There is a claim owners hear constantly: that short-term letting beats an annual tenancy. We are in that business, and we still think the claim is usually made with numbers that do not support it.
So here is what we can actually observe this week, including the part that cuts against us.
We track live listings in the flexible-stay market and annualise each one, so it can be set beside an annual lease on the same basis. Figures below are the week to 31 July 2026 for flexible-stay, against long-let asking rates for the same segment, with the listing count on both sides.
What the two markets are asking
Dubai Marina studios ask AED 72,804 on a long let (30 listings) against AED 47,988 annualised on a flexible stay (3 listings) — a third less. One-beds ask AED 101,988 (157 listings) against AED 86,994 (22 listings), 14.7% below. Two-beds ask AED 182,004 (119 listings) against AED 179,994 (6 listings) — a gap of just 1.1%.
Business Bay is the tightest across the board. Studios ask AED 76,788 (53 listings) against AED 73,188 (26 listings), 4.7% below. One-beds ask AED 90,000 (103 listings) against AED 83,988 (43 listings), 6.7% below. Two-beds ask AED 132,000 (51 listings) against AED 119,994 (24 listings), 9.1% below.
DIFC studios are the single exception in the set — AED 80,400 on a long let (90 listings) against AED 82,800 annualised (27 listings), which is 3% above. Its one-beds ask AED 129,996 (91 listings) against AED 120,000 (21 listings), 7.7% below.
Dubai Creek Harbour and Creek Beach shows the widest consistent gap on healthy counts. One-beds ask AED 114,996 (156 listings) against AED 96,000 (31 listings), 16.5% below. Two-beds ask AED 144,996 (58 listings) against AED 122,400 (17 listings), 15.6% below.
Read that plainly: in nine of these ten segments, the flexible-stay asking rate annualises below the long-let asking rate. Only DIFC studios come out above.
If you were told that going flexible automatically raises your annual take, this does not support it.
The thing those figures are not measuring
Here is the detail that decides how much weight any of it can carry. Of every flexible-stay listing we observed in that week, across all eight areas, every single one was a monthly listing. Zero daily. Zero weekly.
So what is described above is the monthly-let market. It is not the nightly short-let market, and it cannot be read as one.
That matters because the two behave nothing alike. A monthly let is priced close to a lease — one booking, one changeover, low operating intensity, and a rate that reflects that. Nightly letting prices to demand on the date, runs at whatever occupancy the operation achieves, and carries the permit, the cleaning, the guest management and the vacancy risk that go with it. Annualising a monthly asking rate tells you about the first and nothing about the second.
We are not going to fill that gap with our own performance figures. What our apartments achieve is our data, not a market benchmark, and publishing it as though it were market evidence would be exactly the move we are criticising.
What these figures do tell you, and it is useful
Where the flexible-stay rate sits close to the long-let rate, the flexible option is close to free. Dubai Marina two-beds ask AED 179,994 annualised against AED 182,004 on an annual lease — 1.1% apart, on 6 and 119 listings respectively. At that spread, an owner gives up almost nothing in headline rate while keeping the ability to use the apartment, adjust the price, or exit.
Where the gap is wide, it is a real cost that has to be earned back. A Dubai Marina studio annualises at AED 47,988 against AED 72,804 — a third less. That gap has to come back through nightly rates and occupancy, or it does not come back. On three listings, that particular figure is thin enough to be a prompt to look rather than a finding.
Business Bay is where the flexible-stay market is deepest. 26 studio and 43 one-bedroom listings, against 53 and 103 on the long-let side — proportionally the largest flexible-stay presence of any area we track, and the gaps there are the narrowest at 4.7% and 6.7%. A deep market asking close to the lease rate is the strongest signal in any of this.
How to decide it properly
Do not decide it on a headline. Three numbers settle it for a specific apartment.
What an annual tenancy actually closes at in your building — the registered figure, not the asking one. Dubai Marina one-bedrooms asked AED 101,988 across 157 listings, and registered at AED 87,000 across 1,720 contracts. The asking number is not the number you will sign.
What the flexible market in your building is genuinely priced at, at the stay length you would actually operate — which, as above, is not something a monthly-listing median answers if you intend to let nightly.
What the operation costs, in money and in your time. Permits, furnishing, cleaning, guest handling, and the months when occupancy is not what the spreadsheet assumed. This is the item owners leave out, and it is the one that decides the outcome.
If those three come out in favour of the annual lease for your unit, take the lease. We would rather tell you that than win the apartment and disappoint you in month four.
Long-let and flexible-stay asking rates, registered rents, sale transfers and yields — by area and bedroom count, with counts and observation dates — are published weekly on our Market Gauge.
Sources, checked 2 August 2026
- Long-let asking rates — live listings observed week to 1 August 2026 (DIFC, Business Bay and Creek Harbour/Beach: week to 29 July 2026).
- Flexible-stay asking rates — live listings observed week to 31 July 2026, annualised per listing. All observed listings in the week were monthly listings; no daily or weekly listings were recorded.
- Registered rents — Dubai Land Department open data, Ejari contracts, apartments only, 90 days to 2 August 2026.
- All via the Solayra Market Gauge feed. Asking prices are advertised rates, not agreed rents or achieved earnings.
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.
