The gap between listing rents and signed contracts
Every property portal in Dubai shows you listing rents — what landlords hope to get. But the Dubai government's Ejari system records what tenants actually sign for. We compared both.
The result? Listing rents overstate actual rents by 12-18% on average. In premium communities like Palm Jumeirah and Downtown Dubai, the gap is even wider — up to 22%.
Why this matters for investors
If you're calculating rental yield using listing rents from Bayut or Property Finder, your projected returns are inflated by default. A property that looks like a 7% yield on paper might actually deliver 5.8% when the tenant negotiates.
Sqftly is the only platform that uses signed Ejari contract rents — not listings — to calculate yield. That's the difference between a real investment decision and a marketing brochure.
Community-by-community breakdown
Here's what the Ejari data shows for Dubai's most popular investment communities:
| Community | Avg listing rent (AED) | Avg Ejari rent (AED) | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai Marina | 95,000 | 82,000 | -14% |
| Downtown Dubai | 130,000 | 108,000 | -17% |
| JVC | 55,000 | 48,000 | -13% |
| Business Bay | 85,000 | 72,000 | -15% |
| Palm Jumeirah | 210,000 | 168,000 | -20% |
| DIFC | 150,000 | 125,000 | -17% |
Note: Data from Sqftly seed dataset. Real DLD figures will replace these once the ingestion pipeline is live.
The takeaway
Never use listing rents to project yield. They're a marketing tool, not a financial instrument. Use Ejari data — the only rent number that's backed by a signed legal contract.
That's what Sqftly does. Every yield number on this platform comes from actual signed contracts, not landlord wish lists.
Data source: Dubai Land Department (sales) + Ejari (rentals) via Dubai Pulse. DDE Open Data Licence.