Dubai prices per square foot, converted from the square metres actually recorded
The conversion, the medians in both units by area, and how much precision a rounded factor throws away.
Dubai Land Department records the size of every sale in square metres. Portals, brochures and brokers quote square feet. So the figure a buyer works with has already been through a conversion, and the factor used to do it decides how close it lands to the sale it describes.
The two numbers for one sale
18,196 AED/sqm
Median rate
1,691 AED/sqft
The same rate
1.3M
Median sale
74 sqm
Median size
Both figures describe the same transactions. A rate quoted in the low thousands is a per-metre number and a rate in the mid hundreds to low thousands is a per-foot number, and the two get mixed up often enough that checking which unit a source is using is worth doing before comparing anything.
What a rounded factor costs
| Factor used | Error | On a median-priced flat |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | -7.10% | 91K |
| 10.7 | -0.59% | 8K |
| 10.76 | -0.04% | 465 |
| 10.764 | +0.00% | 11 |
| 10.8 | +0.34% | 4K |
| 11 | +2.19% | 28K |
Two decimal places gets within a few hundred dirhams of the exact answer on a median flat. The factors people reach for in mental arithmetic land far enough out to move a negotiation.
Which unit the register actually uses
2.00%
Sizes on a whole metre
1.14%
Sizes on a whole foot
about 1%
Expected by chance
152,522
Sampled sales
A register holding feet and converting to metres for export would leave whole numbers piled on the foot side. They pile up mildly on the metre side and sit at chance on the foot side.
This is a weak signal and it points the same way as the documented practice, so treat it as consistent evidence rather than proof. The practical consequence holds either way: a per-foot figure carries a rounding error that a per-metre figure does not.
Registered rates by area, in both units
| Area | AED/sqm | AED/sqft | Median size | Sampled sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trade Center Second | 50,261 AED/sqm | 4,669 AED/sqft | 138 sqm | 323 |
| Al Wasl | 32,215 AED/sqm | 2,993 AED/sqft | 115 sqm | 1,735 |
| Palm Jumeirah | 31,115 AED/sqm | 2,891 AED/sqft | 161 sqm | 1,403 |
| Al Safouh Second | 30,828 AED/sqm | 2,864 AED/sqft | 102 sqm | 390 |
| Zaabeel Second | 30,823 AED/sqm | 2,864 AED/sqft | 111 sqm | 616 |
| Burj Khalifa | 30,251 AED/sqm | 2,810 AED/sqft | 103 sqm | 3,960 |
| Area | AED/sqm | AED/sqft | Median size | Sampled sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Al Warsan First | 6,800 AED/sqm | 632 AED/sqft | 61 sqm | 2,229 |
| Warsan Fourth | 10,515 AED/sqm | 977 AED/sqft | 65 sqm | 1,226 |
| Dubai Investment Park First | 10,910 AED/sqm | 1,014 AED/sqft | 70 sqm | 633 |
| Nadd Hessa | 11,487 AED/sqm | 1,067 AED/sqft | 72 sqm | 2,768 |
| Wadi Al Safa 2 | 12,544 AED/sqm | 1,165 AED/sqft | 77 sqm | 1,314 |
| Madinat Hind 4 | 12,900 AED/sqm | 1,198 AED/sqft | 52 sqm | 841 |
Checking a quoted rate
Convert the listing to the register's unit before comparing anything, so both sides use the number the sale was recorded in.
Then check the size band. Small units carry a per-metre premium in most areas, so a studio sitting above its area rate is doing what its size predicts.
Then check the count. Each area page prints the sampled sales behind its median, and a rate drawn from a few dozen transactions is a direction.
Related reading: the size adjustment covers why small units sit above their area rate, and what a Dubai apartment costs works in total price for anyone starting from a budget.
Data comes from Dubai Land Department historical sales records through 2026-10-06. It covers sales only (not rentals) and is market reference, not valuation or investment advice.