Dh12.26bn of deals in five days; top sale Dh55m on Palm Jumeirah

The Dubai Land Department registered Dh12.26 billion of real estate transactions in the working week from Monday 26 to Friday 30 October. Sales made up Dh7.44 billion across 2,579 deals; mortgages added Dh3.51 billion and gifts Dh1.31 billion.

The most expensive single sale of the week was an apartment in Balqis Residence – Beach Villas on Palm Jumeirah, registered at Dh55 million. It was followed by two offices in Bureau Lamar in Business Bay, at Dh43.76 million each.

The week in numbers

On average, a sale this week was worth about Dh2.9 million — a simple division of the sales value by the number of deals. The average is pulled up by a handful of very large transactions like the three above, so the typical deal was smaller.

How to read a weekly report

The Land Department's weekly figure is often quoted as "the market", but it adds up three different kinds of registration:

• Sales — a property changes hands for a price. This is the line that tells you about demand.
• Mortgages — loans registered against property. They include loans for new purchases, but also refinancing and loans taken against homes people already own, so they cannot simply be added to sales.
• Gifts — property transferred without a sale, usually between family members. They say little about the market, but they inflate the total.

This week sales were about 61% of the Dh12.26 billion headline. When the headline jumps, it is worth checking whether sales moved with it or whether a few large mortgage or gift registrations did the work.

The top deals need the same care. A single Dh55 million apartment is a real price, registered with the Land Department, but it is one unit at the very top of the market. It tells you what the best homes in that building can fetch, not what the average Palm Jumeirah apartment is worth.

October as a whole

Land Department figures for the full month show:

• Sales: Dh34.12 billion across 11,610 deals — 9,185 residential units, 985 buildings and 1,435 plots of land.
• Ready homes and buildings: Dh20.99 billion across 4,907 sales.
• Off-plan: Dh13.13 billion across 6,698 sales.
• Mortgages: Dh12.68 billion across 4,552 transactions.
• Gifts: Dh5.47 billion across 989 transactions.
• All transactions: more than Dh52.27 billion across about 17,150.

One detail stands out. In October, ready property brought in about 62% of the value of all sales but only 42% of the number of deals. Off-plan sold more units; ready property sold the more expensive ones.

Ten months of 2026

From January to October Dubai recorded 181,866 transactions worth Dh624.8 billion. That is about 68% of the Dh919 billion recorded in the whole of 2025.

• Sales: Dh411.98 billion across 134,730 deals — 113,353 residential units, 10,498 buildings and 10,879 plots.
• Ready: Dh215.6 billion across about 43,970 sales.
• Off-plan: Dh196.38 billion across 90,760 sales.
• Mortgages: Dh163.8 billion across 39,461 transactions.
• Gifts: Dh49.07 billion across 7,682 transactions.

Over the ten months off-plan accounts for two out of three sales by number, while ready property still brings in slightly more than half of the value.

Where the money went

The ten areas with the highest sales value from January to October:

1. Business Bay — Dh21.96bn
2. Airport City — Dh18.35bn
3. Al Yalayis 1 — Dh16.63bn
4. Palm Deira — Dh13.85bn
5. Palm Jumeirah — Dh12.77bn
6. Me'aisem II — Dh11.86bn
7. Jumeirah Village Circle — Dh11.23bn
8. Palm Jebel Ali — Dh10.9bn
9. Al Ruwayyah First — Dh9.83bn
10. Burj Khalifa area — Dh9.58bn

Three of the ten — Palm Deira, Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Jumeirah — are the palm islands. Business Bay leads by a wide margin, and it also gave the week its two biggest office sales.

Will 2026 beat 2025?

On the Land Department's numbers, it would take a very strong end of the year. To match 2025's Dh919 billion, November and December together would need about Dh294 billion of transactions — roughly Dh147 billion a month, close to three times October's Dh52 billion. A busy market that lands below last year's record is still a busy market; the comparison simply puts the headlines in proportion.