Dubai recorded its highest residential rental activity of the year in September, with Ejari registrations across residential and commercial contracts reaching 96,000, a 15.8 per cent rise on August.
New residential contracts, excluding renewals, came in at 31,200. The month-on-month increase outpaced the equivalent seasonal uptick seen in September 2025 and 2024, suggesting demand factors beyond simple seasonality are at work. Because Ejari contracts register within days of signing, the data reflects real-time demand conditions.
“Our Mortgage Finder data shows a clear change in who is buying over the past three months. People buying a home to live in now account for 92.6% of activity, up from 87.2% in July. A bigger share of applicants are higher earners, with those on AED 60,000 or more a month rising from 27.5% to 32.8% of applications. Villas and townhouses rose from around 30% to 34.4% of applications, and that demand is spreading beyond the highest earners. Clients earning AED 80,000 or more a month have favoured villas over apartments in all three months we have tracked. In September, clients earning AED 60,000 to 79,999 did the same for the first time in those three months. If that continues, we expect villas to take a bigger share of applications each month, though apartments, at around two thirds, will remain the majority in the near term,” Cherif Sleiman, Chief Revenue Officer at Property Finder said in a statement.
Property Finder’s rental enquiry figures point the same way. UAE residential rent enquiries in September stood 53 per cent above their February level, the highest point of the year.
Apartment enquiries were 57 per cent above February, villa and townhouse enquiries 36 per cent higher. One-bedroom apartments led by bedroom size, with enquiries 64 per cent above February. Budget-segment demand was also strong: enquiries for homes priced below AED 150,000 a year exceeded February levels by more than 60 per cent.
Buyer interest picked up as well. UAE residential sale enquiries rose 17 per cent in September, a second consecutive monthly gain and larger than the seasonal lift recorded in September last year. Secondary market enquiries grew 17.5 per cent and primary market enquiries 9.1 per cent.
Growth was spread across price bands rather than concentrated at any one level, with higher price bands rising the most. Dubai Form F filings, which measure committed sale intent, also increased.
Completed transaction values have not yet caught up. Dubai registered AED 29.4 billion in sale transactions in September, up 3.1 per cent on August, while the number of secondary transactions eased 1.7 per cent to 4,700. A lag of several months typically separates a rise in enquiries from its appearance in registered sales figures.
Mortgage activity was the sharpest mover. The value of mortgages registered with the Dubai Land Department rose 43.6 per cent to AED 9.72 billion, and the number of mortgages climbed 14.4 per cent to 3,622, both the highest readings of the quarter.
Mortgage penetration rose substantially: 31.0 per cent of apartment sales in September involved a mortgage, up from 20.3 per cent in July, and mortgages accounted for 44.2 per cent of apartment sales value, compared with 20.5 per cent in July.
Among villa sales, 79.2 per cent involved a mortgage. Average mortgage size rose to AED 2.67 million for apartments, from AED 2.05 million in August, and to AED 2.74 million for villas, from AED 2.61 million.
