Market insights

Dated pieces on the market as it stands — yields, service charges, payment plans and the difference between the two emirates — written by the people who take the instructions.

• 26 August 2026Yasmin Haddad

  What yields actually look like across sixteen communities

  Gross yields in this market run from 3.5% to 9%, and the spread is not a ranking. The communities paying most are paying you for something.

• 5 August 2026Lena Petrova

  Renting here: why the cheque count moves the price

  Rent in the UAE is annual, and the number of cheques you pay it in moves the figure. One cheque buys about 5% off. Twelve costs about a 4% premium.

• 9 July 2026Tom Whitfield

  The deposit, and what it means for a first purchase

  Below AED 5,000,000 a first-time buyer can borrow up to 80%. At the threshold the cap drops to 70%, and the deposit jumps by more than most buyers expect.

• 11 June 2026Daniel Okonkwo

  Service charges are a building question, not an area one

  Two Marina towers on the same street can charge AED 14 and AED 24 per square foot for the same address. That gap is most of a point of yield, every year.

• 13 May 2026Omar Farouk

  Off-plan: what a payment plan does and does not promise

  A payment plan is a schedule for your money, not a schedule for the building. Handover quarters on the current launches run from Q1 2027 out to Q4 2029.

• 4 April 2026Aisha Al Mansoori

  Abu Dhabi is not cheap Dubai

  Saadiyat apartments trade at Downtown Dubai money, the regulator is ADREC rather than RERA, and treating the capital as a discount aisle misreads the market.