A Dubai studio apartment changes hands for a median of AED 552,275. A one-bedroom is AED 993,600, roughly double. A two-bedroom is AED 1.9 million, and a three-bedroom is AED 3.55 million, six and a half times the studio price. That is the price ladder, rung by rung, built from Dubai Land Department (DLD) ready-resale transactions for existing apartments, covering 2025 in full plus the first half of 2026 through 30 June.
The more interesting number sits underneath the ticket price: price per square metre. A studio and a one-bedroom cost almost exactly the same per square metre, AED 13,898 versus AED 13,878, a gap of only 20 AED/sqm. From there, price per square metre climbs steadily with every extra bedroom: AED 15,694 for a two-bedroom, AED 19,304 for a three-bedroom. Bigger apartments in Dubai cost more per square metre, not less, and this article shows exactly how much more, plus where each size is cheapest to buy, with the caveats that raw DLD area data demands.
The Dubai Apartment Price Ladder by Size
The table below covers ready-resale sales of existing (already-completed) residential units only, not off-plan launches. Price per square metre is the median of transaction-level meter sale price; the ticket is the median of total transacted value; P25-P75 is the middle half of the market around that median, showing the entry end versus the premium end for each size.
| Size | Median AED/sqm | Median ticket (AED) | P25-P75 ticket range (AED) | Transactions (n) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | 13,898 | 552,275 | 451,000 - 709,000 | 13,599 |
| 1 Bedroom | 13,878 | 993,600 | 731,000 - 1,400,000 | 25,746 |
| 2 Bedroom | 15,694 | 1,900,000 | 1,272,794 - 2,800,000 | 15,947 |
| 3 Bedroom | 19,304 | 3,550,000 | 2,300,000 - 5,150,000 | 4,809 |
Reading down the ticket column: a one-bedroom costs 79.9% more than a studio (AED 993,600 versus a AED 552,275 base). A two-bedroom costs 91.2% more than a one-bedroom (AED 1.9 million versus a AED 993,600 base). A three-bedroom costs 86.8% more than a two-bedroom (AED 3.55 million versus a AED 1.9 million base). Each step up in bedroom count roughly adds another 80-90% to the median ticket, a remarkably consistent multiplier across three consecutive size jumps.
Why Bigger Apartments Cost More Per Square Metre
In many markets, larger units carry a discount per square metre, buyers paying a premium for compactness. Dubai's ready-resale apartment data shows the opposite.
Studio and one-bedroom units are priced almost identically per square metre, AED 13,898 and AED 13,878 respectively, a gap so small (20 AED/sqm, 0.1% on the studio base) that it reads as a rounding artefact, not a real market gap. From there, price per square metre steps up on every size increase: a two-bedroom carries a median of AED 15,694/sqm, up 13.1% on the one-bedroom base. A three-bedroom carries AED 19,304/sqm, up 23.0% on the two-bedroom base. Studio to three-bedroom, the per-square-metre gap widens to 38.9% on the studio base.
The likely explanation is unit mix by building and location, not a physical law of larger rooms costing more per metre. Larger apartments in Dubai's resale stock cluster more heavily in higher-end towers and master communities, while studios and small one-beds dominate high-volume, lower-price-point developments. The per-square-metre figure reflects which buildings and communities each size actually transacts in.
Entry vs Premium: The P25-P75 Range Widens With Size
The gap between the 25th and 75th percentile ticket, the range separating the entry quarter of the market from the premium quarter, also widens as unit size grows. For a studio, the P25-P75 range (AED 451,000 to AED 709,000) spans 46.7% of the median ticket. For a one-bedroom, the range (AED 731,000 to AED 1,400,000) spans 67.3% of the median. For a two-bedroom, the range (AED 1,272,794 to AED 2,800,000) spans 80.4% of the median. For a three-bedroom, the range (AED 2,300,000 to AED 5,150,000) spans 80.3% of the median.
A studio buyer faces a comparatively tight, predictable price band. A three-bedroom buyer faces a market where the premium quarter can transact at more than double the entry quarter's price (a P75-to-P25 ratio of 2.24x, against 1.57x for studios), reflecting a wider spread of building quality, view, and location at the larger end.
The Luxury Tail: 4-Bedroom and Larger
Four-bedroom apartments carry a median ticket of AED 8.2 million and a median AED/sqm of 22,235, on a P25-P75 range of AED 4.3 million to AED 14.8 million. The sample here is 552 transactions, smaller than the brackets above, and this segment reads as a luxury tail rather than a mainstream rung: branded and super-prime stock where pricing is driven by a narrower set of buildings.
Five-bedroom-plus and penthouse apartments sit in the dataset at far smaller samples still (in the tens), too thin for a reliable median. This article does not quote a precise price for that segment; treat it only as an ultra-prime tail above the four-bedroom figures shown here.
Where Each Size Is Most Affordable
Affordability by area comes with a caveat: DLD publishes transactions under raw registration area names (area_name_en), which do not always match the marketing community name, and a low median can reflect older or smaller-format stock rather than a genuine bargain.
For two-bedroom apartments, the lowest raw-area medians in this dataset are Al Safouh Second at AED 400,000 (n=125), Al Warsan First at AED 700,000 (n=135, International City area), Saih Shuaib 2 at AED 807,013 (n=119, Dubai South side), Wadi Al Safa 5 at AED 900,000 (n=377, Dubailand), and Dubai Investment Park Second at AED 930,000 (n=83, DIP). The Al Safouh Second figure needs a direct flag: Al Sufouh is generally a prime, beachfront-adjacent address, so a two-bedroom median of AED 400,000 there is implausibly low for the area's reputation and almost certainly reflects older or unusually compact stock within that registration zone, not a beachfront bargain. Treat it as a data curiosity, not a buying tip.
Importantly, that same risk is not unique to Al Safouh Second. All five raw registration zones above are area_name_en polygons, not marketing-community boundaries, and each one can blend several unrelated developments (different ages, finishes, and price points) into a single reported median. Al Warsan First, Saih Shuaib 2, Wadi Al Safa 5 and Dubai Investment Park Second have not individually thrown up an obviously implausible figure the way Al Safouh Second did, but none of them has been separately audited against master_project_en boundaries either, so none should be read as a confirmed bargain area. All five are directional signals of where lower-priced two-bedroom stock clusters, not verified per-community prices.
For studios and one-bedrooms, the lowest-median areas cluster around the same handful of high-volume, budget-oriented communities: International City / Al Warsan, Discovery Gardens and Dubai Production City for studios, and International City, Dubai Silicon Oasis and Liwan for one-bedrooms. These are directionally consistent with the two-bedroom pattern (International City and its surrounding registration zones repeatedly showing the lowest medians) but should be verified against the full underlying dataset before being quoted as precise figures, since raw DLD area names vary and can split across sub-zones.
FAQ
Do bigger apartments in Dubai cost less per square metre? No. This dataset shows the opposite: studios and one-bedrooms cost almost the same per square metre (AED 13,898 and AED 13,878), then price per square metre rises with every step up in size, reaching AED 15,694 for a two-bedroom and AED 19,304 for a three-bedroom.
What is the median price of a studio, 1-bed, 2-bed and 3-bed apartment in Dubai? AED 552,275 for a studio (n=13,599), AED 993,600 for a one-bedroom (n=25,746), AED 1.9 million for a two-bedroom (n=15,947), and AED 3.55 million for a three-bedroom (n=4,809), based on DLD ready-resale transactions.
Is the cheapest 2-bedroom area in this data a genuine bargain? Not necessarily. Al Safouh Second shows a median of AED 400,000 for a two-bedroom (n=125), which is implausibly low for that generally prime, beachfront-adjacent area and most likely reflects older or compact stock within the raw registration zone rather than a true market bargain.
Methodology & Sources
This is Propick's own analysis of DLD transaction data, not sourced from any broker, agency, or third-party market report, accessed via the data.dubai API gateway, which republishes the same Real Estate Data dataset DLD also makes available on its public Open Data portal.
Scope: Sales transactions, Unit property type, Residential usage, Existing Properties only (ready-resale, already-completed apartments; off-plan launch sales excluded). Period: 2025 full year plus 2026 through 30 June 2026.
Price per square metre: median of transaction-level meter sale price (meter_sale_price), grouped by room type. Median ticket: median of total transacted sale price (actual_worth) for the same groups. Percentiles (P25/P75): 25th and 75th percentile of actual_worth within each room-type group. Sample size (n): Studio 13,599; 1 B/R 25,746; 2 B/R 15,947; 3 B/R 4,809; 4 B/R 552 (a luxury tail given the smaller sample). 5-bedroom-plus and penthouse categories exist at samples too small (tens of transactions) for a reliable median and are intentionally not quoted here.
Area-level figures: based on DLD raw area_name_en registration zones, which frequently do not match marketing community names. This is a deliberate deviation from our standard practice of grouping price analysis by master_project_en (marketing community), which we normally use precisely because area_name_en can mix unrelated developments into one rough polygon. For this piece, area-level figures are shown at the area_name_en level only, because a master_project_en breakdown was not available for this dataset pull; as a result, all five "cheapest area" entries in the affordability section carry the same undisclosed risk of polygon-mixing, not only the Al Safouh Second figure that is flagged in-text as an implausible outlier. Readers should treat every area-level figure in this article as directional (where lower-priced stock clusters), not as a precise, verified per-community price, until a master_project_en rerun is available.
Source: Dubai Land Department (DLD), Open Data: Real Estate Data, DLD Open Data: Real Estate Data, accessed via the data.dubai API gateway.
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