How we calculate

Every number on ZoneIQ is computed from data. Nothing is typed in by hand. When a figure has too few sales or rent contracts behind it, we show "Not enough data yet" instead of a guess. Data through 22 October 2026.

Data sources

• Sales: Dubai Land Department (DLD) registered transactions.
• Rents: Ejari rent contracts registered with DLD.
• Projects: the DLD project registry: developer, status, build progress, planned completion date, units and escrow bank.
• Service charges: RERA-approved rates looked up by hand in the DLD Service Charge Index (Mollak). We show only area medians, labelled Estimated; a single building can differ.
• Currencies: euro reference rates from the European Central Bank, converted through the fixed AED–USD peg.
• Map: coastline, roads and landmarks from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL).

Sales, rents and projects come from the cleaned and aggregated release by Dubai Data (datadubai.ae), Continental Club Property, "Dubai Real Estate: DLD open data, cleaned and aggregated", under CC BY 4.0. It trims outliers and publishes figures only when samples are large enough. ZoneIQ is not an official DLD product.

Refresh: Dubai Data publishes on Mondays; ZoneIQ refreshes every Tuesday. Data on this site runs through 22 October 2026.

Minimum samples

A metric needs at least 20 sales and 30 rent contracts in its window. Below that it is hidden, and the page is kept out of search results.

Metrics

• Median price and price per sqft: sales in the last 12 complete months.
• Median rent: Ejari contracts in the last 12 months, annual.
• Gross yield: median rent divided by median ready price, inside the same property type and bedroom count, then the median across unit types for the area. We never divide two area-wide medians.
• Ready price: derived from rent and gross yield, so every figure on a row agrees with the published yield. Off-plan sales are excluded from yields.
• Outliers: a unit type's yield is hidden when it is more than 1.75 times the median for that unit type across areas. These come from small samples that mix very different homes, such as villas with flats.
• Net yield: (rent − service charge × size − 5% of rent for vacancy and management) ÷ (price × 1.06). The service charge is an estimate. Where we have RERA-approved rates for at least 2 completed buildings in an area, looked up by hand in the DLD Service Charge Index (Mollak), we use their median (22 areas today, 80 buildings, checked 2026-10-14). Apartment and villa rates are not mixed: villa rates are used only where no apartment building has a rate. Elsewhere we use a Dubai-wide estimate of AED 15 per sqft per year. A single building's charge can be well above or below the area figure, so check its Mollak invoice. You can change the rate in Deal Check.
• Price momentum: 12-month change in median price per sqft.
• Liquidity: sales per month, average of the last 12 months.
• New supply: units in registered projects under construction with a planned completion date in the next 24 months. Projects past their planned date are counted separately.
• Off-plan premium: median price per sqft of projects under construction against completed projects in the same area, when each side has at least 2 projects with enough sales.
• Progress gap: build progress minus the share of planned time used (from start date to planned completion). Registry dates can lag extensions agreed with RERA.

The ZoneIQ Score

For each area we rank every factor against all other areas with enough data (percentile, 0 to 100), then take a weighted average.

• Net yield 30%, higher is better.
• Price momentum 20%, higher is better.
• Rentability 15% (tenant demand and renewals), higher is better.
• Supply risk 15%, lower is better.
• Liquidity 10%, higher is better.
• Running costs 10% (service charge), lower is better.

Version 0.1-preview. Rentability needs raw Ejari data. Running costs joins the score once DLD index rates cover 80% of scored areas (today 30%). Until then the score uses 4 factors, reweighted to 100, and is labelled a preview. Bands: 75 and above strong, 60 to 74 mixed, below 60 weak. 67 areas have a score today.

Fees used in the calculators

• DLD transfer fee 4% plus AED 580 admin (Dubai Land Department fee schedule).
• Buyer agency commission, typically 2% plus 5% VAT.
• UAE VAT on agency and trustee services.
• Registration trustee office fee, AED 4,000 plus VAT for homes over AED 500K.
• Mortgage registration 0.25% of the loan plus AED 290 (DLD).
• Bank valuation, typically AED 2,500 to 3,500.
• Bank arrangement fee, up to 1% of the loan plus VAT.
• Seller agency commission, typically 2% plus 5% VAT.
• UAE Central Bank cap: 1% of the outstanding loan or AED 10,000, whichever is lower.
• Developer NOC to sell, typically AED 500 to 5,000.
• Mortgage release at DLD, about AED 1,290.

These are typical figures. Confirm them with your agent, bank and the developer.

What this is not

ZoneIQ gives information, not financial or investment advice. It does not value a specific unit. Scenarios use your own inputs and are not forecasts.