Secondary Market Posts Its Strongest Summer Recovery in Years, Dubai Creek Gardens Breaks Ground, and Weekly Transactions Hold at AED 6.68 Billion

This week in Dubai real estate.

The week of September 21 to 24 delivered three stories that together describe a market moving from a period of selective activity into something with broader momentum. The secondary market recovery data published this week was the most significant of the trio, confirming that the long-anticipated return of ready-home buyers is not just beginning but is already measurable. Dubai Creek Gardens broke ground on a development that extends the city’s branded residence story into a community type that Dubai has not seen before. And the weekly transaction pace held firmly as September settles into its role as the market’s most important month. Here is what mattered.

AED 6.68 Billion and 2,454 Sales: Weekly Transactions Hold Steady

The most recent DLD weekly bulletin confirmed AED 6.68 billion in total real estate transactions, with sales accounting for 2,454 individual deals including a AED 56.3 million Business Bay office transaction among the standout individual deals of the week. The weekly pace sits below the AED 10.67 billion recorded in the first full week of September but reflects the normalised mid-month rhythm of a market that is now fully back from summer rather than still reaccelerating from it.

The Business Bay office deal is the more interesting detail within the weekly figures. A single commercial transaction above AED 56 million in a market week where attention has been focused on the residential recovery narrative is a reminder that Dubai’s office sector continues to operate at a price level and conviction that the residential market is not currently matching. Grade A office in Business Bay has been one of the most consistently strong performing asset classes across 2026, and a transaction of this scale in mid-September is consistent with that story.

The Secondary Market Is Coming Back: 24.6 Percent Rise Across July and August

The most significant data published this week came from a comprehensive secondary market analysis released on September 22, which confirmed that Dubai secondary property transactions rose 24.6 percent in July and August combined compared with May and June. That is a meaningful reversal of a pattern that has persisted through most of 2026, and it arrives at precisely the moment the broader market was beginning to question whether the secondary segment would recover at all this year.

The context behind the number matters. In the same two-month period last year, secondary transactions fell 14.2 percent compared with the preceding two months. The 2026 direction is the opposite. Established communities are showing early signs of the recovery that the broader data has been signalling for several weeks.

The rental market data within the same analysis reinforces that read. Dubai recorded 274,228 rental transactions between May and August 2026, down just 4.6 percent from the same four months in 2025. Secondary property sales over the same period fell 53.4 percent year on year. The gap between those two figures tells the underlying story precisely: residents are staying, renewing leases, and seeking housing in Dubai at close to normal levels. What fell was their conversion from renting to buying, not their demand for housing in the city. With that gap now beginning to close as buyer confidence recovers, the secondary market is positioned to absorb pent-up demand through Q4 in a way that the first half of the year did not deliver.

The Springs is one of the clearest community-level illustrations of the trend. New rental contracts in The Springs increased 34.4 percent in July and August compared with the same period last year, reflecting both genuine demand and the kind of community appeal that family-oriented buyers eventually convert from renting into purchasing. Where rental demand has held firm, buying interest tends to follow.

Average residential rental yields across Dubai currently sit at approximately 6.58 percent, with apartments averaging 6.9 percent, townhouses 5.1 percent, and villas 4.5 percent. For investors entering the secondary market with a rental income thesis, those yields remain among the strongest available in any comparable global city at this quality of stock and legal framework.

Secondary Market Recovery: Key Figures

Source: Espace Real Estate analysis, published September 22 2026. Rental yield data from Engel and Volkers July 2026. Verify all figures before publication.

Dubai Creek Gardens Breaks Ground: AED 3 Billion, 1,400 Homes, and the UAE’s First Westin and Renaissance Residences

The development announcement of the week came from Dubai Healthcare City, where construction began on Dubai Creek Gardens, a AED 3 billion master-planned residential community by Global Partners Ltd in DHCC Phase 2. The groundbreaking marks the transition from a project announced in March 2026 to an active construction site, backed by a USD 300 million capital raise that Global Partners completed in August.

The development spans more than 127,000 square metres along Dubai Creek and will deliver over 1,400 residences. Seventy percent of the total site area is dedicated to landscaped gardens, parks, sports facilities, and wellness-focused open spaces, a deliberately low-density approach that is a marked departure from the density-first model that has defined much of Dubai’s residential development. The community is targeted for completion in 2030.

What elevates Dubai Creek Gardens beyond a standard development announcement is the branded residence component. The project will introduce the UAE’s first Westin Residences and the UAE’s first Renaissance Residences, both developed in partnership with Marriott International. Dubai is already the world’s largest branded residence market, and the arrival of two entirely new Marriott flags within a single master plan is a meaningful extension of that position. Westin is positioned around wellness and everyday comfort. Renaissance is positioned around cultural immersion and creative living, the first residential expression of the brand anywhere in the UAE.

For buyers tracking the branded residence segment, Dubai Creek Gardens represents an entry point into a Marriott-managed product on the Dubai Creek waterfront at a price point that is likely to sit below the ultra-luxury thresholds of Palm Jumeirah’s Crescent and DIFC’s branded towers. The Al Jaddaf location connects to the Dubai Metro and sits within the planned Dubai to Abu Dhabi high-speed rail corridor, which adds a long-term connectivity premium that is not yet fully priced into the surrounding area.

Dubai Creek Gardens: Key Facts

Source: Dubai Healthcare City Authority, Arabian Business, Emirates 24/7, published September 10 to 22 2026. Verify all project details and availability directly with the developer before making purchase decisions.

The Investor Takeaway

Two clear signals from this week. The secondary market recovery data is the most directly actionable. A 24.6 percent rise in secondary transactions through July and August, at a point when analysts were debating whether the ready market would recover meaningfully before year end, confirms that the rotation from renter to buyer is underway in established communities. For sellers of secondary stock who have been holding firm on price through a difficult mid-year period, September and October are the window where that patience is most likely to be rewarded. For buyers who have been watching from the sidelines, the data suggests the window is narrowing.

Dubai Creek Gardens is the longer-horizon story. A AED 3 billion development breaking ground in Dubai Healthcare City, backed by institutional capital and introducing two globally recognised Marriott brands to the UAE residential market for the first time, is a signal about where considered, quality-focused development is heading in 2026. Low density, high green space allocation, wellness positioning, and waterfront location are precisely the attributes that have driven premium pricing in comparable global residential markets. For buyers willing to move at the construction stage, the 2030 completion timeline represents an early entry into what is likely to become one of the more distinctive residential addresses on the Creek corridor.

Whether you want to understand what the secondary market recovery means for a property you are considering selling, or you want to explore how Dubai Creek Gardens fits within a broader investment strategy, our team is available for a private consultation. Contact us at info@edwardsandtowers.com or visit edwardsandtowers.com.