AED 2,000 per square foot can be cheap. And: AED 1,500 per square foot can be expensive. The number means very little until you understand what you are comparing. Price per square foot — usually shortened to PSF — is one of the most frequently quoted numbers in real estate. A buyer may hear: “This project is only AED 1,900 per sq ft.” Another property may be: “AED...

Buying a good property is only half the investment. Knowing when — and how — to exit is the other half. Most property discussions concentrate on entry: What should I buy? Which island? Which developer? What payment plan? What rental yield? What could appreciate? But sooner or later, every investor faces a second set of questions: Should I keep the property? Has...

A rising property market does not tell you where you are in the cycle. It only tells you where prices have been. That distinction matters enormously in Abu Dhabi in 2026. The emirate's residential property market is experiencing exceptionally strong momentum. In H1 2026, residential unit sales reached AED 70.4 billion, compared with AED 25.3 billion in H1 2025. Repeat-sale apartment prices...

Property investors spend enormous amounts of time asking: What is the rental yield? How much could the property appreciate? What is the payment plan? Which area will grow fastest? But one of the most important questions is often asked too late: When I eventually want my money back, how easily can I sell this property? That is the question of property liquidity. A property can...

Abu Dhabi enters the next four years from an unusually strong starting point. In H1 2026, residential sales reached AED 70.4 billion, repeat-sale apartment prices were 20% higher year-on-year, villa prices were 12% higher, and new residential lease prices rose 17% for apartments and 9% for villas. Off-plan transactions accounted for 89% of residential sales value. Foreign capital has also expanded...

Abu Dhabi is preparing for approximately 71,000 additional residential units through 2030. That immediately creates one of the most important questions for anyone buying property in 2026: Who is going to buy, rent or occupy all of those homes? The answer cannot be found in one statistic. Property demand is created by several groups simultaneously: residents who need homes; new...

A property can have an excellent developer, attractive payment plan, strong location and good rental yield — and still become a weaker investment if too many directly competing properties reach the market at the same time. That is why investors need to understand supply. According to the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre's H1 2026 market report, Abu Dhabi currently has approximately 409,000 residential...

Property investors often focus first on rental yield. But rent is only one way real estate can create wealth. The second is capital appreciation — the increase in the market value of the property itself. A buyer who purchases an Abu Dhabi apartment for AED 1.5 million and later sells it for AED 1.8 million has experienced AED 300,000 of nominal capital appreciation. Simple enough. But the...

A property advertised with a 7% rental yield does not necessarily produce a 7% return. A property that increases by 10% in value does not necessarily give the investor a 10% return on the cash they invested. And a mortgaged property producing less monthly cash flow than a cash purchase can still generate a stronger long-term return on equity. This is where property ROI calculations become...

One of the biggest attractions of buying property in Abu Dhabi is that the ongoing tax structure can be substantially different from property markets in Europe, North America and many parts of Asia. In some countries, owning a home means receiving a substantial annual property-tax bill based on the property's value. An investor may also pay: income tax on rent; capital-gains tax; local...