The short version
Three things changed in Dubai's property market in the period the original version of this article covered, the five years to the end of 2025. Prices rose a long way: more than 50% in many parts of the city, and 100% to 120% in some villa communities and central locations. Transaction volumes broke records: AED 431 billion of real estate transactions in the first half of 2025 alone, 25% more than the same period a year earlier. And the rules widened: freehold ownership was extended along Sheikh Zayed Road between Dubai World Trade Centre and Dubai Canal, a stretch that had not been open to it before.
So the argument for buying now is not that prices are low. They are not, and anyone who tells you the bottom is still ahead is guessing. The argument is that the conditions that drove the rise, population growth, a deep pool of foreign buyers, infrastructure that keeps arriving, are still in place, and that a buyer today can see the numbers rather than forecasts of them. That is worth more than it sounds.
What changed, in numbers
Source: as published in the original article, November 2025. Figures are approximate and rounded; the market has moved since. Full-year 2025 totals, from the Dubai Land Department, are in the why-Dubai guide.
Price growth of more than 50% in five years is the figure most often quoted, and it is a city-wide average that hides a wide range. Villa communities and central locations did far better, at 100% to 120%, and some districts did less. The point for a buyer is not the average but the direction and the breadth: this was not one district rising, it was most of the city.
By 2025, average prices sat at roughly AED 1,600 to 1,725 per square foot for apartments, AED 2,100 or more per square foot for villas in prime areas, and AED 2,800 to 3,000 or more in the premium zones. Those are the benchmarks to hold any specific unit against. The 2 bedroom page works the starting price at The Biltmore Residences Sufouh through per square foot so you can make the comparison yourself.
Volume is the number that matters most
Price growth makes headlines, but for anyone who might one day need to sell, transaction volume is the number to watch. AED 431 billion of transactions in six months means a market in which properties change hands quickly and buyers are plentiful, which is what gives an owner the option to exit. Dubai has been setting records for both the number and the value of transactions, and for the sale of high-value property in particular.
Demand is also international rather than dependent on one nationality. In the comparisons the original article drew, Dubai outpaced London, Hong Kong and New York on both price growth and rental yield, and ranked among the three fastest-growing property markets in the world. Outperformance of that kind does not continue indefinitely, and the guide's section on what to watch is the necessary counterweight. But a liquid market with global demand is the right kind of market to own property in.
Freehold came to Sheikh Zayed Road
The regulatory change of 2025 that matters most to this website is the extension of freehold ownership along Sheikh Zayed Road, from Dubai World Trade Centre to Dubai Canal. Before it, that stretch of the city's main road could not be owned outright by foreign buyers; after it, it can, and the corridor became one of the most watched investment locations of the year.
Two clarifications, because they are easy to get wrong. First, the conversion covers a specific stretch of the road; Al Sufouh, where The Biltmore Residences Sufouh stands further along the same road, was already a designated freehold area and did not need converting. Second, the significance for an existing freehold building on the road is indirect: the reform raised the profile of Sheikh Zayed Road as an address and brought more buyers to it, which is an argument about demand, not a change to anyone's title deed. The area guide describes what freehold status in Al Sufouh means in practice.
Infrastructure that has not landed yet
Prices tend to move on infrastructure twice: when it is announced, and again when it opens. The largest project in Dubai's pipeline is the expansion of Al Maktoum International Airport, which will turn Dubai South into a logistics and residential hub in its own right. Land around the new airport was still priced from AED 45 to 60 per square foot when the original article was written, which is why that district appears on lists of areas for medium- to long-term capital growth.
Behind the airport sits the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan, the city's framework for where it will grow over the next fifteen years, and a series of large infrastructure projects that go with it. None of this is priced into a home today in the way it will be once the roads are open and the flights are landing. That is the sense in which "now" is early: not early in the price cycle, but early relative to what is still to be built.
The areas buyers concentrated on in 2025, for the record: Sheikh Zayed Road, Downtown Dubai, Dubai Marina, Palm Jumeirah, Jumeirah Village Circle, Dubai Hills Estate and Dubai South. The first three and the Palm are all within about fifteen minutes of Al Sufouh.
Yields, and the currency you are paid in
Average rental yields of 5% to 8%, with some zones reaching 10%, are the figures the original article gave, and they compare well with London, Paris or Sydney. Two cautions belong next to them. They are gross, before service charges, vacancy, management and repairs; the why-Dubai guide explains how to get from a gross figure to a net one, and the 2 bedroom page gives the service charge for one specific unit. And they are averages: the yield on a furnished apartment in a serviced tower near two employment centres will not be the city average, in either direction, and should be estimated from comparable rents rather than assumed.
The dirham is pegged to the US dollar. For a buyer whose income and savings are in dollars, that removes exchange-rate risk between the two currencies over the life of the investment. For everyone else it means the property is, in effect, a dollar asset, which can be an advantage or a risk depending on what your home currency does. The guide's currency note covers the other side of that coin.
What this means if you are deciding in 2026
General arguments about a market are only useful once they are tested against one building. At The Biltmore Residences Sufouh the timing question is unusually concrete:
- The wait is short. Construction is at roughly 90%, verified by the Dubai Land Department according to the project, and handover is due in Q4 2026. A buyer in 2026 is not buying a rendering; the tower is standing.
- Most of the price is paid after the keys. The plan runs 20 / 10 / 10 / 60: a fifth at booking, a tenth during construction, a tenth at handover, and the remaining 60% over the four years afterwards in eight instalments. From the fourth stage onwards, the unit can be lived in or let while it is being paid for. The payment plan page sets out every stage in dirhams.
- It is lettable on day one. The residences come furnished (Gary Green Studios interiors, Miele and Teka appliances), so the gap between handover and a first tenant is as short as the market allows.
- The prices are published. From AED 3,093,000 for a 2 bedroom of about 1,266 sq ft, and from AED 27,000,000 for a 4 bedroom penthouse of about 4,820 sq ft; the 1 bedroom (about 756 sq ft) is sold out; full cash payment from AED 2,300,000. The availability page shows the position by residence type and how to get the live unit list.
Put together: a buyer who reserves in 2026 pays 40% of the price by the end of the year and has the keys, then pays the remaining 60% over four years from a furnished unit in a completed building. Whether that suits you depends on your own numbers, but it is a very different proposition from buying off-plan at the start of construction, and it is the reason the timing argument on this page is not abstract.
What has not changed
None of the above cancels the cautions that apply to buying anywhere in Dubai: service charges that must go into your yield arithmetic, the difference between a gross yield and a net one, the districts where a lot of similar supply completes at once, the risk in any off-plan purchase, and rules that change. They are set out once, properly, in the why-Dubai guide, and the buyer's guide covers the fees, the escrow protection and the mechanics of buying from overseas. Read both before you decide anything on the strength of a blog post.
A note on sources and dates
The original version of this article was published on the homepage of this website in November 2025. This version, written in September 2026, keeps its market figures as they were published then and marks them as such; it cuts the sections on tax, foreign ownership, the Golden Visa and how to buy, which the guides now cover in more depth and with dated sources; and it adds the section on what the figures mean for a buyer in 2026. For current transaction data, the Dubai Land Department publishes it; for the current position at the tower, the sales team does.
More posts, when there is something worth writing, on the blog index.