Abu Dhabi’s residential real estate market delivered a record-breaking performance in 2025, with transaction volumes and sales values reaching historic highs, reflecting strong buyer demand and heightened investor confidence. Total transaction volumes reached approximately 22,400 deals, up 55% year-on-year, while total sales value climbed to AED 73.2 billion. This performance was driven by robust end-user demand, sustained investor activity, and a wave of new project launches that kept the off-plan segment at the centre of market activity. Apartments dominated the market, accounting for 66.1% of transactions, while villas and townhouses also recorded strong growth, supported by demand from families and high-net-worth individuals seeking larger living spaces.

When carefully designed, real estate taxation can be more than a tool for Governments to raise revenue; taxes can be used to influence real estate development and to achieve wider economic and social goals. At the same time, the owners of real estate work with tax lawyers, accountants and advisers to reduce their exposure to such taxes.   What is […]

Dubai's office market delivered exceptional performance in 2025, characterised by surging prices, record transaction volumes, and robust rental growth, all supported by strong economic fundamentals and persistent supply constraints. The Emirate's business ecosystem expanded significantly, with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce registering 71,830 new member companies, pushing total active membership to 292,486, a 13.2% increase year-on-year.

Everyone knows that housing and commercial property prices move in cycles. The pattern of a long-sustained build-up in asset prices followed by a sudden decline has been observed in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries for decades. It is also known that real estate returns are generally more stable in the years between peaks and troughs. Not all cycles, however, are equally severe, nor are markets equally volatile. For example, comparing what has happened in Dubai since 2021 with UK average prices clearly indicates how much more volatile this Gulf market has been. And, of course, Dubai has seen much more impressive house price growth in recent years: when both markets are indexed to January 2008 = 100, UK prices stand at 158.3 while Dubai reaches 233.7.