Business Bay is the canal-side district next to Downtown where residential towers, office towers and mixed-use buildings share the same streets — sometimes the same lobby. That makes asking prices hard to read. This page uses only what buyers actually paid for homes: ready apartments registered as residential in the Dubai Land Department (DLD) transaction register, by number of bedrooms, for every year from 2012 to the twelve months ending 23 September 2026. We also show what a buyer at each year's median would be sitting on today, and what the same apartments rent for under Ejari contracts.
These are historical transaction figures, not investment advice and not a forecast. Past results do not predict future ones. An area median is the middle of all deals in a year, not the value of a specific apartment — tower, floor, canal or Burj view and condition move a real price either way.
Business Bay apartment prices at a glance
"Today" is the twelve months from 24.09.2025 to 23.09.2026: the DLD register for September–December 2025 plus our own pull from the live DLD open-data API for 2026. Ready residential units only. US dollars at the dirham peg of 3.6725.
| Type | Median deal, AED | In USD | Deals, 12 months | Rough AED/ft², 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | 990,000 | ~$270,000 | 607 | ~2,160 |
| 1 bedroom | 1,450,000 | ~$395,000 | 1,011 | ~1,690 |
| 2 bedrooms | 2,260,000 | ~$615,000 | 586 | ~1,680 |
Across the three types that is 2,204 registered sales in a year. Of the twelve districts in our "Dubai Pack" game, only JVC trades more (4,250); Dubai Marina has 1,881 and Downtown 1,357 (sums over the types each district has in the game). Business Bay medians therefore rest on large samples — which matters for the studio story below. All twelve districts side by side: Dubai areas compared.
Business Bay price per square foot, 2012–2025
DLD records area in square metres. Our rough AED per square foot is the year's median price divided by the year's median unit size in m², divided again by 10.764. It is a median over a median — a yardstick, not a valuation.
| Year | Studio, AED/ft² | 1 bed, AED/ft² | 2 bed, AED/ft² |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | unreliable¹ | ~1,010 | ~1,030 |
| 2014 | ~1,760 | ~1,470 | ~1,510 |
| 2015 | ~1,670 | ~1,430 | ~1,550 |
| 2018 | ~1,270 | ~1,130 | ~1,060 |
| 2020 | ~1,190 | ~920 | ~950 |
| 2022 | ~1,590 | ~1,320 | ~1,180 |
| 2024 | ~2,110 | ~1,490 | ~1,410 |
| 2025 | ~2,160 | ~1,690 | ~1,680 |
Worked example, one-bedroom 2025: 1,400,000 / 77.0 m² ≈ 18,200 AED/m², and 18,200 / 10.764 ≈ 1,690 AED/ft². Two things stand out. First, per-foot prices in 2025 are above the 2014–2015 peak for every type. Second, per foot is the better lens here: in 2023 the median one-bedroom price dipped (1,111,204 → 1,060,750 AED) while the per-foot figure rose, simply because smaller units sold (73.4 m² against 78.5 m² the year before).
¹ Studio figures for 2012 and 2013 are not usable — see the next section.
Business Bay price history by bedroom
Median sale price, thousand AED, and number of deals. DLD register, ready apartments, residential use; a year appears only with at least 25 deals. There are no 2008–2011 rows: unlike the Marina or Downtown, most of Business Bay was still being built, and our game does not back-cast those years with the REIDIN index for districts that did not yet exist.
| Year | Studio | deals | 1 bed | deals | 2 bed | deals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 760¹ | 48 | 973 | 542 | 1,520 | 341 |
| 2013 | 875¹ | 86 | 1,095 | 851 | 1,609 | 602 |
| 2014 | 848 | 332 | 1,225 | 909 | 2,200 | 428 |
| 2015 | 903 | 527 | 1,380 | 445 | 2,200 | 236 |
| 2016 | 850 | 104 | 1,200 | 211 | 1,971 | 138 |
| 2017 | 766 | 125 | 1,146 | 215 | 1,996 | 144 |
| 2018 | 610 | 109 | 1,047 | 126 | 1,500 | 51 |
| 2019 | 630 | 76 | 900 | 151 | 1,445 | 92 |
| 2020 | 570 | 110 | 850 | 266 | 1,360 | 110 |
| 2021 | 630 | 498 | 1,005 | 591 | 1,575 | 294 |
| 2022 | 763 | 681 | 1,111 | 998 | 1,683 | 486 |
| 2023 | 885 | 766 | 1,061 | 1,318 | 1,717 | 499 |
| 2024 | 998 | 997 | 1,250 | 1,378 | 2,001 | 549 |
| 2025 | 1,020 | 716 | 1,400 | 1,227 | 2,230 | 623 |
| Today | 990 | 607 | 1,450 | 1,011 | 2,260 | 586 |
¹ Why we ignore 2012–2013 studios. The median "studio" sold in those years measured 76.6 and 88.4 m², against 42–50 m² from 2014 on, on just 48 and 86 deals. That puts the price per square metre near 9,900 AED — half the 2014 level of about 18,900 for almost the same unit price. Most likely the register's "studio" bucket in those years held other units (larger loft-type flats or mislabelled records). The rows stay because they exist in the game, but we draw no conclusion from them.
The one- and two-bedroom rows show the district's cycle. A climb from 2012 to 2015 (one-bedroom 973k → 1.38 million AED), five years down to a 2020 low (850k), and a rise to 1.45 million today. On our district comparison, the Business Bay one-bedroom fell 38% from peak to trough and is up 71% from the trough and 49% from 2012. Its peak came in 2015, a year later than in the Marina or Downtown. A curiosity: in 2012 a Business Bay one-bedroom cost more at the median than a Marina one (972,918 vs 900,000 AED); today it costs less (1,450,000 vs 1,525,000). For the city-wide series, see Dubai property prices by year; for the neighbour, Downtown Dubai.
Is Business Bay a good investment? What past entry years show
We can only answer with the past. Result = today's median − that year's median − the DLD transfer fee (2% for purchases up to 2013, 4% from 2014). Trustee, title deed and agent costs are excluded. Each figure opens the matching card in the English version of our game.
| Bought in | Studio | 1 bed | 2 bed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | +28%¹ | +46% | +46% |
| 2013 | +11%¹ | +30% | +38% |
| 2014 | +12% | +14% | −1% |
| 2015 | +5% | +1% | −1% |
| 2016 | +12% | +16% | +10% |
| 2017 | +24% | +22% | +9% |
| 2018 | +56% | +33% | +45% |
| 2019 | +51% | +55% | +50% |
| 2020 | +67% | +64% | +60% |
| 2021 | +51% | +39% | +38% |
| 2022 | +25% | +26% | +29% |
| 2023 | +8% | +31% | +26% |
| 2024 | −5% | +12% | +9% |
| 2025 | −7% | −0% | −3% |
¹ Unreliable sample.
Six of the district's 42 cards are negative. Four are 2024–2025 entries; two are two-bedrooms bought in 2014 and 2015. Every other entry year, for every type, ends positive even after the fee. Across all districts, see was buying in Dubai worth it.
The studio exception: 2024 and 2025 buyers
Business Bay studios are the only type among the twelve game districts where both the 2024 median (997,888 AED) and the 2025 median (1,020,000) sit above today's (990,000). Elsewhere, the red 2025 cards are almost entirely the 4% entry fee. Here, for 2025, part of it is price. Split honestly:
| Bought in | Median then, AED | Price change to today | 4% DLD fee | Result, AED | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 997,888 | −7,888 (−0.8%) | −39,916 | −47,804 | −5% |
| 2025 | 1,020,000 | −30,000 (−2.9%) | −40,800 | −70,800 | −7% |
For the 2024 studio the loss is essentially the fee. For the 2025 studio, roughly 3 of the 7 percentage points are the lower median and 4 are the fee: in dollars about −$8,200 from price and −$11,100 from the fee, −$19,278 in total. Business Bay one-bedrooms moved the other way over the same span (1,400,000 → 1,450,000, +3.6%) and two-bedrooms too (2,230,000 → 2,260,000, +1.3%).
Keep the limits in view. A median is not an index: if cheaper towers dominate this year's studio sales, the median drops without any single flat losing value. The 2024 and 2025 median studio size is the same, 43.9 m², so "smaller studios" does not explain it; our data does not give a size for the "today" window. Let the flat, and the picture changes: with gross rent, the 2025 card ends at −0% and the 2024 card at +8%.
Peak buyers of 2014–2015, and the 2019–2020 window
Worst entry: a two-bedroom at 2,200,000 AED. That was the median in both 2014 and 2015. Today's median is 2,260,000: +60,000 AED (+2.7%) on price over eleven to twelve years, minus an 88,000 AED fee, leaves −28,000 AED, or −1% (about −$7,600). The timing explains it. Dubai won Expo 2020 on 27.11.2013 (BIE) and the market ran to a peak in autumn 2014; the UAE Central Bank capped mortgage loan-to-value from late 2013 (Circular 31/2013); and the IMF (Country Report 15/219) describes prices falling from mid-2014 on heavy new supply, cheap oil and a strong dollar. The REIDIN index fell 33% from October 2014 to November 2020. The two-bedroom median only regained 2014 territory in 2024 (2,001,000), a decade later. Let out throughout, the 2014 purchase shows +48% with estimated gross rent of 1,136,200 AED — with the caveat that past rents are rebuilt from the district's Ejari rent index, early years are an assumption, and rent is gross.
Best entries: 2019 and 2020. Buying in 2020 gives the best result for every type: studio +67% (+396,772 AED, about +$108,000), one-bedroom +64% (+566,000 AED, about +$154,000), two-bedroom +60% (+845,600 AED, about +$230,000). The 2019 figures are close behind: +51%, +55%, +50%. That was the bottom of a six-year slide, with the Covid lockdown in April 2020 (Dubai Media Office, 04.04.2020) and prices bottoming in November 2020. What followed is history, not a pattern to rely on: Expo 2020 opened on 1 October 2021, and 2021 saw 84,196 transactions city-wide, 66% more than 2020 (DLD).
How liquid is Business Bay?
One-bedroom resales are the district's core. The DLD register shows 542 ready one-bedroom sales in 2012 and 1,378 in 2024 — about 2.5 times as many. The slump years were 2018 and 2019 (126 and 151 deals); the turn is visible in 2020 (266), 2021 (591) and 2022 (998). Two-bedroom deals follow the same curve, from a low of 51 in 2018 to 623 in 2025.
Business Bay rental yield by bedroom
Median annual rent under Ejari contracts over the last 12 months (Dubai Data). Yield is gross: rent over median price, before service charges, vacancy and management.
| Type | Rent per year, AED | In USD | Ejari contracts | Gross yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | 67,000 | ~$18,200 | 3,924 | 6.8% |
| 1 bedroom | 87,000 | ~$23,700 | 6,635 | 6.0% |
| 2 bedrooms | 130,000 | ~$35,400 | 3,083 | 5.8% |
The one-bedroom rental market is deep — 6,635 contracts a year, more than Marina one-bedrooms (6,307). For other districts, see rental yield by area; for gross-to-net, rental yield in Dubai.
Residential and commercial under one roof
Many Business Bay towers mix homes and offices. The DLD register records each unit's use, and every figure on this page is residential only. An office in the same building is a different market with different rules. Two examples from Dubai's tenancy law (Law No. 26 of 2007 as amended by Law No. 33 of 2008): a commercial unit left vacant for 30 days in a row or 90 days in a year is a ground for evicting the tenant unless the contract says otherwise; and after evicting a tenant for personal use, an owner may not re-let a residential unit for 2 years, a non-residential one for 3. Our medians do not apply to offices, and the use shown on the title deed is worth confirming before you sign.
Off-plan in Business Bay: escrow and termination
Much of what is sold in Dubai today is off-plan: across the city, the off-plan share of residential registrations rose from 10% in 2012 to 68% in 2025 (128,567 off-plan against 59,494 ready, DLD register). Our figures cover ready units only — we have no market prices for off-plan. For a unit under construction, buyers' payments go into the project escrow account under Dubai Law No. 8 of 2007 and are released to the developer in stages; the 4% DLD fee is paid at Oqood registration. If the buyer defaults, Article 11 of Law No. 13 of 2008 (as amended by Law No. 19 of 2017) lets the developer terminate and keep up to 25–40% of the unit price depending on completion. See escrow and Oqood and off-plan vs ready; estimate a retention with the off-plan termination calculator.
Costs, service charges and the Golden Visa line
Entry costs. DLD's official schedule: 4% transfer fee, trustee AED 4,000 + VAT for prices from AED 500,000, title deed AED 250, unit plan AED 250 and AED 20 in small fees. On the median two-bedroom (2,260,000 AED) that is 90,400 + 4,200 + 520 = 95,120 AED (about $25,900) before agent and mortgage costs. Details in costs of buying and buying property in Dubai.
Service charges. In a district of towers, the building's annual charge is the main deduction from a 5.8–6.8% gross yield, and arrears left by a seller are among the first things to check. See service charges.
Golden Visa. The 10-year investor visa requires property worth at least AED 2 million at purchase (DLD). In Business Bay the line falls between formats: the median two-bedroom (2,260,000) is above it, the one-bedroom (1,450,000) and studio (990,000) below. A median is a midpoint, though — roughly half of two-bedrooms sell below 2,260,000, and some of those below 2 million; in 2024 the median was 2,001,000, right on the line. Mortgaged property qualifies with a bank no-objection letter. See Golden Visa through property.
Questions buyers ask
What is the average price per sq ft in Business Bay?
By our yardstick for 2025: about 2,160 AED/ft² for studios and about 1,690 and 1,680 AED/ft² for one- and two-bedrooms. It is a median price over a median size, not a median of per-foot prices.
How much is a 1 bedroom apartment in Business Bay?
The median registered sale in the 12 months to 23.09.2026 was 1,450,000 AED (about $395,000), across 1,011 DLD transactions. A specific unit may be well above or below that.
Are Business Bay prices higher than at the 2014–2015 peak?
For one- and two-bedrooms, yes: 1,450,000 against 1,380,000 (2015) and 2,260,000 against 2,200,000 (2014–2015). Studios are the exception over the last two years, as shown above.
Do these figures apply to Business Bay offices?
No. Only residential units are included.
Before you sign
A median gives you the price range. It does not tell you whether a unit is residential on its title, whether the seller owes service charges, or what the SPA says about handover if the tower is still going up. Our real estate service checks the property, the documents and the deal terms. To see what you will pay on top of the price, use the purchase costs calculator.
Sources: DLD open data and the DLD register via Dubai Pulse, Ejari contracts via Dubai Data, REIDIN index via the BIS, IMF Country Report 15/219, BIE, 27.11.2013, CBUAE Circular 31/2013, Dubai Media Office, 04.04.2020, DLD on 2021, DLD Golden Visa, dirham peg.