Dubai Office Sales Prices Reach AED 2,005 per Sq Ft as Downtown Jebel Ali Leads Transactions

Office space in Dubai sold for an average price of AED 2,005 per sq ft during Q3 2026, reflecting almost a nine percent increase on the previous year. Approximately AED 4.3 billion was invested into 1,100 deals during July-September, with Downtown Jebel Ali seeing the most sales.

The total value of office deals rose almost 40 percent from Q3 2025. However, it fell 42% from the previous quarter. Transaction numbers followed a different pattern. They rose 11.5% from Q2 but remained 3.6% below the same period last year.

The quarterly drop in sales value was largely linked to fewer high-value deals. Dubai recorded more than 200 office transactions worth AED 10 million or above in Q2. That number fell to around 80 in Q3.

Average office rents also continued to rise. They reached AED 187.5 per square foot, marking a 6.5% annual increase. Both sales prices and rents, however, eased slightly for the second consecutive quarter.

Off-plan offices account for most sales

Off-plan properties represented around 700 transactions, or 63% of total office sales during the quarter. This marks a change from Q3 2025, when ready offices accounted for nearly 66% of transactions.

Downtown Jebel Ali led the market with 326 sales, all involving off-plan units. The area accounted for almost 30% of Dubai's total office transactions. New projects, including Raw District by Imtiaz and Samana Business Hub, contributed to the activity.

Business Bay followed with 271 transactions. Jumeirah Lakes Towers recorded 160, while Motor City and Dubai Sports City registered 70 and 41 sales, respectively.

Office supply and rental trends

Dubai added 44,100 sq m of new office space in Q3, bringing total supply to 136,400 since January. Overall there is now over 9.5 million sq m of office space.

There is another 106,400 sq m of supply coming into the market by the end of 2026. 400,000 sq m of new supply will also come online in 2027 and 528,000 in 2028. Some of these projects were originally planned for 2028 but have been moved to 2029.

There was a significant variation in rental increases. DIFC saw the largest increase at 14.7%, followed by Barsha Heights (9.1%), and Downtown Dubai (8.1%).

There was also a healthy amount of demand for smaller offices. Units below 1,000 sq ft made up 53% of off plan sales. There was also an increase in demand for units below 1,000 sq ft of over 190% YoY. In the ready market we saw 52.6% of deals for units between 1,000-2,000 sq ft.

Overall the market is still showing price and rent increases compared to last year but growth has begun to slow, says Cavendish Maxwell.

Source : Rebecomms