Dubai · 21 October 2026
Dubai rental yields in 2026
Bayut’s advertised apartment returns still peak near 9% in Discovery Gardens and sit near 4.5% on the Palm. Registered rents tell a lower storey.
A Dubai yield is only as good as the rent and the price that produced it. Advertised returns use asking rents and asking prices. Registered returns use Ejari contracts and Dubai Land Department sales. The first is what a listing promises. The second is closer to what a building has done.
Advertised apartment returns
Bayut’s Dubai sales report for the first half of 2026, as cited by Baytify on 23 October, puts projected gross rental returns for apartments at 9.06% in Discovery Gardens, 8.79% in International City, 8.23% in Dubai Silicon Oasis, 7.15% in Jumeirah Village Circle, 7.10% in Arjan, 6.29% in Business Bay, 5.88% in Dubai Marina, 5.46% in Downtown and 4.48% on Palm Jumeirah. These are gross figures from advertised prices. They are not cash in the account.
Registered rents
dxbdata.io, using Land Department sales and Ejari contracts from 23 June to 9 October 2026, put gross yields for flats at 5.8% in Dubai Hills Estate, 5.1% in Downtown and in Business Bay, 4.7% in Dubai Marina and 4.0% on Palm Jumeirah. Property Times reported those readings on 13 October. Where both views exist, the registered number sits under the advert.
Service charge is the leak
Gross yield ignores the charge per square foot. A JVC apartment at 7.15% and a Downtown apartment at 5.46% do not stay that far apart once the charge, a vacant month and the agency renewal are taken off. Baytify’s worked examples, using its own rent and size assumptions, pull several of those headline yields down by roughly two points. Use that as a warning, not as the service charge of a named tower. We take the charge from the building.
Where the brief goes
Income, and you can live with an older building: Discovery Gardens, International City, Silicon Oasis, then a picked JVC or Arjan tower. A home you might also rent: Business Bay or Dubai Hills, where the registered yield is nearer 5% than 9%. A view you will use yourself: Marina, Downtown, the Palm. At advertised returns of 4.5% to 6%, those are not the coupon. They are the address.
Sources
- Bayut Dubai Sales Market Report, H1 2026, via Baytify (23 October 2026). Projected gross apartment returns by community, from advertised prices. Discovery Gardens 9.06% through Palm Jumeirah 4.48%.
- dxbdata.io, reported by Property Times on 13 October 2026. Gross yields from DLD sales and Ejari contracts, 23 June to 9 October 2026: Dubai Hills Estate 5.8%, Downtown and Business Bay 5.1%, Dubai Marina 4.7%, Palm Jumeirah 4.0%.
- Baytify, 23 October 2026. Illustrative net yields after an assumed service charge. Their assumptions, not a RERA service-charge index.