Dubai Price Per Sqft by Building: Compare Towers Properly

Updated 1 October 2026. A useful Dubai price-per-square-foot comparison starts with the same building, property type, bedroom count, and period. A district average can provide context, but it cannot establish the value of a particular apartment. This guide explains how to assemble a comparison and where to stop when the evidence is incomplete; it does not publish a current tower price ranking.

Keep asking prices and completed sales separate

An advertisement records a seller's requested price when it was observed. A sale record describes a registered transaction. Do not combine them into one median or label an asking-price table as completed sales.

The Dubai Land Department real estate data page provides separate transaction and rent datasets with date, registration, area, and property-type filters. Record those filters with any result.

Field	What to record	Why it matters
Source and observation date	Dataset or listing URL and date retrieved	A historical price may not describe today's offer
Building identity	Official identifier where available; otherwise evidence supporting the name match	Similar project names can refer to different buildings
Property scope	Property type and bedroom count	Different unit categories are not interchangeable
Area basis	Stated area and whether it includes balcony, plot, or other space	Different denominators distort AED per sqft
Price type	Registered sale amount or advertised ask	A listing is not proof of a completed sale
Sample	Eligible records and the date window	A median from a small group can be unstable

If the source cannot identify the building reliably, describe the result as a project or area comparison. Adding a tower name to the heading does not improve the evidence.

Calculate each record before calculating the median

Divide each eligible property's price by its comparable floor area. Then calculate the median of those per-unit results. The median total price divided by the median area is a different calculation.

For an illustrative example only, a property advertised at AED 1,200,000 with 1,000 comparable sqft has an asking price of AED 1,200/sqft. A second advertisement at AED 1,050,000 with 850 sqft is about AED 1,235/sqft. The second has a lower total ask but a higher asking price per sqft. These invented inputs demonstrate arithmetic; they are not Dubai market observations.

Use consistent units. Do not compare a square-metre field directly with an advertisement measured in square feet. Keep the original field definition and any conversion in your worksheet.

Compare towers without hiding the differences

Compare similar units within each building. Keep ready-property and off-plan evidence separate unless you can justify a common scope. Record the age of the transactions, exclusions, and the remaining sample count. Avoid silently expanding to a whole district when a building has too few records.

List differences you have not adjusted for: floor, view, condition, furnishings, tenancy, payment terms, and area definition. A price-per-sqft difference can reflect those characteristics. It is a question to investigate, not a verified discount or valuation.

Ownership costs need separate evidence. DLD's Service Charge Index supports approved-charge enquiries by project, use, and year. Check the relevant result and unit documents instead of applying an unsourced rate to every tower. Our net-yield method shows where those costs enter the calculation.

Read Zily area pages at their stated scope

The area directory identifies the source and date on each published page. Some pages contain historical asking-price aggregates. A penthouse group is not an apartment benchmark; an asking snapshot does not establish completed-sale prices, signed rents, rental yields, or current availability.

For an individual candidate, the deal analyzer can help organise property assumptions. Check the evidence and limitations shown before interpreting a comparison.

When should a comparison remain unavailable?

Leave the numerical conclusion open when the building cannot be matched, area definitions differ, the transaction scope is unclear, or the sample cannot support the intended claim. Show what is missing and the period examined.

Use the price-history checklist to document registered evidence and the asking-versus-selling guide to separate negotiation claims from market comparisons.