Abu Dhabi Property Deals Reach AED171.26 Billion in Nine Months
Transaction value rose 76.1% year on year as sales more than doubled, with Al Reem Island the highest-value district in the emirate.
Abu Dhabi recorded AED171.26 billion in real estate transactions during the first nine months of 2026, a 76.1% rise on the same period a year earlier, when deals were worth AED97.19 billion. The transaction count grew 32.8% to 38,483, from 28,977.
Sales drove the increase. Property sales value more than doubled to AED119.33 billion from AED58.2 billion, while the sales count — the largest single contributor to growth — climbed 49.2% to 23,749. Value grew roughly twice as fast as volume, which points to a heavier mix of larger tickets rather than simply more deals of the same size.
Mortgages expanded at a slower pace. The count rose 13.2% to 14,390 and the value 30.2% to AED45.92 billion, again with value outpacing volume.
Al Reem Island posted the highest transaction value of any district at AED29.86 billion. Al Hudayriyat Island followed at AED28.62 billion, Al Saadiyat Island at AED18.69 billion, Yas Island at AED13.4 billion and Zayed City at AED5.36 billion. ADREC expects those five districts, together with Khalifa City, to account for 77% of new real estate supply through 2030.
Rashed Al Omaira, ADREC's Director-General, said the scale of investment showed that many people and businesses were making a long-term commitment to Abu Dhabi. That commitment, he said, extends beyond the transaction itself. Buyers expect projects to be delivered, businesses need space to grow, and residents want communities that work well over time.
Foreign investment in Abu Dhabi's designated investment zones reached AED86.11 billion, up 131% year on year, and accounted for 81% of total investment value in those zones. Direct investment by nonresident individuals reached AED17.22 billion in the nine months, more than double the AED8.2 billion recorded in all of 2025. Those buyers came from 121 nationalities. The United Kingdom, China, Russia, the United States, France and Germany led by investment value.
Smaller categories moved unevenly. Property gift transactions rose 145% to 76 and their value jumped 389% to AED440 million. Musataha and long-lease deals fell 18.7% to 268, even as their value rose 52.9% to AED5.57 billion.
ADREC registered 54 new developments during the nine months and issued 3,677 licences to real estate professionals, 32% more than in the same period of 2025.
On a separate measure, Abu Dhabi climbed eight places to 33rd in JLL's 2026 Global Real Estate Transparency Index, the largest gain of any market assessed, and moved into the index's transparent tier. It ranked second in the Middle East and North Africa.
The concentration of both trading and future supply in a handful of islands is the number to watch. Capital is pooling where new projects are planned, which turns delivery schedules, rather than buyer appetite, into the binding constraint. An emirate that registers 54 developments in nine months has to hand them over on schedule for the volume to keep climbing.
The licensing figures suggest the advisory side is scaling alongside the deals themselves. Few things signal an industry's expectations more plainly than thousands of new professionals paying for permits in a single year.
