Dubai Office Sales Hit AED 20bn — Off-Plan Share

An analysis of Dubai Land Department (DLD) — دائرة الأراضي والأملاك — registrations puts Dubai office property sales at about AED 20.16 billion across 3,695 deals from January through September 2026. Within that tape, off-plan offices (units sold before handover, usually on a payment plan) accounted for roughly AED 16.13 billion — about 80% of sales value and 64% of deal volume. Primary: Zawya press release, Al Masdar Al Akari analysis of DLD data. Same-morning EN mirror: Arabian Business on the ~$5.5bn / AED 20bn band.

Yesterday’s Kyora note covered the residential nine-month sales tape. Today’s brief is the commercial lane — useful for investors and agents who still quote one “Dubai market” number for both.

What the nine-month office tape shows

• All office sales: ~AED 20.16 billion · 3,695 deals.
• Off-plan offices: AED 16.13 billion · 2,363 deals (~64% of volume, ~80% of value).
• Ready offices: AED 4.03 billion · 1,332 deals (~36% of volume, ~20% of value).
• September 2026: AED 1.85 billion · 419 deals (~62% month-on-month value rise vs August’s AED 1.14 billion / 326 deals), with off-plan AED 1.32 billion (265 deals) and ready AED 525.5 million (154 deals).

Where value concentrated

Business Bay led office sales in the first nine months with 1,100 transactions worth more than AED 9.9 billion — about 29.8% of office deals and 49% of office sales value citywide. The AED 2–5 million ticket band was the largest share of transactions (~40.6%), ahead of AED 1–2 million (~28.2%).

An earlier Al Masdar Al Akari read of the first half of 2026 already showed off-plan office sales near AED 13.1 billion, above the combined off-plan office total for 2019–2025 (AED 5.48 billion across 1,821 deals). That is context for the nine-month close — not a second primary for today’s decision number.

How to read it before you wire or pitch

1. Separate ready from off-plan. Ready space is stock you can walk. Off-plan is a launch and payment-plan product. Blending them into one AED/sq ft average hides both markets.
2. Value and volume can disagree. Off-plan can lead value (80%) and volume (64%) at the same time — that is launch liquidity, not proof that every ready floor plate is scarce.
3. Business Bay is not “all Dubai offices.” Nearly half of office sales value sat in one district. Match the brief to the tower, strata rules, service charges, and handover calendar before you compare tickets.
4. Commercial is not the residential tape. The AED 379bn residential sales story and this AED 20bn office story answer different briefs. Quote the lane your client is actually buying.

Orientation only: figures attributed to Al Masdar Al Akari’s analysis of DLD office registrations as published on Zawya (September rebound / nine-month totals). Cross-check any decision number on official DLD / Dubai Pulse extracts before you commit capital. This is not a rewrite of Kyora’s 1 October residential nine-month sales piece.