Rent Guide · Method
How the Rent Guide works
Every figure comes from the leases registered with Dubai Land Department. Here is what is read, what is set aside, and how each number is worked out.
Source: Dubai Land Department, Rent Contracts (Ejari)leases to September 2026updated 9 Oct 2026
01 · The data
Registered leases, not adverts
Every lease in Dubai is registered with Dubai Land Department through Ejari. The department publishes the records as open data on Dubai Data (Rent Contracts (Ejari)). We read every record each month — 644,418 in the last twelve months.
- The lease
- contract type (new or renewal), start and end dates, rent a year, contract value, number of units, line in the contract
- The space
- property type and sub-type, business type, registered use, leased size, freehold or not
- Where
- area (DLD’s own division), project and master project, nearest landmark, metro station and mall
- The tenant
- company or individual — never a name
- The record
- when Dubai Land Department loaded it
Contract numbers stay with us and are never published; nor is anything that could identify a tenant or a landlord.
02 · The rules
What counts, and what is set aside
- New leases set the price. Renewals carry rents agreed earlier, so they are counted and compared, but never priced in.
- A contract covering several units counts once, with the sizes added up. Blocks of identical leases signed the same month count once.
- Leases under six months are set aside: they are often seasonal or temporary and priced differently.
- Each type has a range of sizes and rents it can plausibly have; records outside it are set aside as likely errors.
- 183,876 commercial records were set aside this month for these reasons; the rest were placed by type and area.
| Type | Smallest | Rent per sq ft | Set aside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warehouses | 800 sq ft | AED 15–400 | 4,887 |
| Workshops and factories | 800 sq ft | AED 15–400 | 495 |
| Showrooms | 300 sq ft | AED 25–900 | 1,559 |
| Offices | 100 sq ft | AED 25–700 | 152,523 |
| Shops | 60 sq ft | AED 30–1,600 | 24,412 |
03 · The figures
What each number means
- Typical rent
- The median of new leases: half were signed for less, half for more.
- Middle half
- The 25th to the 75th percentile of new leases — where most tenants sign.
- 8 in 10 leases
- The 10th to the 90th percentile: everything but the cheapest and the dearest tenth.
- Entry, Typical, Upper, Top end
- Below the middle half; within it; from the 75th to the 90th percentile; the dearest tenth.
- Size-adjusted
- The typical rent with the mix of sizes held steady, so a month of bigger units (cheaper per sq ft) does not read as a fall. “On the year” uses it.
- Three-month window
- Each month on a chart is the three months to it, so one quiet month does not swing the line.
- Registrations
- Every lease registered — new and renewed. Renewals show how much is signed; only new leases set the price.
A figure uses the last six months of new leases, or twelve where an area is quieter (marked). It shows only from 20 leases.
04 · Beside the leases
Our own figures, marked as ours
Three things on the guide come from FindCommercial, not from Dubai Land Department, and are always labelled: asking rents on the units we list (set against what was signed), the enquiries tenants send us (what sizes and budgets are in demand), and asking rents in free zones and the Northern Emirates, which Dubai Land Department does not cover.
05 · Updates
Every month
The guide is worked out again each month once the month’s records are in, and checked before it is published. These figures run to September 2026.
Questions
About the method
Is this a valuation?
No. It describes the market — what similar space has been leased for. One unit’s rent depends on its position, age, condition and spec. A broker can place a particular unit in the range.
Why do some areas or sizes not show?
A figure shows only when there are enough new leases behind it: 20 for an area, 12 for a part of an area, 8 for a size band. Fewer than that, and one odd lease would move it too much.
Why are JAFZA and Sharjah not in the figures?
Free zones register their own leases, and other emirates have their own land departments, so Dubai Land Department has none of them. Where we show them, it is asking rents from our own listings, marked as such.
Can I use the figures?
Yes, with credit: “FindCommercial Rent Guide, from Dubai Land Department data”, and a link to the page. The underlying data is published under the Dubai Government Open Data Licence.