Per-square-foot is the unit everyone reaches for when comparing Dubai apartments, because it looks like it removes the size problem. It does not. It relocates it.
Run it across the registered rental contracts for the last 90 days and a clear structure appears — along with one area that behaves nothing like the others. Figures below are median annual rent per square foot from registered Ejari contracts, 90 days to 2 August 2026, with the median unit size beside each.
What each area earns per foot
Palm Jumeirah earns the most per foot on small units and the least consistently on large ones: AED 156.96 on studios (549 sq ft), AED 130.03 on one-beds (1,145 sq ft), AED 113.23 on two-beds (1,722 sq ft), then back up to AED 123.28 on three-beds (2,429 sq ft).
Downtown Dubai declines gently throughout: AED 147.80 on studios (538 sq ft), AED 123.12 on one-beds (885 sq ft), AED 122.87 on two-beds (1,362 sq ft), AED 119.50 on three-beds (2,102 sq ft). From studio to three-bed it loses less than a fifth of its per-foot rate — the flattest decline of the areas with a full set.
Dubai Marina falls hard: AED 131.88 on studios (484 sq ft), AED 105.21 on one-beds (829 sq ft), AED 98.87 on two-beds (1,335 sq ft), AED 87.63 on three-beds (2,013 sq ft) — a 34% drop in what each square foot earns.
Business Bay falls hardest: AED 131.16 on studios (471 sq ft) down to AED 82.22 on three-beds (1,970 sq ft), via AED 105.54 (818 sq ft) and AED 88.95 (1,345 sq ft). That is a 37% drop.
JLT runs lowest throughout and drops 31%: AED 118.33 on studios (452 sq ft), AED 94.31 on one-beds (840 sq ft), AED 86.33 on two-beds (1,294 sq ft), AED 81.44 on three-beds (1,884 sq ft).
Dubai Creek Harbour and Creek Beach barely moves: AED 125.24 on one-beds (710 sq ft), AED 120.34 on two-beds (1,119 sq ft), AED 118.58 on three-beds (1,648 sq ft). No studio contracts were registered in the window.
Why the decline happens
The cause is not that large apartments are worse. It is that a tenant is not renting square feet, they are renting a dwelling. The kitchen, the bathroom and the entrance in a studio are paid for by 450-odd square feet. In a three-bedroom the same functional core is spread over four times the area, and the extra area is bedroom space — the cheapest space in the apartment.
This is why per-foot comparisons across bedroom counts are close to meaningless. A studio at AED 131.88 and a three-bed at AED 87.63 in Dubai Marina are not a bargain and a rip-off. They are two different products whose per-foot rates should never have been set beside each other.
Per-foot earns its keep in exactly one comparison: the same bedroom count, in different places. Compare a one-bed against a one-bed. Never a one-bed against a three-bed.
The area that inverts
DIFC does not follow the pattern at all. One-beds earn AED 139.35 per foot (743 sq ft), two-beds AED 137.06 (1,195 sq ft), three-beds AED 144.30 (1,776 sq ft) — essentially flat, then up. Nowhere else in the data does the three-bedroom figure beat the one-bedroom.
Two things sit behind it, and both are visible in the numbers.
DIFC apartments are small for their bedroom count. A DIFC one-bed has a median of 743 square feet against 829 in Dubai Marina and 1,145 on Palm Jumeirah. Its three-bed is 1,776 square feet against Marina's 2,013 and Palm's 2,429. Smaller units at the same bedroom count mechanically produce a higher per-foot figure at the same rent.
And the counts are thin. 91 one-bedroom contracts, 123 two-bed, 39 three-bed — against 1,720, 1,749 and 819 in Dubai Marina. DIFC's three-bedroom figure rests on 39 registered contracts. That is a real number and we publish it, but it is not the same quality of evidence as one built from 819.
We show it rather than smoothing it, because an owner reading the Land Department data themselves would find exactly the same thinness. The count is the disclosure.
What it means for a specific decision
If you are comparing areas, hold the bedroom count fixed. A one-bedroom earns AED 139.35 a foot in DIFC, AED 125.24 in Creek Harbour, AED 105.54 in Business Bay, AED 105.21 in Dubai Marina and AED 94.31 in JLT. That is a genuine ranking, on 91, 554, 1,528, 1,720 and 945 contracts respectively.
If you are comparing sizes, stop using per-foot and use the rent. In Dubai Marina, a studio registers at AED 60,000 and a three-bed at AED 191,100. That is the number that arrives in your account.
And if you are buying, put the rent per foot next to the sale price per foot — because that is the only comparison where per-foot does the job it is good at. Dubai Marina three-beds rent at AED 87.63 a foot and sell at AED 1,925.75 a foot. Marina studios rent at AED 131.88 and sell at AED 1,870.58. The studio sells for slightly less per foot and rents for half as much again. That is the whole yield story in two lines, and it is invisible if you look at either side alone.
Rent per foot, sale price per foot, unit sizes and the contract counts behind all of them are published weekly by area and bedroom count on our Market Gauge.
Sources, checked 2 August 2026
- Median annual rent per square foot, median unit sizes and contract counts — Dubai Land Department open data, registered Ejari contracts, apartments only, 90 days to 2 August 2026.
- Median sale price per square foot — Dubai Land Department property sale transfers, same window and segment.
- Both via the Solayra Market Gauge feed. Per-foot medians are calculated per contract first, then the median taken.
- Dubai Creek Harbour and DIFC recorded no studio contracts in the window, so no studio figure is shown for them.
Solayra Holiday Homes Management runs short and mid-term letting for owners and investors across some of Dubai’s most sought-after areas — including Dubai Marina, JBR, Downtown, DIFC, and Dubai Creek Beach. Every apartment is DTCM registered and priced against extensive market data, and you see the occupancy and every dirham as it earns. See what your apartment could be doing on the Market Gauge, read what we do for owners, investors, investment companies and agents & partners, or write to us at owners@solayra.com.
