Registered shop lease contracts across Dubai's top 40 retail areas rose 2.9% year on year in 2026, with Naif leading all areas by volume and older districts driving much of the growth.
September 02, 2026 | Tripti Mehta | UAE | Real Estate | 3 Min Read
Registered shop lease contracts across Dubai's 40 highest-volume retail areas rose 2.9 per cent year on year, climbing from 39,731 to 40,896 contracts, according to an analysis of Dubai Land Department rental registrations comparing the same calendar period in 2025 and 2026 by DXB Interact.
Naif remains the emirate's largest retail leasing market by volume, with 5,481 registered shop contracts, roughly 8.7 times the 631 recorded in Business Bay. The gap extends to pricing too: the median shop in Naif leases for AED 75,000 a year, compared with AED 222,651 in Business Bay.
The fourteen areas that make up Dubai's Deira cluster together account for 47.9 per cent of all shop leases across the top 40 areas, with combined volume up 4.6 per cent, ahead of the wider market average.
Naif Leads Dubai's Retail Leasing Market
|
Rank |
Area |
Contracts 2026 |
YoY Volume |
Median Annual Rent 2026 |
YoY Rent |
|
1 |
Naif |
5,481 |
+5.7% |
AED 75,000 |
+4.2% |
|
2 |
Al Warsan First |
4,010 |
-12.2% |
AED 70,000 |
-10.3% |
|
3 |
Al Suq Al Kabeer |
3,673 |
+3.9% |
AED 68,000 |
+6.3% |
|
4 |
Al Mararr |
2,827 |
+13.4% |
AED 55,000 |
0.0% |
|
5 |
Al Karama |
2,345 |
+4.9% |
AED 80,000 |
+2.6% |
|
6 |
Al Buteen |
1,640 |
+11.4% |
AED 155,963 |
+4.0% |
|
7 |
Al Dhagaya |
1,538 |
+4.1% |
AED 104,771 |
+4.8% |
|
8 |
Hor Al Anz |
1,453 |
-22.0% |
AED 55,660 |
+39.2% |
|
9 |
Eyal Nasser |
1,356 |
+9.6% |
AED 83,000 |
+3.8% |
|
10 |
Al Ras |
1,339 |
+4.0% |
AED 124,000 |
-2.2% |
Rents across most of Dubai's historic core moved up steadily rather than sharply. Naif's median rent rose 4.2 per cent year on year, Al Suq Al Kabeer increased 6.3 per cent, Al Buteen was up 4.0 per cent and Al Dhagaya rose 4.8 per cent, pointing to an established market absorbing continued demand rather than a sudden surge.
Performance was more mixed among Dubai's premium retail areas. Business Bay recorded an 11.1 per cent rise in lease registrations, though median rent growth was comparatively modest at 1.9 per cent, trailing areas such as Al Satwa (+9.7 per cent) and Al Bada (+7.1 per cent). Dubai Marina saw both registrations and median rent move lower, down 3.4 per cent and 7.1 per cent respectively, while Nadd Hessa also declined on both measures. Al Barsha First stood out among the higher-priced markets, with volume up 6.5 per cent and median rent up 9.8 per cent, an area the analysis flags as worth watching given the ongoing Mall of the Emirates expansion.
Al Warsan First, the area anchored by Dragon Mart, was the one major market where both volume and rent moved lower together: registrations fell 12.2 per cent and median annual rent declined 10.3 per cent, equivalent to roughly 558 fewer registered leases than the same period last year. It is the only high-volume area in the dataset where both measures fell sharply at the same time, and the analysis notes this is worth monitoring in coming quarters without yet drawing conclusions on the cause.
The analysis draws a distinction between its findings and those of major brokerage and consultancy reports, noting that the two typically measure different segments of the market. Large consultancies tend to have strongest visibility into prime malls and institutional retail assets, while registration data captures a wider set of transactions, including many smaller shops that never pass through an institutional landlord or broker relationship.
Source: DXB Interact, Dubai Land Department rental contract registrations
