The Dubai Land Department publishes every registered transaction each month. Most coverage stops at sales. The August 2026 file also contains 620 gift transfers with a combined declared value of AED 3.97 billion. That is 3.89 percent of the 15,955 rows in the register and it is the part of the market almost nobody writes about.
This article counts them. Every figure below was recomputed from the register file. Nothing here is an estimate.
What a gift transfer actually is
The register groups transactions into Sales, Mortgages and Gifts. A gift is registered under a Grant procedure. No purchase price changes hands. The Land Department still records a value for the property so that transfer fees can be assessed. Read every number in this article as a declared value and not as a price paid.
Four procedure names carry the 620 gifts in August.
| Procedure | Transfers | Share of gifts |
|---|---|---|
| Grant | 440 | 71.0% |
| Grant Pre-Registration | 121 | 19.5% |
| Grant on Delayed Sell | 44 | 7.1% |
| Grant Development | 15 | 2.4% |
| Total | 620 | 100.0% |
Grant covers a completed title already on the register. Grant Pre Registration covers a unit still with the developer. Grant on Delayed Sell covers a resale that had not yet completed. Grant Development covers plots inside a development.
Land is small in count and large in value
Split the 620 gifts by property type and the picture changes completely.
| Property type | Transfers | Median declared value | Share of gift value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit | 442 | AED 1,598,927 | 34.4% |
| Land | 125 | AED 8,382,709 | 56.6% |
| Building | 53 | AED 2,950,001 | 9.0% |
Land is only 125 of the 620 transfers. It carries 56.6 percent of the value. The median gifted plot was declared at AED 8,382,709. The median gifted apartment was declared at AED 1,598,927. A plot moves about five times the value of an apartment.
Gifts are worth more than sales
The median gift in August was declared at AED 2,103,518. The median sale in the same file was AED 1,212,860. Gifts run 1.73 times higher on the median. Across the month gifts carried 14.2 percent of the value that sales carried.
| Measure | Gifts | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions | 620 | 11,600 |
| Median value | AED 2,103,518 | AED 1,212,860 |
| Total value | AED 3.97 billion | AED 27.89 billion |
The value is also top heavy. 79 gifts were declared at AED 10 million or above. Those 79 transfers alone carried AED 2.67 billion, or 67.2 percent of all gift value. The single largest gift in the month was declared at AED 208,855,811.
Where the gifts happen
Eight areas held 257 of the 620 gifts, or 41.5 percent of the month.
| Area | Gifts | Median declared value | Total value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Bay | 68 | AED 1,875,011 | AED 159.8 million |
| Jumeirah Village Circle | 36 | AED 759,881 | AED 82.1 million |
| Burj Khalifa | 34 | AED 2,290,586 | AED 130.7 million |
| Jumeirah Lakes Towers | 33 | AED 1,565,116 | AED 69.5 million |
| Dubai Marina | 27 | AED 2,174,290 | AED 300.2 million |
| Palm Jumeirah | 26 | AED 8,150,001 | AED 421.5 million |
| Dubai Creek Harbour | 18 | AED 2,522,501 | AED 54.7 million |
| Mbr District 1 | 15 | AED 1,209,463 | AED 29.9 million |
Business Bay leads on count. Palm Jumeirah leads on value with 26 transfers worth AED 421.5 million. That is the pattern across the file. Dense apartment districts generate the volume. A small number of prime addresses generate the money.
Gifts favour finished property and freehold title
- 499 of 620 gifts were ready property. That is 80.5 percent. Only 121 were off plan.
- 577 of 620 were freehold. Only 43 sat on non freehold title.
- 575 of 620 were residential. 45 were commercial.
This is what you would expect. People pass on assets they already hold outright. A handover that has not happened yet is harder to move and often needs developer consent first.
What this means if you are planning a transfer
Three things follow from the numbers.
- A gift is a registered transaction with its own procedure and its own fee base. Budget for it. The declared value is what the fee is assessed on, not what you paid years ago.
- If the asset is off plan, expect friction. Only 121 of 620 gifts in August were off plan.
- If the asset is land, expect the value to be larger than you assume. The median gifted plot in August was declared at AED 8,382,709.
None of this is legal or tax advice. Cresco Real Estate is not a law firm. Confirm the procedure and the fee with the Dubai Land Department or a licensed conveyancer before you file.
Method and limits
Everything above comes from one file. Here is exactly what it can and cannot tell you.
- Source. The Dubai Land Department transaction register covering 1 August 2026 to 31 August 2026. The file holds 15,955 rows. Gifts are the 620 rows where the transaction group is Gifts.
- Vintage. The copy used here was downloaded on 2 September 2026. On 20 September 2026 we could not reach the Dubai Land Department open data portal from this environment to confirm whether a later monthly file has been published. If a September register exists it is not reflected here.
- Declared value, not price. A gift has no buyer paying a seller. The value field is a declared or assessed figure. Do not read it as a market price.
- No relationship data. The register does not say who gave the property to whom. It does not record family relationship, nationality or reason. Any claim about parents and children in gift transfers is not in this data.
- One month only. 620 gifts is a single month. It is not a trend. We have not compared it with July or with August 2025 because that would need those files recomputed the same way.
- Counts, not unique owners. One owner transferring four apartments appears as four rows.
- Medians. Medians are computed per transaction. Totals are sums of the declared values in the file.
Frequently asked questions
How many property gift transfers did Dubai record in August 2026?
The Dubai Land Department transaction register for August 2026 contains 620 entries in the Gifts group. That is 3.89 percent of the 15,955 rows in the file.
What is the value of a gift transfer in the register?
The register records a declared value for every gift. It is not a price paid. The median declared value in August 2026 was AED 2,103,518. The total across all 620 gifts was AED 3.97 billion.
Are gifted properties more valuable than sold properties?
On the median they are. The median gift was AED 2,103,518 against a median sale of AED 1,212,860 in the same month. That is 1.73 times higher. Land is the reason. Land accounts for 56.6 percent of gift value.
Which Dubai areas see the most gift transfers?
Business Bay led with 68 gifts in August 2026. Jumeirah Village Circle had 36. Burj Khalifa had 34. The top eight areas together held 257 of the 620 gifts.
Can off plan property be gifted in Dubai?
The register shows it happens. 121 of the 620 gifts in August 2026 were off plan. The large majority, 499, were ready property.