Methodology

Qiyas summarises real property transactions recorded by the Dubai Land Department (DLD): the sale prices units actually changed hands for, and the rents on registered (Ejari) lease contracts. We do not list or sell property — we only show what has actually been paid, so you can judge the market yourself. Everything you see is derived from registered sales and leases, never from asking prices or listing portals.

The aim is simple: when a broker or developer quotes you a price, you can check it against what comparable units have actually sold for. That turns a sales pitch into something you can verify — so you walk into the conversation knowing the real market and decide with confidence.

Where the data comes from

The DLD publishes the sale transactions it registers. Each record describes a single registered sale and includes the area, property type (apartment, villa, land and so on), the unit size, the room count and the sale value. This is the same underlying source that powers official market reports — Qiyas simply makes it readable for a single property comparison.

Rents come from the same registry: every tenancy in Dubai must be registered through Ejari, and each contract records the area, property type, the annual rent and whether it is a new lease or a renewal. One thing to note — Ejari contracts do not carry a room count, so rent figures are grouped by area and property type across all sizes rather than by bedroom.

Data pipeline

Each day fresh DLD exports (CSV files) — sale transactions and Ejari lease contracts — are uploaded to our pipeline. Every file is processed automatically: rows are cleaned and validated, then grouped by property type, size band and area (rents by area and type, since Ejari has no room count). For each group we calculate summary statistics — counts, medians and percentiles — which are stored in a database. The website reads only these pre-computed aggregates, which is why pages load quickly and why no individual buyer, seller or tenant is ever identifiable. As new exports arrive, the figures update to reflect the latest registered sales and leases. Every update is logged on our data updates page.

How figures are computed

For every combination of property type, size and area we compute the transaction count, the average and median sale price, and the price per square foot (sale value ÷ floor area). We highlight the median rather than the average because a handful of luxury units or bulk sales can pull an average far away from what a typical buyer pays — the median is the middle deal, so half of sales fell below it and half above. We also compute percentiles to describe the spread within a slice rather than a single headline number.

What is excluded

Not every row in the raw export is usable. We exclude records with missing or zero sale values, missing or zero floor area (which would make price per square foot meaningless), and rows where the property type or area cannot be identified. Slices with very few transactions are inherently noisy and should be read with caution, since one unusual deal can move the median noticeably when there are only a handful of sales.

How to read the price-per-sqft gauge

The gauge shows the range of recent price-per-square-foot sales for the slice you have selected. The two ends of the band are the 10th percentile (p10) and the 90th percentile (p90): roughly speaking, the cheapest tenth of sales fell below the left edge and the most expensive tenth sat above the right edge, so the band covers the middle 80% of the market. The marker in the middle is the median — the typical price. A wide band means prices vary a lot within that slice (mixed quality, views or finish); a narrow band means the market is fairly uniform and the median is a reliable guide.

Rent and gross yield

For each area and property type we compute the median annual rent and the rent per square foot from Ejari contracts, computed the same way as sale prices — the median rather than the average, so one unusual lease cannot skew it. We headline the new-lease rent (contracts freshly signed) rather than renewals, because renewals are often capped by the rent index and lag the live market, so new leases are the better read on what a unit rents for today.

From those two figures we derive a gross yield: the new-lease rent per square foot divided by the sale price per square foot, as a percentage. Because it is gross, it is rent as a share of price before service charges, maintenance, agency fees or vacant periods — a comparison ceiling, not the net return in your pocket. Rent and yield are shown across all sizes for the area and type (Ejari carries no room count), and both are suppressed when there are too few recent contracts for the median to be credible.

Limitations

The figures are indicative, not valuations — a specific unit can sell or rent well above or below the median depending on floor, view, layout and condition. Depending on the export, the data can include both off-plan and ready sales, and the two can price quite differently for the same area and size. Gross yield pairs new-lease rents with sale prices across all sizes, so treat it as a market-level comparison rather than the return on one particular unit. All numbers reflect registered transactions for the window that is currently loaded, so they describe the recent past rather than predict the future. For a decision on a particular property, treat Qiyas as a starting point and confirm with a professional valuation or your own due diligence.