Right now, there are over 15,000 studios and 30,000 one-bedroom apartments listed for sale in Dubai. But which one should you buy to make the most money?

This is a question we get asked all the time—by both first-time and experienced investors. And in this video I will share everything you need to know to make the investment that fits you right now.

Starting with the market conditions. Because data shows that studios and 1-bedrooms are actually not performing equally.

Let’s look at the historical value growth first. What if you had bought a studio several years ago? How much would you have made?

We conducted this analysis for nine major areas where both studios and one-bedroom apartments are available. Here’s a graph showing the price per square foot growth over the past five years.

Among these neighborhoods, in 2019, the most affordable studios could be found in Discovery Gardens and Arjan, where the price per square foot was around 165 US dollars.

In 2024, Discovery Gardens’ prices increased to 246 dollars, while Arjan reached 328 dollars.

The most luxurious options could be found in Palm Jumeirah, and they also showed some growth—from 655 to 792 dollars per square foot.

Despite different price points, all these areas showed growth ranging from 20% to 100% since 2019. On average, we get a 5-year growth of 44%.

So an average studio in Dubai that was bought for 155,000 dollars now costs around 225,000.

Now, let’s take a look at one-bedrooms. Here are the same areas and the same graph, but for one-bedroom apartments.

Overall, the growth trend is quite similar, but the five-year rate is actually different.

The growth range is from 30% to 120%, and the average is roughly 61%.

It means that a one-bedroom apartment purchased in 2019 for 225,000 US dollars is now valued at around 360,000.

But there’s another value stream that can seriously affect the investment case. Let’s take a look at the average rental rates.

By the way, we’re using 12-month average numbers for Dubai to reduce the potential effect of seasonal fluctuations.

So, an average studio in Dubai can be rented for 12.7 thousand US dollars and bought for 225,000. We divide the first number by the second and get a 5.6% rent-to-price ratio.

Now, let’s do the same for one-bedrooms. The average new rental contract price for the last 12 months was around 19.9 thousand US dollars. The average purchase price for the same period was 360,000 dollars. It gives us a 5.5% rent-to-price ratio.

So the ratio is pretty much the same. And taking into account both value appreciation and rental income, it looks like historically, one-bedrooms were the better choice, right?

Actually, no. Let me explain with an example.

This is Business Bay. The name speaks for itself—it’s where many offices are concentrated in Dubai. And it’s quite central, just a 15-minute walk from the Burj Khalifa.

Here’s the chart with five-year price per square foot growth. One line represents the average studio, and the other represents the average one-bedroom.

Over this period, one-bedrooms grew from 328 to 491 dollars per square foot, which is a 50% increase. Over the same period, studios grew from 355 to 628 dollars per square foot, which is a 77% increase. That’s 1.5 times higher.

Now, rent. Let’s do the same analysis we did for the Dubai average.

A studio in Business Bay can be rented for 21.3 thousand US dollars and bought for 323,000. Divide the first number by the second, and you get a 6.6% rent-to-price ratio.

Now for one-bedrooms. The average new rental contract price for the last 12 months was around 26.5 thousand US dollars. The average price for the same period was 450,000 dollars. So it gives us a 5.9% rent-to-price ratio.

So, on average, a studio is a more lucrative investment in Business Bay.

The area’s advantages are often more compelling to single corporate workers than to families. So many residents choosing this area see no point in renting more space.

And this is quite a specific context. Every area has its own, and I know that sometimes these nuances are not that obvious, especially from the outside.

So if you need any help with real estate investing in Dubai, you can reach out to us. We help our clients select the target project and close the deal. We do all the financial modeling, help with payment strategies, and basically handle everything end to end. All for free.

So click the link below the video, or feel free to call or WhatsApp the phone number that’s on the screen right now to reach out to my team.

By the way, if you tell my team about choosing between a studio and a one-bedroom, they will tell you about a trend happening in the market right now. It basically creates a new category of smaller-sized properties. These are smaller one-bedroom apartments.

A typical studio in Dubai is 400 square feet, and a normal one-bedroom is 700 square feet. But the new type of one-bedrooms is somewhere in the middle—550 square feet. And the price is also in the middle.

Let me walk you through some examples of buildings where such apartments exist, and let’s see how they performed against the market:

First, Binghatti Emerald located in JVC. The area size of a one-bedroom apartment is 580–620 square feet. These grew in value by 36% since 2022. And those who bought at the early stage got a 9.4% rent-to-price ratio.

Second, Sobha Waves. This building has 520 square foot one-bedrooms. Value appreciation since 2021 is 25%, with an 8.3% rent-to-price ratio.

And third, Zara Tower. It is cocated in Business Bay and offers 467 square foot one-bedrooms. Value growth since 2021 is almost 37%, and the rent-to-price ratio is 10.7%.

Overall, their value growth is quite normal—matching the general area dynamics with some adjustments for factors specific to these projects. But the rent-to-price ratio is quite good, giving a hint to potential investors that smaller-sized one-bedrooms  definitely can be considered. Especially for those who are looking for secure and reliable investments.

Okay, now you get the idea of how different studios and one-bedrooms are performing. But how do you decide which choice is right for you? Let me walk you through this decision maze.

First, the budget. Obviously, budget limitations need to be considered. If your budget is 250,000 US dollars or less, then a studio is your only choice.

Right now, the minimum amount needed for a good studio is 160,000 US dollars. That would be a price for areas like JVC or Arjan.

Those in higher-end locations, like Business Bay or Dubai Marina, would cost around 270–300,000 US dollars.

And for the same money, you can get a one-bedroom in a simpler area. For example, in JVC or Arjan, they start from 255,000 US dollars.

In Business Bay or Marina, in other higher-end areas as well, like Creek Harbour or Dubai Hills, an average one-bedroom would be around 400–450,000 US dollars.

However, there is actually a third option. If your budget allows, instead of buying a one-bedroom, you can buy two studios.

The reason to do so is to increase liquidity. Because if you buy just one property, you cannot get a part of your money out of it. And in case you need your money, you’d have to sell the property in full.

However, if you have two studios, you can sell just one and get out half of your investment. And it’s also a good option from a risk diversification perspective because you can invest in different buildings or even in different areas.

Second, property mix. Another thing that should affect your decision is the property mix at the building level. I mean, even if you’ve chosen an area where studios or one-bedrooms performed great, you still need to check how many of them are in the building where you’re going to buy. Let me explain this with an example.

Let’s say the building we’re analyzing is in Downtown. Here’s its unit mix.

So 60% of the building is one-bedrooms, and only 8% are studios. It means that studios are more rare. And if you buy one, you will face less competition when you sell or rent out. In theory, it leads to better value appreciation and higher rental returns.

But that doesn’t mean you should blindly go with studios in this case, because they still might not be that good.

This brings us to point number three: property specifics. Sometimes numbers show you that you should choose one option over another, and this can be a trap. Challenge the results of your analysis by doing a reality check.

Usually, studios suffer the most, but what I’m about to say is actually applicable to both types of apartments. Here are some things to pay attention to:

Views. Often, developers place studios on the sides of the buildings where the views are not the best. And only the larger and therefore more expensive units get unobstructed views.

Use of available space. Quite often, studios come with unpleasant surprises because of the limited space. For example, some of them might have no space for a dishwasher. Not sure your future tenants would love that.

One-bedrooms, on the other hand, can sometimes be planned worse than studios and, for example, have fewer kitchen counters and therefore less cooking space.

And layouts. You probably know that some new apartments are coming with private pools—right on the balcony. It has many controversial sides, but here’s one of them to think about:

Do you think that people who would rent a small-sized apartment prefer extra indoor space or a fancy pool on the terrace that they would have to maintain and clean themselves?

Fourth, consider your long-term plans. Everyone has their own context and goals and you should definitely take them into account.

For example, do you plan to buy an apartment using a mortgage? If yes, are you planning to buy a bigger apartment later? Let me explain why it’s important.

Let’s say you’re purchasing a studio using a mortgage. You have purely investment purposes and plan to keep it for a long time. You make a 20% down payment, and ahead of you are 25 years of mortgage repayments.

After some time—say, a year later—you decide to get a one-bedroom to live in yourself. It’s obviously more expensive, but you didn’t spend much on the studio down payment. So you think you can afford a mortgage.

But here’s the thing: this time, the bank will demand a higher down payment—like 40%. Because you already have another mortgage and your risk profile has changed. And paying a 40% down payment for a more expensive unit can be quite disappointing.

This is just one of many not-so-expected nuances awaiting you on your Dubai real estate investment journey. For example, you might be very surprised by how much money you really need to buy a property in Dubai. And we made a video about that. Take a look.

If you’re looking to invest in Dubai real estate, this video will tell you exactly how much money you need. And let me tell you—you might be very surprised by the actual amount.

We’ll show you what different budgets can get you—from affordable to high-end—and walk you through all the property acquisition costs. Because after helping many first-time buyers, we’ve seen how often these numbers are misunderstood.

So, let’s clear it up once and for all, starting with prices.

We can say that there are kind of three price tiers: affordable, high-end, and luxury. And I’ll give you some hints to quickly reveal which property is in front of you.

Let’s start with the affordable.

Some areas are affordable by design. Meaning that the quality of housing you’re likely to find there is not the best, or the location is far from key city spots, or everything is fine but there’s nothing really fancy. Just normal residential areas.

There are dozens of these, and maybe some of the most well-known are JVC and JVT, Arjan, Al Furjan, Mirdif, Sports City, Studio City, Dubai Land, Dubai South, Damac Hills 2, and many others.

Also, some developers specialize in affordable housing: Nshama, Danube, Tiger, LMD, Reportage, Azizi, and Pantheon. Even if built in a higher-end area, be prepared for more basic amenities and materials.

So, prices:

Studios are obviously the most affordable, between $150,000 and $220,000.

One-bedrooms are from $200,000 to $340,000.

Two-beds are between $300,000 and $450,000.

And three-bedrooms start from $520,000 and reach $700,000.

My partner Andrey will show you what you get for this money.

segment with Andrey showcasing properties.

Now that we’ve discussed the prices in the affordable segment, let’s get to the high-end tier.

The most well-known areas are Dubai Marina, Downtown Dubai, Business Bay, Dubai Hills, Creek Harbour, Mohammed Bin Rashid City, JBR, Port De La Mer, and, I would say, City Walk.

These areas are usually great either for living or for tourism. For example, JBR is located right at the beach. And Business Bay residences are within walking distance of the largest corporations’ offices.

The most well-known developers are Emaar, Meraas, Nakheel, Ellington, Sobha, and Select Group. They use higher-quality materials, include many cool amenities in their projects, and try to create a really pleasant residential experience.

Prices in this category are significantly higher—up to two times:

Studios are from $320,000 to $500,000.

One-beds are $400,000 to $800,000.

Two-beds are in the range of $620,000 to $2,000,000.

Three-bedrooms start at $1,000,000 and can be as high as $3,700,000.

All prices are in US dollars.

Now I’m passing this to Andrey to show you an example.

Insert segment with Andrey showcasing a high-end property (not Creek Harbour).

High-end areas are super nice for living, but there are some places that go beyond.

Currently, Dubai is home to 72,000 millionaires and 15 billionaires, and many more are coming every year. And they need to live somewhere.

So some of the key areas for high-net-worth individuals are Bluewaters, The Palm, Emirates Hills, District One, Dubai Hills, and Al Barari. Some of the developers are Omniyat, Al Habtoor, Meraas, Nakheel, Select Group, and Arada.

Here, everything is on another level. Service is like in luxury hotels, sometimes Michelin-featured restaurants are around, and of course, your neighbors are only those who can pay a premium.

Speaking of premium, the prices are on your screens. I won’t go one by one, but just want to highlight that the range is quite broad, and prices can be as high as tens of millions. Some listings seem really crazy. Like, how about 14 million dollars for an apartment that just has two bedrooms but is 4,000 square feet, so it also has a maid’s room, a huge terrace, and direct pool access?

This category also includes villas, and obviously, in such types of properties, there are no price limitations whatsoever.

For those who want to get a sense of what you buy with millions of dollars, Andrey has recently visited one of the most luxurious buildings in Dubai. Take a look.

Atlantis the royal

Alright, now that you’ve got an understanding of the prices, we can get to acquisition costs.

And let me say this first—price does not equal acquisition cost. Because when buying a property, you have additional expenses, so the cost is higher.

But on the other hand, you might get a property even if you don’t have the needed amount. I know it can be confusing, so let me walk you through the acquisition economics step by step.

These acquisition costs would be different for off-plan and ready secondary properties. So let’s say we are considering two apartments: one off-plan and one ready. Both priced at $500,000.

Starting with off-plan. The biggest cost driver is the price, of course. In our case, it’s $500,000.

Then we have a 4% Dubai Land Department fee, which in our case is $20,000.

And small administrative fees paid to the developer, usually around $1,500.

And that’s all. In our example, it totals $521,500.

For secondary, we also pay the price ($500,000) and the 4% DLD fee ($20,000).

In the secondary market, there are no administrative fees, as the developer is not participating in the transaction.

But there are trustee services, which are around $1,500, legal advisor services to check the contract (roughly $3,000), and agency fees, which are 2% of the property price—$10,000 in our case.

So the total acquisition cost of the secondary property priced at $500,000 is $534,500.

There is some controversy about the agency fees, so I want to clarify a couple of things.

First, 2% for a ready property is common and can be called a market standard. Anyone who asks for more is likely hoping to trick you.

Second, there are no agency commissions on Dubai’s primary market. Run away from those who are trying to charge you. Agents are compensated by developers via standard agency fees, and the normal practice is not to charge clients.

A little bit more about prices—how do we know that the price is fair?

If you are buying a secondary property, that should not be hard. You can compare the listing price of the unit you’re buying with another one in the same building.

Don’t compare to other listings. To make this comparison right, you need to find the transaction price.

And I’ll tell you exactly how to do that. Luckily, Dubai’s real estate market is quite transparent.

You need to visit a website DXBinteract.com. Then click on “Transactions,” select an area or a building, enter the property parameters—including the type and the number of beds—click “Search,” and here you are. The quite detailed list is below.

However, if you are purchasing an off-plan property, checking if the price is fair is a little bit more complicated. You’d need to make a list of similar buildings and use them as a benchmark. The same buildings would also be used to estimate how much money you’ll make on rent, and even how fast the value will appreciate.

By the way, we do this exercise for all of our clients for free. We help with finding the desired properties, assess their investment attractiveness, help project cash flows, secure the purchase, and we basically handle everything end to end. So in case you’re thinking about investing in Dubai real estate, click the link below the video or feel free to call or WhatsApp the phone number that’s on your screen right now to get a free consultation with my team.

Actually, if you asked us if there is a way to buy an apartment or villa with less money, we would have told you that there is a way.

I’m not talking about a mortgage—or not just about a mortgage. Because in Dubai, it is not available for off-plan, only for secondary. And even for secondary, it is not that great for foreign investors: down payment is normally 40% compared to 20% paid by residents. Also, the interest rate will be significantly higher, and the chance of approval is lower.

So the option you have is to make a purchase with a flexible payment plan. Let me explain how it works.

These plans are offered by developers and are structured in a way that a part is paid during the construction and another part after the handover.

The proportion of the first and the latter can be very different, and the usual options are in the range of 50/50 to 90/10.

Normally, more established developers have stricter payment plans. Emaar, for example, usually has 90/10. And why would they offer anything more flexible if they can sell out the building in several hours after the project is launched?

So if you’re looking for flexibility, pay attention to great but smaller developers.

The usual down payment is 20%, plus you pay a 4% Dubai Land Department fee.

After that, your payments are usually tied to construction phases. But developers provide an estimated timeline with the payments scheduled quarterly or monthly. You as a buyer might use it to plan the cash flow ahead, but please be cautious.

Imagine if the construction work has not reached the next stage. So you don’t have to make the next payment for now, right?

But what if the construction goes faster than expected? Probably it’s good news—you’ll get your property sooner. But the payments—you’ll need to make them sooner too.

Here’s what I want to bring to your attention. You really can get a property with a lower amount of money. And it is not impossible to sell the property before you’ve paid off the total sum. But small miscalculations, like not taking into account the construction speed, can lead to big losses.

After the construction is completed, there are basically two payment scenarios.

First, to pay all the outstanding balance in one lump sum.

Second, to pay in accordance with a payment schedule.

Sometimes developers offer so-called post-handover plans where you repay the outstanding amount over years. For example, 30% to be paid over 30 months, meaning 1% each month.

This can be an option for those who are planning to rent the property out. Because if selected properly, you can get rental income that covers most of the monthly repayments. In this case, if successful, you can end up really paying only around 80% of the property from your own money, while the rest comes from tenants.

What else you should know is that flexibility comes with a price tag. Developers, when offering such post-handover payment plans, can increase the price of the unit by up to 10%.

All of that being said, let’s get back to our exemplary properties. Let’s say we are choosing between two payment plans: 50/50 and 70/30 with a post-handover payment plan.

Let’s place the payments on the timeline.

In the case of a 50/50 plan, your upfront investment will be around $122,000. This includes the down payment, the DLD fee, and administrative fees.

Then, let’s say the construction takes three years. In this case, you’ll pay $83,500 every year until the construction is finished. And in year four, you’ll pay the outstanding amount of around $251,000.

For the 70/30 plan, your upfront investment will be almost $134,000. This difference comes from a higher price. In our case, we assumed it would be $550,000, which is a 10% or $50,000 difference.

During the construction period, you would pay almost $92,000 every year. And after the construction is finished, your payments would be $66,000, $66,000, and $33,000—because you would pay 1% of the total price every month.

All of that is just one side of the property investment equation. Because there are also operating expenses, rental incomes, and value appreciation, and all of them can be estimated. If you want to know exactly how to do that, you should check out this video.

No wonder it grew that fast. The average square foot price increase is 116% since 2020. And the growth has not stopped yet as its advantages are still unique.

So for off-plan,

If the project is in the pre-launch phase, the first step is to submit an EOI, which stands for an Expression of Interest.

To express interest, you need to make a prepayment with the size of your choice. It is fully refundable.

Usually the minimum number is around 7 thousand dollars, and there’s no upper limit.

Those who submitted an EOI get on the list of buyers. And those who paid earlier or contributed more, get priority and choose the desired units first.

If you don’t get the unit you want, you get the prepayment back.

Also, if you need more time to gather the required amount, or if the developer hasn’t yet set up an escrow account, you pay 10% of the price to book an apartment you’ve chosen. And after that you make a down payment.

Usually it is 20% of the total price.

Plus, at this point, you pay a 4% Dubai Land Department fee and the developer fee, which is roughly up to 1.5 thousand dollars.

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