The "softening" everyone's talking about? It's not showing up as one big price drop. It's showing up as dispersion, with premium trades and discount trades living side by side in the same project.

Lets run through two stand-out areas this week, Maritime City and Al Barari. I want to focus on these as they have shown significant drops in both sales and rentals, let me explain how and why.

Maritime City showed serious drops in the past few months, was this waterfront destination oversold? Will the port be an eyesore and cause noise / air pollution? Were projects overpriced? Let’s dig into the performance of a few buildings below to find out;

This week's median: 2,354 AED/sqft (down 10% vs last 3 months)

Digging deeper I found this:

What I see: Buyers are pushing back on certain units while still paying up for others, however on an average basis the “branded” element was slightly overpriced as the market has chewed up 10% of value in the last 3 months. Buyers definitely bought in this project hoping the branding would be in hot demand, that is not the case, and patience will only show how this project delivers on handover.

This week: 2,846 AED/sqft (down 3% vs 3-month)

What I see: This project remains strong, Omniyat have a strong track record and will push their sub brand Beyond to deliver as they have done. There are slight drops due to liquidity and distress sales, which again shows us that patience is required in this Dubai 2.0 market.

This week's median: +6% vs last 3 months (looks strong on paper)

But:

What I see: The market is understanding that brand is less important than unit dynamics, which is an important consideration when buying a non-hospitality branded unit. The project itself however is holding up due to strong developer reputation and payment plan flexibility.

One of the few genuinely firm spots: +3% vs 3-month median, with little distress sales, showing that this is a project bought by mature and informed investors.

Maritime City isn't down across the board, It's fragmenting. The most useful signal this week? Franck Muller producing both very cheap and very expensive sales at the same time. That's what we call price realization.

Al Barari rentals this week = a proper "tenant pushback" moment. But again, it's not everywhere. Some villa clusters are weakening; others are still getting premiums.

This week's median: -15% vs last 3 months (178 AED/sqft vs 210 AED/sqft)

Multiple rentals clustering lower:

What I see: It's not one odd lease, it's multiple. The market is actually moving, Villas are launching left right and centre, Damac Lagoons is handing over, and prices are therefore normalizing.

Median this week: +8% vs last 3 months (looks strong)

But the tape is mixed:

What I See: Premium market and discount market living side by side. Fit outs, plot locations, and competition are controlling this sub-market.

Rentals aren't "down" in Al Barari as a whole. Chorisia is “down”, Ixora is softening, and Seventh Heaven is showing both premium and discount markets at the same time.

Handovers are pushing savvy tenants to cheaper communities and landlords are struggling to cope with this, however over time this will normalize and Al Barari will be put through a real test - There hasn’t been much competition for Al Barari for a long time, but with Haven, Athlon, Oasis, and many more premium villa communities scheduled for completion, we will find out where these rentals should sit.

If you stitch both areas together, the message is consistent:

Sales (Maritime City): The market isn't falling in a straight line—it's splitting. The early warning isn't the average; it's the distress sales showing up inside otherwise "strong" projects.

Rentals (Al Barari): Tenants are pushing back on villa clusters first (Chorisia, Ixora). Some pockets still clear premiums (Seventh Heaven), but even there it's not one-directional.

Net: Dubai is turning. Buyers and tenants are becoming selective in these two locations and the projects that can't defend pricing are showing it first in the data above.

The developer data for February so far just dropped, and it's full of surprises. 312 developers. 3,765 transactions. 11.4 billion AED in total sales. Here's what the tape is actually saying for the last week.

Here's the thing about Dubai developers right now: volume doesn't equal premium.

The developers selling the most units aren't the same ones charging the highest prices per sq ft. And that gap is clear.

Emaar and DAMAC are the machines—1,073 deals between them (28% of the entire market). But look at the price delta: Emaar's average price per sq ft is +57% higher than DAMAC's. Same volume play, very different pricing power.

Translation: Beyond and Meraas are the "we don't chase volume" players. They're doing 170 deals combined vs DAMAC's 525, but their per-sq-ft pricing is more than double DAMAC's.

Binghatti is interesting here—they're in both lists (volume + premium). That's the sweet spot.

Volume and premium are nice, but who brought in the most cash?

The H&H story: They're #5 in total sales with only 16 transactions. That's an average unit price of 27.1 million AED. They're not playing the same game as everyone else.

The 8,396 AED/sq ft club:

The volume discount is real:

The Emaar vs Binghatti comparison:

The budget tier (min 10+ deals):

The spread:

The developer landscape right now is splitting into three clear camps:

The signal: If you're a developer and you're not in one of these three camps, you're probably struggling. The middle is collapsing.

123% — That's how much more Beyond is getting per sq ft than DAMAC, despite doing 80% fewer deals.

If that gap starts narrowing (Beyond comes down or DAMAC goes up), it'll tell you something about where the market is headed. Right now? The gap is stable. Premium is still premium.

Data source: Property Monitor, Feb 2026. 312 developers, 3,765 transactions analyzed.

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