For the first time since January 2023, more Dubai tenants signed new leases than renewed their existing ones in back-to-back months this summer, according to Dubai Land Department data analysed by fäm Properties.
New leases outnumbered renewals by 633 contracts in July and by 2,139 in August. That marks a sharp reversal after 36 consecutive months in which renewals had consistently outpaced new leases across the Dubai rental market.
Why tenants are on the move
The shift comes down to price. Rents on new leases for the same building and unit type are now 15.3 per cent lower than in January, while renewal rents have dropped by only around 1 per cent over the same period, fäm Properties found. That gap is changing the calculation for tenants who might once have simply renewed to avoid the hassle of moving.
Firas Al Msaddi of fäm Properties said: "Previously, it was in the interests of tenants to stay where they were, especially as moving home can be challenging in various ways. But that has all changed because tenants can now move to a comparable apartment for less than a renewal would cost."
The change in behaviour is also visible in search activity. Dubai rental searches jumped 44 per cent year-on-year during the summer, as tenants shopped around for better deals rather than defaulting to a renewal notice.
Where the switching is happening
The biggest gaps between new leases and renewals in August were concentrated in a handful of communities. Al Barsha South Fourth, which includes Jumeirah Village Circle, recorded 1,102 more new leases than renewals. Business Bay saw a difference of 609, Al Merkadh 598, Dubai Marina 564, and Downtown Dubai 342.
Jumeirah Village Circle was also the most searched community for rental apartments between June 1 and August 25, with a median asking annual rent of around Dh70,000. Business Bay's median asking rent stood at Dh99,900, while Dubai Marina's reached Dh120,000.
On the villa and townhouse side, Damac Hills 2 drew the highest search interest, with median asking rents there starting around Dh110,000 a year. At the other end of the scale, Dubai Hills Estate villas and townhouses carry a median asking rent of Dh385,000.
The numbers behind the shift
Around 14,100 new leases were registered in July and 15,600 in August, underlining the scale of tenant movement during the period. Even so, new-lease contracts between January and August were 1 per cent below the same period a year earlier, and renewals over the same stretch were also down 1 per cent, suggesting the overall pace of leasing has been fairly steady even as the mix between new leases and renewals has shifted.
Rents themselves have continued to soften. The median rent for new apartment leases stood at Dh94.6 per square foot in August, down 8.3 per cent from Dh103.1 per square foot in October 2025.
For tenants across Dubai, the practical takeaway is that shopping for a new unit, rather than automatically renewing, may now be the cheaper path — a reversal of the pattern that held for most of the past three years.
