●New residential rental contracts in Dubai, excluding renewals, rose 18.1% compared with August, a bigger increase than in September 2025 or 2024.

●UAE residential rent enquiries on Property Finder rose 19.5%, more than three times last September’s increase.

●Dubai mortgage value rose 43.6% to AED 9.72 billion, and the share of apartment sales involving a mortgage climbed for a second month.

Dubai registered more residential rental contracts in September than in any other month this year. Ejari rental registrations, residential and commercial combined, reached 96,000 contracts, up 15.8% compared with August. New residential rental contracts, which exclude renewals, reached 31,200. Their increase compared with August was bigger than in September 2025 or 2024, suggesting the seasonal increase is not the only factor.

Rental contracts register within days of signing, so they show demand in real time. Property Finder data points the same way. UAE residential rent enquiries are now 53% above February, their highest level of the year. Apartment enquiries are 57% above February, and villa and townhouse enquiries are 36% higher. Among apartments, enquiries are around 50% or more above February in every bedroom size, with one bedroom units strongest at 64%. By budget, enquiries for homes under AED 150,000 a year are more than 60% above February.

 Buyer interest is rising too. UAE residential sale enquiries rose 17% in September, a second consecutive monthly increase and larger than last September’s seasonal uplift. Enquiries for secondary market homes grew 17.5% and for primary market homes 9.1%. Apartment sale enquiries improved in every bedroom size, led by two bedroom and larger units. Since February, villa and townhouse sale enquiries have fared better than apartments. Interest improved across every price band rather than shifting between them, with the higher price bands rising most. Dubai Form F filings, a measure of committed sale demand, also grew.

That interest has yet to show up in completed sales. Dubai recorded AED 29.4 billion in sale transactions in September, up 3.1% compared with August, while secondary transactions eased 1.7% to 4,700. A rise in buyer interest takes several months to appear in registered sales, so September’s increase in enquiries is not yet reflected in these figures.

 Mortgage activity accelerated. Mortgage value registered with the Dubai Land Department rose 43.6% to AED 9.72 billion, and the number of mortgages rose 14.4% to 3,622, both the highest of the quarter. Almost a third of apartment sales, 31.0%, involved a mortgage, up from 20.3% in July. Mortgages now cover 44.2% of apartment sales value, more than double July’s 20.5%. Among villa sales, 79.2% involved a mortgage, close to four in five. Average mortgage size rose for both: to AED 2.67 million for apartments, from AED 2.05 million in August, and to AED 2.74 million for villas, from AED 2.61 million.

 “Our Mortgage Finder data shows a clear change in who is buying over the past three months,” said Cherif Sleiman, Chief Revenue Officer at Property Finder. “People buying a home to live in now account for 92.6% of activity, up from 87.2% in July. A bigger share of applicants are higher earners, with those on AED 60,000 or more a month rising from 27.5% to 32.8% of applications. Villas and townhouses rose from around 30% to 34.4% of applications, and that demand is spreading beyond the highest earners. Clients earning AED 80,000 or more a month have favoured villas over apartments in all three months we have tracked. In September, clients earning AED 60,000 to 79,999 did the same for the first time in those three months. If that continues, we expect villas to take a bigger share of applications each month, though apartments, at around two thirds, will remain the majority in the near term.”