In August 2026 the Dubai Land Department registered 1,569 new mortgages against homes. In the same month it registered 10,123 home sales. That is 15.5 per cent.
Dubai is a cash market. Not mostly, overwhelmingly. This post shows who does borrow, how much, and against what, from the full August register.
The headline number, and what it does not mean
15.5 per cent sounds like a mortgage take up rate. It is not one, and we are not going to present it as one.
A mortgage registered in August is not necessarily attached to a sale registered in August. An owner can refinance, release equity, or register a loan on a property they have held for years. The register does not link the two sides. What the number honestly tells you is the ratio of new home lending to home buying in the same month, which is still a strong signal and still very low.
Every mortgage registered in August
| Type of borrowing | Registrations | Total value | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| All mortgage procedures | 3,735 | AED 14.36 bn | AED 1,360,000 |
| Against homes and apartments | 2,244 | AED 3.09 bn | AED 960,316 |
| Against land | 1,015 | AED 9.23 bn | AED 2,485,860 |
| Against whole buildings | 476 | AED 2.04 bn | AED 2,440,000 |
Land was 27.2 per cent of the mortgage count and 64.3 per cent of the money borrowed. AED 9.23 billion of the AED 14.36 billion registered in August was lending against land, not against anybody’s home. That is developers and institutions financing sites, and it is the single biggest thing distorting any headline Dubai mortgage figure.
Not every mortgage row is a new loan
The register uses fifteen different mortgage procedures. Only some of them are somebody taking out new borrowing.
| Procedure as registered | Rows |
|---|---|
| Mortgage Registration | 2,633 |
| Delayed Mortgage | 361 |
| Portfolio Mortgage Modification | 184 |
| Portfolio Mortgage Registration | 180 |
| Modify Mortgage | 128 |
| Lease Finance Registration | 78 |
When we say 1,569 new home mortgages, we mean rows where the property type is a unit and the procedure is Mortgage Registration. Modifications, portfolio restructures and delayed mortgages are excluded, because none of them is a buyer arranging finance on a purchase.
What people borrow, by size of home
Median mortgage against the median sale price for the same home type. These are two different sets of properties, so this is not a loan to value ratio and should not be read as one. It is a useful sense of scale.
| Home type | Mortgages | Median mortgage | Median sale price | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | 281 | AED 440,000 | AED 648,745 | 68% |
| One bedroom | 877 | AED 766,736 | AED 1,199,847 | 64% |
| Two bedroom | 733 | AED 1,271,828 | AED 2,025,777 | 63% |
| Three bedroom | 242 | AED 2,160,000 | AED 3,571,491 | 60% |
The pattern is consistent. Across every size the median mortgage sits in the sixties as a percentage of the median sale price, which is what you would expect in a market where the standard maximum loan to value for an expatriate buying a first home is 80 per cent and most borrowers do not take the maximum.
Almost nobody borrows against off plan
2,210 of the 2,244 home mortgages, 98.5 per cent, were against ready property. Only 34 were against off plan.
That is the same finding we published from the August register in a different form. Two thirds of Dubai homes are sold before they are built, and the banking system is almost entirely absent from that part of the market. The developer payment plan is not a cheaper alternative to a mortgage. It is the only finance on offer, and it puts the construction period risk on the buyer rather than on a lender.
97.4 per cent of home mortgages were on freehold property.
Where the borrowing happens
| Area as registered | Mortgages against homes |
|---|---|
| Jumeirah Village Circle | 255 |
| Business Bay | 181 |
| Dubai Marina | 124 |
| Al Furjan | 112 |
| Downtown Dubai, Burj Khalifa | 96 |
| Al Khail Heights | 96 |
| Jumeirah Lakes Towers | 80 |
| Arjan | 72 |
Jumeirah Village Circle leads on borrowing and it also leads on transaction volume, so that is not surprising. What is worth noticing is that this list is made of completed, rentable communities. Lending follows finished buildings.
What this means if you are buying
If you need a mortgage, you are competing in a much smaller pool. Roughly six in seven Dubai purchases last month did not involve new home lending. A seller choosing between a cash offer and a financed offer is choosing between certainty and a bank timeline, and you should assume they know that.
If you are buying off plan, do not plan on a mortgage. 34 registrations in a month of 7,366 off plan home sales tells you what availability looks like in practice.
If you are selling, price for a cash buyer. The majority of your market is not waiting on a valuation.
Method and limits
Source: the Dubai Land Department transaction register for August 2026, 15,955 rows. Mortgage figures use GROUP_EN = Mortgage. New home lending uses PROP_TYPE_EN = Unit and PROCEDURE_EN = Mortgage Registration. Sale figures use GROUP_EN = Sales with the same property type filter.
Stated limits. The register does not link a mortgage to a specific sale, so the 15.5 per cent figure is a ratio of two counts in the same month and not a take up rate. Registered mortgage value is the registered loan amount, not the drawn balance. Ratios in the bedroom table compare medians of two different property sets and are not loan to value ratios. We exclude gift transfers throughout.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of Dubai property is bought with a mortgage?
In August 2026 the register recorded 1,569 new home mortgage registrations against 10,123 home sales, 15.5 per cent. The register does not link the two, so treat it as a ratio rather than a take up rate. Either way, Dubai is predominantly a cash market.
How much do people borrow in Dubai?
The median mortgage registered against a home in August 2026 was AED 960,316. Across all property types including land and buildings the median was AED 1,360,000.
Can you get a mortgage on off plan property in Dubai?
Rarely. Only 34 of the 2,244 home mortgages registered in August 2026 were against off plan property, 1.5 per cent.
Why is so much Dubai mortgage money lent against land?
Because developers finance sites. Land was 1,015 of 3,735 mortgage registrations but AED 9.23 billion of the AED 14.36 billion borrowed. Any headline Dubai mortgage total that does not separate land is mostly measuring development finance.
Related reading
- Can you mortgage off plan property in Dubai
- Average Dubai property price: 73 per cent of buyers paid less
- Dubai mortgage guide: how to get a home loan
- Dubai real estate market report, August 2026
Cresco Real Estate is a Dubai brokerage registered with RERA under office registration number 34288. We read the full Dubai Land Department register every month and publish the method with the findings. If you want the August lending numbers for a specific community, ask us.