Conviction Over Uncertainty – Dubai’s Top Brokerages Held Momentum, And Market Data Agrees

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, May 04, 2026:

Dubai’s residential property market has held firm through a period of uncertainty. Sales prices have grown 21.1% year-on-year as of April 2026 at an average of AED 2.21 million, and are mostly flat quarter-on-quarter, reveals Property Finder data. The market is absorbing pressure without losing ground.
Residential rents have adjusted from their January–February peaks, declining 6.7% in Dubai to an annual average of AED 140,000. They remain flat year-on-year. This is a correction from a period of exceptional demand, not a change in direction.

The commercial segment tells an even more confident story. For the same period, commercial rents have risen 21.2% year-on-year to AED 200,000, and commercial sale prices are up 12.9% annually, reflecting an economy that continues to attract businesses and investors in equal measure.

What the Market’s Brokerage Leaders Are Saying – and Doing

Sam McCone, Managing Partner of McCone Properties, one of the UAE’s top ten brokerages with 180 agents and 13 years in the market, says sentiment on the ground has turned.

McCone said, “Absolutely, we’re still closing deals. What we’ve noticed is that during the beginning of this conflict, there were a lot of people that were uncertain of where the market’s heading, but now we’ve seen that that has shifted. The momentum has swung the other way, and there’s a lot of buyers that are starting to look at ways to capitalize from this opportunity, and sellers are also noticing that they’re starting to achieve prices close to what they would have been getting back in February of this year.”

McCone identifies established communities, Downtown Dubai above all, as the focal point of that returning activity. “When you come back out of a difficult period,” he says, “people always choose to invest in the established, well-known communities.” His brokerage is firmly positioned to meet that demand as it builds through the second half of the year.

Abdulla Al Ajaji, Founder and CEO of Driven Properties, tiering top in the country across brokerage, property management, and development, with a core focus on Jumeirah, Downtown, Jumeirah Bay, and the Canal District, has not just spoken about the situation and his confidence in the market, he has acted on it. In April alone, Driven Properties acquired two full residential buildings on its own balance sheet: one in CityWalk, one in the Polo Residences at Meydan.

Al Ajaji said, “The boldest move we’ve made was, in fact, this month, staying true to our conviction. We know that crises bring opportunity as well.” He added, “These are times when asset prices can become much lower than their intrinsic value. And this is where we make moves. So I would say this is our boldest move yet since the start.”

Al Ajaji points to areas that are established and have relatively limited future supply – Downtown Dubai, CityWalk, Jumeirah Bay, La Mer, and the Canal District – as the most defensible and most compelling in the current environment. For buyers and investors, he says, selectivity and discipline are what separate good decisions from poor ones right now.

Cherif Sleiman, Chief Revenue Officer at Property Finder, says what Property Finder is seeing and what its partners are observing is quite synced. He said, “In the weeks since the conflict escalated, we saw search intent on Property Finder stay steady. Sale searches stabilised at 48% of total platform activity, villa searches rose to 42% of total sale searches, up from 39% a year ago and primary market transactions continued to grow 18% year-on-year. Buyers with a long-term view on Dubai did not step back.”

He added, “Platform search behaviour moves before transactions do, and what we are seeing on our platform is consistent with what our partners are describing on the ground. Demand is consolidating in established, supply-constrained communities. That alignment between data and on-the-ground reality is exactly what gives us, and the market, a reliable foundation to act from.”

These insights are part of Bold Call, Property Finder’s new video series featuring UAE’s leading brokerage CEOs sharing on-the-ground market perspectives as they unfold.

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