New-build homes in the UAE — 2026 ranking

Reviewed: 18.09.2026 — figures checked against Dubai Land Department, Central Bank of the UAE and ICP sources.

"Ten per cent to book" sounds affordable — until you add the 4% Oqood fee, the trustee charges and the first year of service charges. Registration is charged on the full price, not on the part paid, and it falls due at booking.

Off-plan ran at roughly 62.6% of Dubai residential sales in 2025, across more than 134,000 deals. Most of those buyers signed a payment plan without modelling the cash needed in month one. The most expensive line in an off-plan purchase is not the fee schedule — it is the size of the cheque waiting at handover.

In short

Where the market stood when this ranking was last reviewed. Figures come from Dubai Land Department registry data reported through mid-2026.

Six in ten Dubai homes sold last year had not been built.

Volume has not cooled since. First-half 2026 figures circulating in market reports put Dubai near 79,000 transactions, though that number is unconfirmed — the Dubai Land Department publishes the official count and is worth checking before anyone quotes it. The share matters more than the headline anyway. When most stock trades before completion, buyers compete over payment terms and floor plates, not over finished keys, and the negotiating room sits in the schedule rather than the price.

Sources: Dubai Land Department registry data as reported by Dubai Media Office and market analysts, 2025 full year and H1 2026. Independent trackers publish slightly different totals for the same period.

The headline price is not the cheque you write. In Dubai, budget roughly 6-8% of the purchase price in one-off costs.

The unit is registered on Oqood rather than issued a title deed until handover. Reservation deposits typically run 10–20% of the price.

Why the 4% is charged on the full price at booking

Oqood registration costs 4% of the purchase price and is charged at booking, on the full price — not on the 10–20% actually paid. On the same invoice sit small knowledge and innovation charges and a developer registration fee of around AED 1,000.

At handover the title deed is issued against that same registration, so the 4% is not charged a second time; the AED 4,200 admin fee and the AED 4,200 trustee fee fall due at the transfer appointment. Where an agency acts on the buyer's side, its fee is 2% plus VAT. A buyer who budgets the deposit and nothing else is short by tens of thousands of dirhams on day one.

Service charges start the year you take the keys

There is no annual property tax in the UAE. There are annual service charges: billed per square foot by the owners' association, payable whether the unit is occupied, empty or still being snagged.

They begin at handover, which is usually the same month mortgage payments start and the same month the sales team stops answering quickly. Rates vary by building and by how much shared plant the tower carries. Model the purchase only to the handover cheque and you have left out the one cost that never ends.

Ownership rights and transfer costs are not the same across the emirates. A buyer who assumes Dubai’s rules apply in Sharjah is budgeting for a title deed they cannot get.

Al Reem Island is a special case: registration there moved to the ADGM Registration Authority in 2025, so the paperwork differs from the rest of Abu Dhabi.

What a 100-year usufruct gives you in Sharjah

A usufruct is the registered right to use and let a property for a fixed term, without the freehold underneath it. On the reported 100-year version the holder can occupy the unit, rent it out and sell the remaining term.

The difference shows at the exit. A buyer taking over late in the term is purchasing a shrinking clock, and the pricing has to reflect that. Renewal, inheritance and mortgage treatment differ by emirate and remain unconfirmed here — the emirate's land department is the only reliable source.

Abu Dhabi is usually quoted at a 2% transfer fee against Dubai's 4%, and Sharjah's position on freehold is reported rather than confirmed here. The Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre and the Sharjah Real Estate Registration Department give the binding figures.

When off-plan is the wrong choice

Three situations make the trade a bad one:

• Horizon under three years: selling before completion means selling into the developer's own launch pipeline, with transfer and NOC costs already sunk.
• Rental income needed now: an off-plan unit pays nothing until handover, while instalments keep leaving the account every month.
• No reserve for the handover payment: the largest single cheque arrives at the end, and a bank will cover at most 50% of the price.

Any one of those, and a completed unit with a tenant already in it does the job better.

Three structures cover almost everything on the market. Pick a tab to see how the money is spread.

The fee schedule is knowable in an afternoon. The cheque at handover is the line that catches buyers out, because the payment plan fixes its size years before it lands. Take a modelled purchase at AED 1.5M and the comparison turns into arithmetic rather than sales talk.

The year-one number on an AED 1.5M unit

Booking at 10–20% is AED 150,000–300,000. Oqood registration adds 4% of the full price, AED 60,000, due at the same moment, plus the small knowledge and innovation charges and a developer fee of roughly AED 1,000.

Month-one cash therefore sits near AED 215,000–365,000. Where a buyer's agent is involved, 2% plus VAT adds about AED 31,500 on top. After that the plan takes over: under 60/40, AED 900,000 leaves before the keys and AED 600,000 waits at handover. Under 80/20 it is AED 1.2M out and AED 300,000 waiting. A post-handover plan can leave up to half the price running for two to five years after move-in.

What 1% a month really adds up to

One per cent a month on AED 1.5M is AED 15,000, every month, for as long as the schedule runs. Twenty-four months of that is AED 360,000, or 24% of the price.

It counts towards the purchase rather than against it. It also runs alongside whatever the buyer already pays in rent, and it is rarely the whole plan: most 1% schedules pair the monthly drip with a large slug at handover. The monthly figure is the comfortable half of the story.

Which plan leaves the smallest cheque at handover

On the modelled unit, 80/20 leaves AED 300,000 at the keys and 60/40 leaves AED 600,000. A post-handover plan can push the handover cheque lower still, at the cost of payments continuing years past move-in.

The lending cap decides whether that gap is bridgeable. A bank lends at most 50% of price on off-plan — AED 750,000 here — so both balances fit inside the cap in principle, subject to approval and income. Smallest cheque is not the same as cheapest plan. Extended terms are usually priced into the headline figure, so the convenience shows up in the purchase price rather than the fee schedule.

Total debt repayments are capped at half your monthly income, and early settlement fees are limited to 1% of the outstanding balance or AED 10,000, whichever is lower. Rates in 2026 have ranged from roughly 3% on promotional fixed deals to around 5% on longer fixes, with variable products priced off EIBOR.

Lending caps follow Central Bank of the UAE mortgage regulations. Rates move — treat the range as a snapshot, not a quote.

Registering the mortgage costs 0.25% plus AED 290

Mortgage registration is 0.25% of the loan amount plus AED 290. On a AED 750,000 facility that is AED 1,875 plus AED 290, about AED 2,165 in total.

The charge sits on the loan, not the price, so a smaller facility registers more cheaply. Arrangement fees, valuation and life cover sit outside that figure and vary by lender, which is why the mortgage offer, not the fee table, is the document to read.

Banks also lend against the property rather than the plan, so the facility typically draws down near handover — early instalments come out of savings, not from the lender.

Buying can lead to a renewable residence visa. Two tiers matter.

What Oqood registration proves for the visa file

Oqood registration with a RERA-registered developer is reported to serve as the ownership proof in an off-plan application, standing in for the title deed that does not yet exist. It names the unit, the buyer and the project on the DLD interim register.

Whether it is accepted on its own, and what else the file needs, remains unconfirmed. Ask ICP for the current document list rather than the sales office, and keep the Oqood certificate and escrow payment receipts together from the first instalment.

What escrow does not cover: delays

A project can run years late with every dirham correctly held and correctly released. Remedies for delay live in the sale agreement, so the clause on extension, compensation and termination deserves more reading time than the brochure.

If the regulator cancels the project

Stalled projects can be cancelled by the regulator, at which point the escrow balance is dealt with under the cancellation process rather than by the developer. Recovery takes time and is rarely complete, since money already spent on construction has left the account. The 5% defect retention only applies where a project actually completes — it is no help to buyers in a cancelled one.

Blank cells in the table mean we could not confirm a figure from the developer or an official listing. We leave them empty rather than fill them with an estimate.

This is general information, not financial or legal advice. Fees, lending caps and visa conditions change — confirm current figures with the Dubai Land Department, the Central Bank of the UAE and ICP.