250,000 | 6,980 | 37.6% |
| $250,000 to $500,000 | 6,273 | 33.7% |
| $500,000 to $1,000,000 | 3,108 | 16.7% |
| Over $1,000,000 | 1,060 | 5.7% |
Forty four percent of every registered residential sale in Dubai was under $250,000. Seventy eight percent was under $500,000. Fewer than one sale in seventeen crossed a million dollars.
For a Miami or Los Angeles buyer, $250,000 does not buy a home. In Dubai it is the middle of the market.
Volume is liquidity, and liquidity is your exit.
If you buy a studio, there were 7,299 comparable transactions in 50 days. When you sell, the buyer pool is enormous and the price discovery is fast.
If you buy a four bedroom, there were 90. Your eventual sale depends on a handful of buyers being in the market in the same quarter you want out. That is not a defect of the asset. It is a fact about the market you need to price in before you buy, not after.
Most overseas buyers think about entry. The registered data is mostly a story about exit.
Smaller units cost more per square foot. That is true everywhere and it is true in Dubai.
Studios registered at a median $474 per square foot. One bedrooms at $434. Two bedrooms at $446. So the studio buyer pays roughly 9% more per foot than the one bedroom buyer for the privilege of a smaller cheque and a deeper resale market.
Whether that is worth it depends on whether you are optimising for yield, for liquidity or for living in it. There is no universal answer, but you should at least know you are making the trade.
Eighty seven percent of studio sales were off plan. So were 73% of one bedrooms. That falls to 52% for four bedrooms.
The small end of the market is where developers launch and where speculative buying concentrates. If you are buying a studio you are mostly buying from a developer, not from an owner, and off plan traded at a median 27% above ready stock per square foot in like for like comparisons over the same period.
Studios. They were 39.3% of the 18,587 residential sales registered with the Dubai Land Department between 30 June and 18 August 2026, at a median of $176,991. Studios and one bedrooms together were 74% of the market.
By unit type, the medians were $176,991 for a studio, $322,579 for a one bedroom, $545,950 for a two bedroom and $966,644 for a three bedroom, converted at the fixed peg of 3.6725.
Forty four percent of registered residential sales in this period were under $250,000 and 78% were under $500,000. Add roughly 6% to 8% in transaction costs on top of the purchase price.
Not by transaction volume. Fewer than 6% of registered residential sales exceeded $1,000,000 and only 4.6% were three bedrooms or larger. The luxury segment is highly visible and numerically small.
Studios and one bedrooms, by a wide margin, because the comparable transaction volume is far higher. There were 7,299 studio sales in 50 days against 90 four bedroom sales.
Fixed costs such as the kitchen and bathroom are spread across fewer square feet, and demand from investors is concentrated at the small end. Studios registered at a median $474 per square foot against $434 for one bedrooms.
Source. Dubai Land Department open data portal, registered transactions 30 June to 18 August 2026, 18,587 qualifying residential unit sales after cleaning. Mortgages and gift transfers excluded. Medians, not averages. Converted at the fixed peg of AED 3.6725 to USD 1. Analysis by Cresco Real Estate LLC, RERA ORN 34288. Registered transaction prices, not advertised asking prices. Market research, not personal investment advice.
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