Research · 17 October 2026
Searches for Dubai property from Britain have halved since the war. Sales fell by a quarter.
Google searches for Dubai property from the UK are running at 44 per cent of their winter level. Land Department registrations are down 25 per cent and the median price per square foot 4.7 per cent. The gap between the two is the story.
By Natalie Burešová, Senior Advisor, The Oppenheim Group, DubaiIn the first week of March 2026 the Iran war reached Dubai. I wanted to know what it did to the people I work with, so I measured two things most reports keep apart: what buyers abroad were searching for, month by month, and what the Dubai Land Department actually registered as sold.
The search side is stark. Every phrase a British buyer types about Dubai property, from "houses for sale in dubai" to "can I buy a property in dubai from uk", added up to roughly 750,000 searches a month from October to March. Since April the same phrases have run at 320,000 to 360,000. June to August averaged 44 per cent of the winter level, and the line has been flat since July.
The transaction side fell less. Residential sales registered with the Land Department ran at 14,281 a month in January and February and at 10,733 a month from July to September, a fall of 25 per cent. The median price per square foot moved from AED 1,772 to AED 1,689, down 4.7 per cent. Ready homes fell harder than off-plan: resale registrations were down 29 per cent against 23 per cent for off-plan, and off-plan now makes up 74 per cent of what registers.
Why searches fell twice as far as sales
Because the buyers who left were the ones furthest away. When I split the British searches by what the buyer wanted, the investment-intent phrases fell to 24 per cent of winter while the news, price and index phrases held at 105 per cent. Residents of the UAE, searching from inside the country, stayed at 74 per cent of their winter level and their crash searches fell to 13 per cent. The market that kept transacting was the market that lives here and the market that had already decided: Betterhomes reported that 61 per cent of second-quarter deals were cash.
The numbers
- UK searches, June to August: 44% of the October to January level
- UK investment-intent searches: 24% of winter
- UAE resident searches: 74% of winter; crash searches 13%
- DLD residential sales a month: 14,281 in January and February, 10,733 in July to September (-25%)
- Median price per square foot: AED 1,772 to AED 1,689 (-4.7%)
- Off-plan share of registrations: 72% before the war, 74% now
What I take from it
Fewer enquiries, better enquiries. The person searching for Dubai property from London in October 2026 has priced the war in, has read the price news, and is more likely to be paying cash. The people who paused are still reading: the British appetite for Dubai market news and prices is higher than it was in the winter. If the ceasefire holds, the search line doubles back to where it was, and the sales line will follow it with a lag. The monthly Dubai Property Index on this site tracks both so that the turn is visible when it comes.
Sources
- Google Ads keyword planner volumes and live Google result pages for every phrase about Dubai property searched from the UK, the US, Czechia and the UAE, October 2025 to August 2026, pulled 17 October 2026 via DataForSEO
- Dubai Land Department open data, Transactions dataset, downloaded 17 October 2026
- Betterhomes: Q2 2026 market report
- The New Arab, citing The Guardian: one in eight Britons left the UAE amid the Iran war
- Dubai Property Index by Natalie Burešová
General information, not investment, legal or tax advice.
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