Business Bay Leads Prime Deals as Branded Home Values Surge 37%
Business Bay has overtaken Palm Jumeirah as the city’s busiest prime property hub, backed by a surge in high-end off-plan sales. Across the neighborhood, buyer activity is clustering around branded residential developments, even as transaction pacing across broader housing sectors shifts into a quieter gear.
Flexible Payment Terms Sustain Momentum as Volumes Soften
Data from the Dubai Land Department shows completed unit transaction volumes dropped by around 51 percent across March and April compared to average levels in January and February. Rather than slashing headline prices to chase volume, major developers, including Emaar, Damac, Binghatti, and Arada, are extending more flexible payment terms to keep buyers engaged. Moody’s Ratings notes that these rated developers carry sizable presale backlogs and conservative balance sheets, giving them several years of secured revenue at current operating scale.
Branded residences continue to command a heavy premium, averaging AED 3,779 ($1,029) per square foot in the first half of 2025. That places them 40 percent higher than non-branded homes in the same locations. While transaction volumes for branded units dipped 3 percent compared to the same period in 2024, total transaction value rose 37 percent, driven by larger ticket sizes and ultra-prime launches like Aman Hotels & Resorts, which set a peak benchmark at AED 13,195 ($3,593) per square foot.
The segment now represents 13 percent of Dubai’s total residential sales value and 5.8 percent of transaction volume, with 48,474 total branded units recorded. With 30,374 units across 90 projects currently under construction alongside 18,100 ready units across 54 completed sites, 63 percent of the city’s branded residence supply remains under development.
The Dubai Land Department recorded 5,510 new branded units across 12 project launches in the first half of 2025 alone.
