Dubai Market Pulse: September unit sales slowed, with different registration trends

September at a glance

Eligible DLD Unit sales fell from 10,485 in August to 9,747 in September, an observed change of -7.0%. August has 31 calendar days and September has 30; sales per calendar day fell by -3.9%. This adjustment accounts only for month length, not working days or seasonality.

Off-Plan Properties registrations fell from 7,792 to 7,003 (-10.1%), while Existing Properties rose from 2,693 to 2,744 (+1.9%). These source categories account for the entire eligible sample. The split makes the total decline less informative than a separate look at each category.

Median price per sqft fell from AED 1,709 to AED 1,689 (-1.1%). Yet median transaction value rose from AED 1,100,000 to AED 1,196,078 (+8.7%) and median area rose from 720 to 754 sqft (+4.7%). These are separate medians, not components of a representative transaction. They do not establish like-for-like appreciation.

What this means for a property comparison

Check recent evidence for the relevant registration category, building or project and similar unit sizes before using a city headline. The count measures registered activity, not time to sell or unfulfilled demand. Launch timing, registration timing and shifts in location, bedroom, size or project mix may explain part of the movement. This analysis does not isolate causes, forecast prices, rank investments or assess rent, yield or project supply. Existing Properties is a registration label, not an independent check of completion or condition.

A visible baseline change

The saved previous Pulse reported 10,506 eligible August sales. The current extraction contains 10,485, a difference of 21 records. Both months in this article use the current extraction and identical filters. The record-level cause of the difference has not been established; it could reflect source-record revisions or processing changes. It is not counted as a market movement, and the earlier publication is not silently rewritten.

Evidence and method

Evidence date: 2026-09-30. Compare 2026-08-01 to 2026-08-31 with 2026-09-01 to 2026-09-30, inclusive. Source load: 2026-10-03 18:33:03 UTC. Each row is a distinct transaction ID: the combined sample has 20,232 rows and 20,232 distinct IDs. There are no joins.

Keep transaction groups containing sale, propertytypeen Unit, actualworth above AED 10,000, procedurearea above 10 sqm and derived prices between AED 100 and AED 20,000 per sqft inclusive. No residential-use or subtype filter is applied, so this is not a pure apartment index. Price per sqft equals actualworth divided by the product of procedurearea and 10.76391041671 sqft per sqm. Medians use PostgreSQL percentile_cont. Displayed medians are rounded to whole units; percentage changes use unrounded values and are rounded to one decimal place.

Filters do not guarantee complete coverage or error-free records. Monthly results can change with later revisions. DLD transactions via Dubai Open Data provide the evidence; Home Pulse methodology explains the limits of property comparisons. Home Pulse is independent of DLD and Data Dubai. This is decision support, not a valuation or financial recommendation.