AED 3,971,350,726 of Dubai property changed hands in August 2026 without anyone buying it. 620 gift transfers, registered with the Dubai Land Department, moving property from one owner to another with no sale price paid.
Nobody writes about this part of the register. Everyone counts the 11,600 sales. The gifts sit in the same file and tell you something the sales cannot.
The scale
| Transaction group | Count | Share of all transactions | Total registered value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales | 11,600 | 72.7% | AED 27,888,891,910 |
| Mortgages | 3,735 | 23.4% | Not comparable |
| Gifts | 620 | 3.9% | AED 3,971,350,726 |
Gifts are only 3.9 per cent of transactions but 14.2 per cent of the value of all sales. That ratio is the first clue. Whatever is being gifted is worth a lot more than the average thing being sold.
Gifted homes are bigger than sold homes
Here is the comparison that matters, and we have screened both sides the same way. Residential apartments and villas only, with a bedroom count recorded, and nothing below AED 500 per square foot.
| Measure | Gifted | Sold | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transactions | 363 | 9,553 | |
| Median value | AED 1,540,587 | AED 1,084,659 | +42% |
| Median size | 943 sq ft | 721 sq ft | +30.9% |
| Median per sq ft | AED 1,817 | AED 1,699 | +6.9% |
The gifted home is 30.9 per cent bigger than the sold home. 943 square feet against 721. That is the whole story in one row.
But the price per square foot is almost the same, 6.9 per cent apart. This matters more than it looks. If gift values were nominal, a dirham on paper to move a deed, the rate per square foot would collapse. It does not. The declared values are close to market, which means you can read them as real numbers.
What gets gifted is not what gets sold
| Home type | Gifted | Share of gifts | Sold | Share of sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | 64 | 17.6% | 3,602 | 37.7% |
| 1 B/R | 140 | 38.6% | 3,561 | 37.3% |
| 2 B/R | 96 | 26.4% | 1,876 | 19.6% |
| 3 B/R | 50 | 13.8% | 454 | 4.8% |
| 4 B/R | 10 | 2.8% | 57 | 0.6% |
Three bedroom homes are 13.8 per cent of gifts and only 4.8 per cent of sales. Four bedrooms are 2.8 per cent of gifts and 0.6 per cent of sales. Studios run the other way, 37.7 per cent of sales and only 17.6 per cent of gifts.
Read that plainly. The market sells studios and one bedrooms to investors. It hands family homes to family. The stock people keep is not the stock people trade.
Finished property, not off plan
| Measure | Gifts | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Off plan share | 19.5% | 67.1% |
| Freehold share | 93.1% | Not compared |
| Units | 442 | |
| Land plots | 125 | |
| Whole buildings | 53 |
Only 19.5 per cent of gifts are off plan, against 67.1 per cent of sales. People do not gift a construction contract. They gift a finished asset with a key. 93.1 per cent of gifts were freehold.
125 of the 620 were land plots and 53 were whole buildings. The single largest was a land parcel in Dubai Healthcare City Phase 1 at AED 208,855,811. That one transfer alone is more than five per cent of the entire month of gifts by value.
Where the gifts are
| Area | Gift transfers |
|---|---|
| Business Bay | 68 |
| Jumeirah Village Circle | 36 |
| Burj Khalifa | 34 |
| Jumeirah Lakes Towers | 33 |
| Dubai Marina | 27 |
| Palm Jumeirah | 26 |
| Dubai Creek Harbour | 18 |
| Mbr District 1 | 15 |
| Madinat Al Mataar | 12 |
| Dubai Hills | 12 |
Business Bay leads with 68. Then Jumeirah Village Circle, Burj Khalifa and Jumeirah Lakes Towers. These are dense apartment districts where a lot of people own a lot of units, which is exactly where you would expect ownership to be reshuffled inside families and companies.
How the register records a gift
| Procedure | Count | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Grant | 440 | A completed transfer of a registered property |
| Grant Pre-Registration | 121 | A transfer of an off plan unit before handover |
| Grant on Delayed Sell | 44 | A transfer attached to a delayed sale |
| Grant Development | 15 | A transfer of a development or project interest |
What this actually tells a buyer
- Gift transfers are not sales and should never be counted as sales. If a price index includes them, it is measuring a different thing. Check what your source counted.
- Family sized stock is tighter than the sales data suggests. Three and four bedroom homes are 5.4 per cent of sales but 16.6 per cent of gifts. A share of the larger stock leaves the open market without ever appearing on a portal.
- Declared gift values are close to market rates, so they are useful as a second read on what a district is worth, not just as a legal formality.
- If you are planning a transfer inside your own family, the register shows it is routine. 620 of them happened in one month. This is not an exotic procedure.
Method and limits
Source is the Dubai Land Department transaction register for August 2026, 15,955 rows. Gifts are the rows where GROUP_EN is Gifts. Sales are the rows where GROUP_EN is Sales. Areas are converted from square metres at 10.7639. Medians throughout, never averages.
Stated limits. One month only, so this is a snapshot and not a trend. The headline count of 620 gifts is unscreened. The bedroom and size comparison screens out rows below AED 500 per square foot on both sides and keeps only homes with a bedroom count recorded, which reduces the matched sample to 363 gifts and 9,553 sales. We do not know the relationship between the parties in any transfer, so we cannot say which gifts are family, which are corporate restructuring and which are something else. Registered value is the declared value, not an appraisal. We are a brokerage, not tax or legal advisers, and nothing here is advice on how to structure a transfer.
Frequently asked questions
How many properties were gifted in Dubai in August 2026?
620, worth AED 3,971,350,726 in declared value. That is 3.9 per cent of all registered transactions and 14.2 per cent of the value of all sales in the same month.
Is a gift transfer the same as a sale?
No. A gift transfer moves ownership without a purchase price being paid. The Land Department records them under a separate transaction group and under Grant procedures. They should not be counted in sales volumes or price indices.
Are gifted properties bigger than sold properties in Dubai?
Yes. The median gifted home was 943 square feet against 721 square feet for the median sold home, which is 30.9 per cent bigger.
Do gift transfers use real market values?
They appear to. The median gifted home was declared at AED 1,817 per square foot against AED 1,699 for sold homes, a gap of 6.9 per cent. Nominal values would show a far larger gap.
Can off plan property be gifted in Dubai?
Yes. 121 of the 620 transfers in August were Grant Pre-Registration, which is a transfer before handover. Off plan was 19.5 per cent of all gifts.
What was the largest gift transfer in August 2026?
A land parcel in Dubai Healthcare City Phase 1 at AED 208,855,811.
Related reading
- Average Dubai property price: 73 per cent of buyers paid less
- How many Dubai buyers use a mortgage
- Dubai Hills sub communities: what each project actually sold for
- Living in Dubai Hills Estate: the community in numbers
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 gift transfers for a specific area or building, ask us and we will pull them.