22 August 2026
Dubai’s office market entered Q2 2026 with rental growth moderating but underlying fundamentals remaining strong. Explore the latest trends in office rents, supply, demand, and the outlook for Dubai’s commercial real estate market.
Q2 2026 Dubai Office Market Report
From rental movements to supply and market momentum, discover what shaped Dubai's office sector in Q2 2026.
Dubai's office market entered the second half (Q2) of 2026 with a clear message: rents may have eased from their peak, but the underlying supply imbalance remains firmly in place.
To understand why that matters, it helps to start not with pricing, but with what was built.
New Supply Remained Limited This Quarter
No new office space was completed anywhere in the emirate between April and June.
That is less unusual than it sounds. Dubai's completed office stock stood at 11.32 million sq m at the end of 2025, having remained broadly unchanged since 2023. Across the four years to 2025, just 169,244 sq m was added — compound annual growth of only 0.38%.
In a city that builds faster than almost anywhere on earth, the office market has become the exception. Occupier demand has continued to support rents, while the physical expansion of the stock has remained exceptionally limited.
The market has been absorbing, not expanding. 
The Pipeline Is Growing But Not Enough to Change the Equation
There is more supply on the horizon, though its scale remains contained.
Scheduled additions total 560,609 sq m through 2028:
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144,676 sq m in 2026
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155,301 sq m in 2027
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260,631 sq m in 2028
Even on full delivery, Dubai's office stock would reach approximately 11.88 million sq m — an increase of only 5.0% from the existing base.
Timing matters as much as scale. Almost half the scheduled additions, 46%, are concentrated in 2028. The immediate market therefore continues to operate within a tight supply environment, with a meaningful portion of the anticipated relief still some way out.
The 2026 schedule would be the largest annual addition since 2021. Yet it would still represent modest expansion relative to the size of the existing stock — enough to support gradual normalisation, not enough to trigger a supply-led correction.
That is the backdrop against which this quarter's rental movement should be read.
A Modest Rental Correction, Not a Market Reset
Dubai's average office rent moved from AED 208.3 per sq ft in Q1 to AED 203.8 in Q2, a 2.15% quarterly adjustment. Year-on-year, rents remain 6.9% higher.
On the surface, that could suggest a market beginning to cool. The wider picture tells a different story.
The Q2 rate sits just AED 7.5 below the record AED 211.3 reached in Q4 2025 — and 3.4% above the 2025 full-year average of AED 197.0. Dubai has stepped back from its peak without giving back the gains built up over the preceding years.
The distinction is important. This is moderation from an elevated base, and critically, it has arrived without a single square metre of new competing space to explain it. When pricing softens while nothing new is delivered, the market is recalibrating rather than being undercut.
Five Years of Growth Put the Quarter in Perspective
The clearest way to understand Q2's modest decline is to step back from the quarter itself.
Dubai's office rents are now 102.7% higher than five years ago, with cumulative gains of 85.1% over four years, 57.0% over three and 30.7% over two.
The annualised rates are equally telling: 15.2% over five years, 16.6% over four and 16.2% over three.
That consistency is arguably more significant than the headline increase. The market has not relied on one short burst of repricing. Rental growth has remained remarkably sustained across multiple horizons, even as broader conditions changed.
Set against a run of that length and regularity, a single quarter's pullback is not a change in direction. It is a market finding a more sustainable pace. 
What Happens Next
The next phase of Dubai's office market is unlikely to be defined by the extraordinary rental growth of the past five years. The market appears instead to be moving towards normalisation from a structurally elevated base.
For landlords, the environment remains supportive. Rents are still above the 2025 average, vacancy pressure from new competing stock remains limited, and the near-term pipeline is not large enough to matrially alter the balance between supply and occupier demand.
For occupiers, the picture is more nuanced. The moderation in rents provides a more constructive environment for organisations considering relocation or expansion, but availability — particularly for large or contiguous requirements — remains a constraint. Waiting for a significant supply-led correction may carry its own cost.
For investors, the fundamental proposition remains intact: limited supply, sustained occupier demand, and a forward pipeline offering only gradual relief.
The key variable now is not whether supply is coming, but how quickly it arrives — and whether occupier demand continues to absorb it.
The Outlook: A Market Entering a More Measured Phase
Dubai's office market is entering a different stage of its cycle.
The exceptional repricing of recent years is unlikely to continue indefinitely. But Q2 2026 provides little evidence of a structural reversal. Rents remain close to their record, five-year growth remains above 100%, and the supply pipeline remains modest relative to existing stock.
The next phase will be less about rapid repricing and more about how the market balances elevated rents with the gradual arrival of new space.
For now, scarcity remains the defining variable. And until the supply equation changes materially, Dubai's office market retains a strong structural foundation beneath its recent moderation.
Read the full Q2 2026 Dubai Office Market Report for detailed insights.
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Data source and methodology: all pricing, leasing and supply data presented is derived from REIDIN's database and analysed by Reliant Surveyors Research. The analysis, commentary and market interpretation are independently prepared by Reliant Surveyors using established research methodologies and professional judgement.
