Buy or rent in Dubai: the price to rent ratio, from both registers
A ready one-bedroom flat in Dubai Sports City has a median sale price of AED 672,457, and the same class rents for AED 59,664 a year. That is a ratio of 11.3 years of rent inside one purchase price. In Jumeirah Village Circle the same class gives 12.3 years, in Dubai Marina 13.5 years, in Dubai Creek Harbour 16.7 years.
This is a count, not a recommendation. It says how many years of contract rent fit inside a registered purchase price, and nothing else. Sources: Dubai Land Department, Ejari tenancy contract register for the rents and the sale contract register for the prices, both as of September 2026. Two registers of the same authority, kept in different ways.
Seven areas where both registers are deep enough
| Area and unit type | Annual rent (n) | Ready price (n) | Price to annual rent | Gross yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai Sports City, studio | AED 39,996 (n = 576) | AED 436,455 (n = 195) | 10.9 years | 9.2 percent |
| Dubai Sports City, 1 bedroom | AED 59,664 (n = 525) | AED 672,457 (n = 248) | 11.3 years | 8.9 percent |
| Dubai Sports City, 2 bedrooms | AED 84,996 (n = 228) | AED 1,010,000 (n = 155) | 11.9 years | 8.4 percent |
| Dubai Sports City, 3 bedrooms | AED 95,496 (n = 28) | AED 1,800,000 (n = 23) | 18.8 years | 5.3 percent |
| Arjan, studio | AED 45,000 (n = 719) | AED 550,000 (n = 219) | 12.2 years | 8.2 percent |
| Arjan, 1 bedroom | AED 69,552 (n = 606) | AED 852,500 (n = 276) | 12.3 years | 8.2 percent |
| Arjan, 2 bedrooms | AED 94,992 (n = 210) | AED 1,370,000 (n = 142) | 14.4 years | 6.9 percent |
| Arjan, 3 bedrooms | AED 124,992 (n = 26) | AED 1,900,000 (n = 27) | 15.2 years | 6.6 percent |
| Jumeirah Village Circle, studio | AED 45,000 (n = 752) | AED 581,000 (n = 417) | 12.9 years | 7.7 percent |
| Jumeirah Village Circle, 1 bedroom | AED 69,996 (n = 963) | AED 859,880 (n = 970) | 12.3 years | 8.1 percent |
| Jumeirah Village Circle, 2 bedrooms | AED 90,000 (n = 229) | AED 1,280,000 (n = 324) | 14.2 years | 7.0 percent |
| Jumeirah Village Circle, 3 bedrooms | AED 137,496 (n = 62) | AED 1,809,180 (n = 35) | 13.2 years | 7.6 percent |
| Business Bay, studio | AED 60,000 (n = 733) | AED 935,000 (n = 274) | 15.6 years | 6.4 percent |
| Business Bay, 1 bedroom | AED 86,376 (n = 756) | AED 1,301,210 (n = 502) | 15.1 years | 6.6 percent |
| Business Bay, 2 bedrooms | AED 120,000 (n = 355) | AED 2,057,478 (n = 320) | 17.1 years | 5.8 percent |
| Business Bay, 3 bedrooms | AED 174,996 (n = 125) | AED 2,750,000 (n = 127) | 15.7 years | 6.4 percent |
| Downtown Dubai, studio | AED 72,276 (n = 90) | AED 1,080,000 (n = 43) | 14.9 years | 6.7 percent |
| Downtown Dubai, 1 bedroom | AED 109,992 (n = 643) | AED 1,741,000 (n = 313) | 15.8 years | 6.3 percent |
| Downtown Dubai, 2 bedrooms | AED 180,000 (n = 962) | AED 2,906,250 (n = 315) | 16.1 years | 6.2 percent |
| Downtown Dubai, 3 bedrooms | AED 309,996 (n = 501) | AED 4,530,000 (n = 103) | 14.6 years | 6.8 percent |
| Dubai Marina, 1 bedroom | AED 84,996 (n = 755) | AED 1,150,000 (n = 545) | 13.5 years | 7.4 percent |
| Dubai Marina, 2 bedrooms | AED 124,992 (n = 590) | AED 2,000,000 (n = 421) | 16.0 years | 6.2 percent |
| Dubai Marina, 3 bedrooms | AED 180,000 (n = 316) | AED 3,203,170 (n = 158) | 17.8 years | 5.6 percent |
| Dubai Marina, 4 bedrooms | AED 259,992 (n = 55) | AED 4,100,000 (n = 37) | 15.8 years | 6.3 percent |
| Dubai Creek Harbour, 1 bedroom | AED 90,000 (n = 1,339) | AED 1,500,000 (n = 222) | 16.7 years | 6.0 percent |
| Dubai Creek Harbour, 2 bedrooms | AED 135,000 (n = 743) | AED 2,350,000 (n = 316) | 17.4 years | 5.7 percent |
| Dubai Creek Harbour, 3 bedrooms | AED 210,000 (n = 149) | AED 3,538,238 (n = 108) | 16.8 years | 5.9 percent |
The letter n in every table on this page is the case count: the number of registered contracts the figure in that row is calculated from. A median without its n is not a statement, it is a guess.
The annual rent is the median monthly contract rent multiplied by twelve. Downtown Dubai appears in both registers under the cadastral name Burj Khalifa. Dubai Sports City comes with a caveat: in the tenancy register it is the zone Al Hebiah Fourth, which also covers Tilal Al Ghaf, while the sale register carries Dubai Sports City under its own name. The two boundaries are close but not identical.
Turned around: the gross yield
The ratio inverts into a gross yield, and the pattern is blunt. The strongest row in the table is studios in Dubai Sports City, at 9.2 percent, with the larger classes in the same area just behind it. Every row above 7.5 percent belongs to one of three areas: Arjan, Dubai Sports City, Jumeirah Village Circle. The nearest thing to a prime address in that group is one-bedroom flats in Dubai Marina at 7.4 percent.
The reason is not that rents are high in the cheap areas. It is that the gap in purchase prices between cheap and prime is far wider than the gap in rents, and the ratio measures exactly that. The weakest row is three-bedroom flats in Dubai Sports City at 18.8 years, but it is a thin one: 28 tenancy and 23 sale contracts. Among the rows with at least a hundred contracts on both sides the weakest is three-bedroom flats in Dubai Marina at 17.8 years.
A second, weaker pattern: small flats usually earn more per dirham invested, but not always. In Downtown Dubai the best yield is the three-bedroom class, and in Dubai Marina the four-bedroom class beats the three-bedroom one. Read the row, not the rule.
Which rows are missing, and why
Dubai Marina studios are absent. The rent exists - 172 registered new contracts at AED 5,000 a month - but the matching sale group was withdrawn from the data, because nearly all of its contracts carried one developer price to the dirham and the median fell on the upper quartile. A ratio against a price list means nothing, so the row is left out. The rent side is untouched.
Mirdif is missing for a different reason: the rents are there (a studio at AED 4,083 from 30 contracts, two bedrooms at AED 6,416 from 152), but the sale side runs from six to twenty-six contracts per class, which is too thin for a ratio. Al Furjan is left out because the tenancy register files it inside the zone Jabal Ali First together with Discovery Gardens while the sale register carries Al Furjan alone; two different boundaries must not be divided by one another. The four-bedroom class in Business Bay is left out as well: 17 tenancy contracts against 25 sale contracts would produce a spectacular number and no information.
What the ratio leaves out
Gross means gross. The annual service charge of the building, which never appears in the sale register, is paid by the owner. So are the transfer and agency costs on purchase, the cost of a mortgage, and the weeks a flat stands empty between tenants.
The tenant side carries costs the annual rent does not show either: the agency commission at 5 percent of the annual rent, a deposit of another 5 percent of the annual rent for an unfurnished flat, Ejari registration at AED 220 and a DEWA deposit of AED 2,000 for an apartment or AED 4,000 for a villa.
And the two registers do not describe the same flat. The rent comes from new tenancy contracts, the price from ready-market sales. Matching area and bedroom count does not mean matching building, floor or view.
Frequently asked questions
How many years of rent sit inside a purchase in Dubai?
Between 10.9 years and 18.8 years in this reading, depending on area and class. The fastest are studios in Dubai Sports City: AED 436,455 to buy against AED 39,996 of annual rent.
What is the gross yield on a one-bedroom flat?
Dubai Sports City 8.9 percent; Arjan 8.2 percent; Jumeirah Village Circle 8.1 percent; Dubai Marina 7.4 percent; Business Bay 6.6 percent; Downtown Dubai 6.3 percent; Dubai Creek Harbour 6.0 percent. All before service charge, costs and vacancy.
Where is the ratio worst?
three-bedroom flats in Dubai Sports City, at 18.8 years, but that row rests on 28 tenancy and 23 sale contracts. Among the solid rows the worst is three-bedroom flats in Dubai Marina at 17.8 years.
Is the rent monthly or annual here?
Annual. It is the median monthly contract rent times twelve. The monthly medians behind the one-bedroom rows are: Dubai Sports City AED 4,972, Arjan AED 5,796, Jumeirah Village Circle AED 5,833, Business Bay AED 7,198, Downtown Dubai AED 9,166, Dubai Marina AED 7,083, Dubai Creek Harbour AED 7,500.
Can this table decide whether to buy or to rent?
Only as one input. It relates two prices; it knows nothing about your horizon, your cost of money or what you would do with the difference.
Sources: Dubai Land Department, Ejari tenancy contract register and sale contract register, both as of September 2026. The figures are reproduced with attribution; they are not a DXB Radar survey.
New readings from the Dubai Land Department registers go out on the DXB Radar Telegram channel: t.me/dxbradar.