Off-plan is now 73 percent of Dubai property sales. In 2015 it was 35 percent

Dubai is often described as an off-plan market. The register lets you put a date on when that became true, and the answer is more recent than the reputation: 2017, and only decisively in the last three years.

Off-plan share of registered residential sales

Year	Off-plan	Ready	Off-plan share
2015	12,163	22,284	35.3%
2016	14,991	18,048	45.4%
2017	19,664	18,459	51.6%
2018	13,704	12,165	53.0%
2019	19,046	12,578	60.2%
2020	13,077	14,090	48.1%
2021	22,021	27,774	44.2%
2022	40,808	42,196	49.2%
2023	65,307	50,832	56.2%
2024	105,598	58,890	64.2%
2025	130,875	59,884	68.6%
2026 (to 15 July)	60,106	22,258	73.0%

Two features of that table are worth more than the headline.

2020 and 2021 are a reversal, not a dip. Off-plan share fell from 60.2 percent to 44.2 percent across those two years. That was the period when buyers wanted keys and space immediately, and it is the only sustained ready-market swing in eleven years. It also means the current 73 percent is not the top of a smooth curve, it is the top of a curve that has gone the other way once, recently, when circumstances changed.

The ready market has been flat in absolute terms for five years. Look at the ready column, not the percentage: 42,196 sales in 2022, 50,832 in 2023, 58,890 in 2024, 59,884 in 2025. Ready sales grew, then stopped growing. Off-plan went 40,808 to 130,875 over the same four years. The share is shifting because one side tripled, not because the other collapsed.

Nine areas are effectively off-plan only

Off-plan share by area, over the twelve months to 15 July 2026:

Area	Commonly called	Sales	Off-plan share
Palm Deira	Palm Deira	5,179	100.0%
Bukadra	Bukadra	3,354	99.5%
Wadi Al Safa 4	City of Arabia	3,306	98.8%
Madinat Dubai Almelaheyah	Dubai Maritime City, Mina Rashid	4,668	98.3%
Dubai Investment Park Second	Dubai Investments Park	5,763	96.1%
Al Barshaa South Second	Dubai Science Park	4,983	95.5%
Al Yelayiss 1	Town Square area	3,511	93.8%
Madinat Al Mataar	Dubai South	14,121	89.9%
Al Barsha South Fifth	Jumeirah Village Triangle	5,158	86.9%
Business Bay	Business Bay	9,107	71.6%
Al Barsha South Fourth	Jumeirah Village Circle	14,298	66.2%
Dubai Hills Estate	Dubai Hills Estate	3,532	57.8%
Marsa Dubai	Dubai Marina	3,914	27.8%
Al Merkadh	Meydan, Sobha Hartland	2,787	21.6%

Palm Deira registered 5,179 residential sales in a year and not one of them was a finished home. Bukadra, City of Arabia, Dubai Maritime City and Dubai Investments Park are all above 96 percent. These are not areas with an off-plan bias, they are construction sites that trade actively.

At the other end, Dubai Marina at 27.8 percent and Meydan at 21.6 percent are what a mature Dubai district looks like: mostly people selling to each other, with a small stream of new launches on the edges.

Why the composition matters more than the percentage

A market where three sales in four are unbuilt has different mechanics from one where three in four are finished, in ways that show up in numbers we have already published.

Prices lead reality by two to three years. An off-plan price is set against a handover date, so a 73 percent off-plan market is largely pricing 2028 and 2029. That is one reason the off-plan median has been flat since 2022 while ready prices rose 81 percent: the ready market was catching up to what off-plan had already assumed.

Nothing in those 60,106 sales is producing rent. A yield can only be computed on finished stock, which is why our yield table uses ready sales only. Three quarters of Dubai's transaction volume currently generates no income for anybody.

Buyer protection runs on different law. A ready purchase transfers a title deed. An off-plan purchase is registered in the Interim Real Estate Register and is governed by an escrow regime, a cancellation regime and a completion-percentage schedule that a resale buyer never encounters. We set out what that law actually gives you in what the law gives a Dubai off-plan buyer.

And it means the supply question is not rhetorical. Every one of those off-plan sales becomes a finished home on a scheduled date, whether or not the buyer intends to live in it.

Use these numbers

Every figure here is free to reproduce with attribution and a link back to this page. If you want the off-plan share by value rather than by count, by unit type, or for one area over time, ask and we will send it. Our off-plan register holds 1,727 Dubai projects with their handover dates.