Commercial property in Dubai for foreign investors: office prices, yields and rules

Commercial property in Dubai means offices, shops, warehouses and serviced or hotel apartments, and it has been the strongest part of the city's market this year while housing cooled. Dubai office sales reached about AED 15.8 billion in the first half of 2026, nearly three times a year earlier, at an average of about AED 2,012 per sq ft (roughly EUR 5,200 per m2). Grade A occupancy is around 96% and warehouse vacancy is described as effectively zero. A foreigner can buy in a designated freehold area, as an individual, with no company. The catch: commercial units do not give a residence visa, VAT applies, mortgages are harder, and resale is thinner than for flats. Figures are indicative as of October 2026 and are not a promise for any single unit.

What counts as commercial property in Dubai

Four groups sit under the label, and they behave differently.

• Offices: from a 60 m2 unit in a tower to a whole floor. This is where most investor money went in 2026.
• Retail: shops in malls, ground-floor units and community centres. Rents depend entirely on footfall.
• Industrial: warehouses and logistics units in Dubai Investments Park, Dubai Industrial City, Al Quoz, Jebel Ali and Dubai South.
• Serviced and hotel apartments: legally often residential-style units run by an operator, sold with a return scheme. They are closer to a hotel investment than to an office.

Office prices in Dubai: Business Bay, JLT, Marina and DIFC

Averages hide a wide spread, and sources disagree on the headline. Cavendish Maxwell put the H1 2026 average sale price at AED 2,012 per sq ft, up 15% on the year, with rents at AED 189 per sq ft. Another report quotes AED 3,202, and off-plan prime towers are far higher; the difference is the mix of buildings, not an error. Use the area figures below as ranges.

• Business Bay: ready offices at about AED 2,500 per sq ft on one summary of the Cavendish Maxwell data, roughly EUR 6,500 per m2. Asking prices in listings are lower, around AED 1,600 per sq ft. It is the busiest office market in the city, with 814 deals in the half-year.
• Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT): about AED 2,050 per sq ft on the same summary, with listings at AED 1,600 to 1,800. JLT is the main office cluster next to the Marina.
• Dubai Marina itself: there is almost no office stock for sale. People who search for the price of an office in Dubai Marina usually end up in JLT, Al Sufouh or Barsha Heights. The Marina figures you see online are mostly apartments, so do not use them for offices.
• Barsha Heights: listings average about AED 1,350 per sq ft, a cheaper entry, and it recorded some of the fastest rent growth.
• Downtown Dubai: AED 5,130 per sq ft on average in 2025, up 29% in a year, roughly EUR 13,000 per m2. The most expensive and the tightest.
• DIFC: Grade A rents of AED 250 to 350 per sq ft and about 98% occupancy. Property there sits under the centre's own property law and register.

Offices are also big-ticket: the off-plan average in H1 2026 was AED 8.3 million per unit against AED 3.0 million for a ready one, and 65% of deals were off-plan. A ready unit is the safer entry.

Warehouses and retail

Industrial is the tightest segment. Knight Frank reports Grade A rents in Al Quoz around AED 90 per sq ft (+6% on the year) and in Dubai South around AED 55 (+22%), while Cavendish Maxwell shows warehouse rents up about 12.5%. Vacancy in the core submarkets is described as effectively zero, so there is little stock to buy; the few sale listings we found are inconsistent, so we give no warehouse price and no calculated yield. Brokers talk about 8% to 12% gross, a figure to treat with caution.

Retail is steady rather than hot. Rents rose about 4.5% to 6% on the year, citywide vacancy is about 5% and flagship malls are close to full, but new leases fell in the half. A shop's value is its tenant and location, so check the lease and the operator, not the brochure.

Yield: commercial against residential

Brokers quote gross yields of 7% to 10% for offices, 7% to 12% for retail and 8% to 12% for industrial, with net lower by 1 to 3 points. Prime flats in Downtown or the Marina give about 5% to 6% gross, and mid-market flats 7% to 9% by broker reports; see Dubai rental yield.

Our own check, as an illustration only: a May 2026 rent of AED 151 per sq ft in Business Bay against a price near AED 2,500 gives about 6.0% gross, and AED 135 in JLT against about AED 2,050 gives about 6.6%. That is below the broker range and close to prime residential. Mixed sources and averages make this rough, but it shows why you should compute yield on the specific unit and its actual tenant, not on a brochure.

Can a foreigner buy, and is a company needed

Foreigners of any nationality can own commercial units freehold in Dubai's designated freehold areas, which include Business Bay, JLT, Downtown and Dubai Marina, either personally or through a company, according to broker and portal guides. You do not need a residence visa or a local sponsor. DIFC works differently, with its own register and property law, and some free-zone and offshore vehicles are limited in what they may hold or lease out. Because these structure rules come from older legal commentary, confirm the vehicle and the title with a Dubai lawyer before you pay a deposit.

A tenant's side matters for your income. A business renting your unit must register the lease through Ejari, and a mainland trade licence will not be issued or renewed without it, so the unit's zoning has to match the licensed activity. A unit zoned the wrong way is hard to let.

Costs: fees, VAT, service charges and tax

• Dubai Land Department transfer fee: 4% of the price.
• VAT: 5% on commercial purchases and leases, unlike resale flats, which are exempt. A VAT-registered landlord can usually recover it, but confirm that with an adviser.
• Agent: usually 2% plus VAT. Trustee office about AED 4,000 plus VAT above AED 500,000 and a title deed fee of AED 580.
• Service charges are higher than for flats: in Business Bay buildings we saw AED 25 to 38 per sq ft a year. Ask for the current figure in writing.
• Tax: the UAE has no personal income tax, and income of an individual from real estate held without a licence is outside corporate tax; a company owner pays 9% above AED 375,000. Your home country may still tax rent, which for a Polish resident is covered in tax on foreign rental income.

Plan on about 7% to 10% in purchase costs, plus VAT on top of the price. See Dubai property prices and buying costs.

Financing, residence and exit

Commercial loans usually need a 20% to 35% deposit and run shorter than home loans. Non-residents can often borrow 50% to 60% on residential property at fixed rates of roughly 4.9% to 5.5%; for commercial units we could not confirm that non-residents are lent to at all, so plan to pay in cash. A commercial purchase does not count towards the AED 2 million property route to a golden visa, according to the guides we checked; for that route buy residential, see Dubai golden visa.

Exit is slower. Dubai logged about 2,600 office deals in the half-year, while housing recorded fewer than 37,000 in a single quarter. A buyer for a Dh8 million floor is a business, and finding one takes months.

Risks to weigh

• Supply: over 19 million sq ft of offices are under construction for delivery by 2030, with completions rising from 2028. Today's squeeze is real, but it is cyclical. Cushman & Wakefield recorded the first quarterly office rent fall in almost five years in Q2 2026 (about 2%), even as rents stayed 9% higher on the year.
• Tenant concentration: one vacant unit is 100% of your income.
• Regional tensions made some buyers pause in Q2 2026, and housing prices fell 4% in the quarter. Offices held up better, but sentiment drives all of it.
• Off-plan delivery and escrow rules, and operators' guaranteed returns on hotel apartments (marketed at 8% to 10% for a fixed period): check the operator's track record and what happens when the guarantee ends.
• Fees and service charges that reduce the headline yield.

Who it suits

Commercial property suits an investor who already owns housing, can put in AED 1 million or more without a mortgage, can wait months to sell, and is comfortable reading a lease. It suits a business that wants its own premises. It does not suit someone who wants residence, quick resale or a small ticket; for that, look at the best areas to buy in Dubai or the UAE country page.

Before you commit, ask for: the title deed and zoning, the current lease and Ejari certificate, 12 months of rent and service-charge history, the building's occupancy, and a written net-yield calculation.