AED 2,881/sqft
August 2026 · 6 sales
-3.6%
-1%
62%
Last 12 months · 104 sales
5.8%
Ready homes, last 12 months · 40 sales · 94 tenancy contracts, new lets and renewals
63
Registered DLD sales · medians, not estimates · how we compute this
A typical residential sale here is AED 4,397,738 for about 1,406 sqft in the last 12 months (104 sales); across all 2,317 recorded sales the median is AED 3,434,888.
Ready-home prices here have moved -3.6% across the 33 months (Nov 2023 – Aug 2026) of Land Department records we hold — a pace of -1% a year if it continued.
That is the whole 33 months of records for this area, expressed as an annual pace. It averages across every cycle in that period, so it describes the long run rather than the market today. Treat it as history, not a forecast.
Comparing a launch price against a resale price without separating them is the most common way Dubai price-per-square-foot figures mislead.
Off-plan
AED 2,745/sqft
2,173 recorded sales
Ready
AED 4,789/sqft
144 recorded sales
Off-plan trades 43% below completed homes here. A single blended figure would sit between the two and describe neither.
Median size and price for every bedroom count with at least 15 recorded sales. Dubai Land Department records a room count on nearly every sale, so this is a breakdown of real transactions rather than an estimate. The headline price is the last 12 months; the median across every sale on record sits under it.
Rent is matched to homes by bedroom count where Ejari records one, which most contracts do, and by floor area where it does not — each row says which. Every figure is the median of registered new lets: a renewal is capped under Decree 43 of 2013 and sits below what the same home lets for today.
| Size | Typical home | Price, last 12 months · ready and off-plan | Per sqft, all years | Typical rent | Sales, all years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 bed | 763 sqft | AED 2,683,888 43 sales all years AED 2,159,888 | AED 2,835/sqft | AED 305,000/yr 20 tenancies | 967 |
| 2 beds | 1,425 sqft | AED 4,533,888 47 sales all years AED 3,636,888 | AED 2,640/sqft | AED 620,000/yr 71 tenancies | 1,062 |
| 3 beds | 1,838 sqft | AED 4,695,888 11 sales all years AED 4,850,888 | AED 2,670/sqft | AED 525,000/yr 30 tenancies | 252 |
| 4 beds | 5,275 sqft | fewer than 10 sales in 12 months all years AED 13.73M | AED 2,871/sqft | — | 31 |
Every other figure on this page is about homes that sold. This is the standing stock, from the Land Department’s unit register.
Registered units
2,011
In Zaabeel First, from the Land Department's register of flats.
Freehold
100%
Every unit in Zaabeel First with a recorded type is freehold, so foreign ownership is permitted throughout.
Typical size
1,386 sqft
Median of the 2,011 units that record one.
By size of home
Apartments, stacked townhouses and commercial units. Villas are not in this dataset.
From 120 tenancy contracts registered with Ejari in the last 12 months — agreed rents, not advertised ones.
Typical annual rent
AED 560,000/yr
for ~2,015 sqft
Rent per sqft
AED 278/sqft
per year
Renewals
22%
of contracts
Contracts
120
last 12 months
What it costs to rent here
Median annual rent, by size of home.
Matched to tenancies by bedroom count where Ejari records one — most contracts do — and by floor area where it does not; the table below says which for each row. Renewing tenants pay about 10% less per sqft than someone signing a new lease here.
A year’s rent against what completed homes of that size actually sold for in Zaabeel First over the same twelve months — both from registered records. Off-plan sales are left out of the price, because rent is paid on built homes and off-plan sells at a premium.
| Size | Costs now, ready | Rents for | Gross yield | Ready sales, 12m |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 bed | AED 5.6M | AED 305,000/yrby bedroom · 20 new lets | 5.4% | 15 |
| 2 beds | AED 10.4M | AED 620,000/yrby bedroom · 71 new lets | 6.0% | 23 |
The best gross yield here is on a 2 beds at 6.0%. Smaller homes almost always yield more than larger ones — they cost proportionally less and rent for proportionally more.
Why this is lower than yields quoted elsewhere
The usual shortcut divides today’s rent by an average price — and in a market that has risen as far as Dubai’s, the average is a historical price. On that arithmetic a 1 bed here reads 14.1% instead of 5.4%, because it prices the home at AED 2.16M — the median across every sale on record — rather than the AED 5.6M a completed one costs today. Every figure above uses the same twelve months, and completed homes only, on both sides.
What it returns after service charges
We hold no filed budget for this one, so this starts from a placeholder rather than a measurement — it’s on the service charge invoice, or on RERA’s Service Charge Index. How to check it.
| Size | Charge / year | Rent after it | Gross | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 bed | AED 11,449 | AED 293,551 | 5.4% | 5.2% |
| 2 beds | AED 21,371 | AED 598,629 | 6.0% | 5.8% |
Still not the final number: agency commission on re-letting, and any month the home sits empty, both come out of net rent too. This subtracts the service charge only, because it is the one cost that is the same every year whether or not the home is let.
Gross yield: rent before costs. Service charges, agency commission, and any month the home sits empty all come out of it — in Dubai the service charge alone is commonly a fifth to a third of the rent, so treat these as the ceiling rather than the return.
a 1-bedroom rents for a median AED 305,000/yr, a 2-bedroom for AED 620,000/yr, a 3-bedroom for AED 525,000/yr. These are medians of tenancy contracts registered with Ejari in Zaabeel First over the last twelve months — what tenants agreed to pay, not advertised asking rents. Rent is matched to homes by bedroom count where Ejari records one — most contracts do — and by floor area where it does not; each row on this page says which.
The median residential sale price in Zaabeel First was AED 2,881/sqft in August 2026, from 6 sales registered that month. Over the last 12 months a typical home here sold for about AED 4.4M and measured about 1,406 sqft (104 sales). These are medians of sales actually registered with the Dubai Land Department, not of asking prices.
Gross yields on ready homes in Zaabeel First run about 5.4% on a 1-bedroom apartment, 6.0% on a 2-bedroom apartment, dividing a year of registered rent by what completed homes of that size actually sold for over the same twelve months. Smaller homes yield more. These are gross figures: service charges, agency commission and void periods are not deducted, and in Dubai the service charge alone commonly takes a fifth to a third of the rent.
Yes. Every unit in Zaabeel First whose tenure is recorded in the Land Department's register is freehold, so foreign nationals may own property here outright. The register holds 2,011 units for the area.
62% of the 104 sales registered in Zaabeel First in the last 12 months were off-plan, and the rest were completed homes. The two trade at different prices, so a single blended price per square foot for the area would describe neither.
Every registered residential sale in this area by month, ready homes and off-plan together, so this is the history of what sold rather than a rate. The newest month is still being registered and will move. The rates on this page read ready homes alone.
Closest to Zaabeel First on median price per square foot. Areas with fewer than 10 recorded sales are left out, because a median drawn from a handful of deals is not worth comparing against.
Each has at least twenty sales on record, so its own median means something. Ordered by how much has traded.