Abu Dhabi Monthly Market Brief
June 2026
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June was the strongest June the emirate has recorded — 1,924 residential sales worth AED 6.42B, at a median of 19,650 AED/sqm, up 28% on a year ago. But the headline understates where the money moved. Al Reem Island had the biggest month in its history, the single most valuable project sat out on the open coast halfway to Dubai, and off-plan now accounts for 84% of everything sold. Below: Reem's record, a wellness island's debut, a waterfront district building again, the brand premium, and a year of quiet repricing.
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1,924
Sales
▲ +3.9% m/m
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6.42B
AED Value
▲ +1.2% m/m
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19,650
Median AED/sqm
▼ −2% m/m
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84%
Off-plan
▼ −2.6 pts m/m
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By our count June's 1,924 sales were the ninth-busiest of the 91 months we track; by value the month ranked tenth-largest, and its median the sixth-highest.
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The Chart
Monthly transactions (bars, left) and median rate in AED/sqm (line, right), August 2025 to June 2026. The rate line traces a year of steady repricing rather than a spike.
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Following Up
Yas Park Place stayed the emirate's second-busiest project with 160 sales in June, down from its 293-sale peak in May.
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Project Watch
Reem's biggest month
Al Reem Island recorded 957 sales worth AED 2.07B in June — its highest-volume month on record, at its highest-ever median of 19,604 AED/sqm. A year ago the island booked 300 sales in the same month; this June it more than tripled that. The surge is broad but has a clear leader: Modon's Tara Park, whose Tara A tower alone sold 235 homes — a monthly record for the project — with the branded Rotana and Rixos towers close behind. Reem also posted the highest sales volume of any Abu Dhabi district in the first half of the year. The island that once traded on price is now trading on scale.
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New Launch
A wellness island opens the coast
The month's most valuable launch sat well outside the city, on the coast halfway to Dubai. SHA Residences — the private island IMKAN and SHA Wellness Clinic bill as the world's first ‘healthy living island’ — recorded its first 61 sales, worth AED 2.05B, at a median of 40,267 AED/sqm, pricing at the top end of the emirate. Closer to town, Bloom Holding opened Marbella, the tenth phase of its Bloom Living community in Zayed City, to 120 buyers from AED 3.8M. Add in neighbouring Ghantout and the coast-and-edge belt outside the tracked districts booked AED 2.3B in June — more than Saadiyat and Yas combined.
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Two-Speed Market
Al Raha Beach builds again
For two straight years, Al Raha Beach sold nothing new. Across all of 2024 and 2025 its off-plan share was zero — the district traded only finished homes and resales. In 2026 the cranes are back: 44% of June's sales were off-plan, led by the Juman towers through the spring and Bab Al Qasr Sea View Residence, which recorded its first 13 homes in June. It is a small market — 34 sales in the month — but the change is structural rather than noise: a mature waterfront district has re-entered the build cycle. Its median held at 16,149 AED/sqm, among the most accessible waterfront pricing in the emirate.
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Brand Watch
The name on the door
Abu Dhabi's new supply increasingly arrives with a hotel name attached, and it clears at a premium. On Al Reem, Rixos Residences sold 83 homes at 23,988 AED/sqm — comfortably above the island's 19,604 median — with Rotana Residences' two towers close behind. The same pattern runs across the emirate this quarter: Seamont Residences by Marriott on Reem (28,712), Hilton Residences on Al Raha Beach (31,258), and Nobu and Vida on Saadiyat, hotel names stamping the top of each district's range. The branded premium that defined Dubai's last cycle is now a fixture of Abu Dhabi's.
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Price Signal
A year of repricing
Step back from any single district and June tells a simpler story: the market has repriced. The emirate's median rate is up 28% on June last year — 19,650 against 15,327 AED/sqm — total value is up roughly half, at AED 6.42B against 4.31B, and off-plan has gone from two-thirds of sales to 84%. The rate line in The Chart above shows the same thing month by month: a steady climb, not a spike. Buyers are paying more, and paying it earlier in the build cycle.
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Market Watch
• Rents frozen: Abu Dhabi cut the annual rent-increase cap from 5% to 0% for residential, commercial and industrial renewals, effective 2 June and lasting “a temporary short period and until further notice”. New leases had been running 15% higher than a year earlier across the emirate, and 23% higher in investment zones.
• A record half: Apartment and villa sales across Abu Dhabi reached AED 84.49 billion in the first half of 2026, up 174% on a year earlier — the capital, by local accounts, on course for a record year.
• Rates: The CBUAE base rate held at 3.65% after the US Federal Reserve left policy unchanged at its June meeting; the dirham peg means Abu Dhabi imports that call. The next Fed decision lands in late July.
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District Snapshot — June 2026
| District |
Sales |
Value (AED M) |
Median AED/sqm |
Off-plan |
| Al Reem Island | 957 | 2,068.5 | 19,604 | 87% |
| Yas Island | 334 | 825.4 | 24,530 | 88% |
| Saadiyat Island | 134 | 1,055.8 | 27,496 | 78% |
| Hudayriyat Island | 118 | 1,224.2 | 20,682 | 100% |
| Al Raha Beach | 34 | 111.9 | 16,149 | 44% |
| Total | 1,924 | 6,415.1 | 19,650 | 84% |
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Methodology. Transaction figures are computed from ADREC registration data for residential sales registered in June 2026, analysed by Guru Real Estate. Registration dates lag sale dates; the most recent month may revise upward. Market news items link to their sources. This brief is for information only and is not investment advice.
Prepared by Guru Real Estate · Abu Dhabi
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