Al Satwa · Retail · Dubai

Retail space in Al Satwa, priced by what was paid

Every portal in Dubai shows you what a seller is asking. The Land Department records what a buyer actually transferred, and Ejari records what a tenant actually signed. 11 sales and 508 leases in this district say something the listings do not.

11 registered sales · AED 40.22M · 508 registered leases · 1 January – 14 July 2026 · Source: Dubai Land Department
What this district actually trades
Off-plan
3,880
AED / sqft · 11 deals
Median ticket AED 2.85M
Median unit 696 sqft

Only 0 ready sales registered in 5 months — below the ten-deal threshold at which a median means anything. So this page publishes off-plan stock only. Anyone quoting you a ready comparable in Al Satwa is working from a handful of deals.

What that does to the yield
508 registered retail leases in Al Satwa clear a median of AED 114,000 per year on 379 sqft — that is 254 AED/sqft. The tenant pays that rate regardless of when the building was finished. So the purchase price is the only variable.
Off-plan @ 3,880
6.5%
New leases and renewals are not the same number. 88 new contracts sign at a median 278 AED/sqft; 420 renewals sit at 247. Which of the two you inherit depends on whether the unit comes vacant, and no listing tells you that.
Gross, before service charge, vacancy, and agency cost — a ceiling, not a forecast. And the caveat that matters: an off-plan unit earns nothing at all until handover, so its real first-years return is not 6.6% but zero.

Month by month

Median AED/sqft · complete months only, July excluded as partial
MonthDealsMedian AED/sqft
January 20262—2,808—
February 20261—2,796—
March 20263—3,852—
April 20261—3,880—
May 20264—4,860—

The median held between 2,795 and 4,861 across 5 complete months — a 74% spread. Any single comparable you are shown sits somewhere in that band, and where it sits is the difference between a fair price and a story.

What AED 2.85M actually buys here

Off-plan stock · 11 registered sales · whole segment: 11 deals
10th percentile
2.15M
smallest tickets clearing
Median ticket
2.85M
696 sqft typical
75th percentile
3.48M
larger-floorplate territory
90th percentile
6.27M
above this is rare

The entry point is where most assumptions break. A tenth of registered sales here cleared under AED 2,150,288, and the top decile starts at AED 6,267,777 — a 3-fold range inside one district and one segment. A quoted “Al Satwa price” without a size attached to it is not information.

Al Satwa against everything else

Median AED/sqft, registered retail sales, same window · districts with 10+ deals and registered rent
Al Satwa
3,878
Jumeirah Village Triangle →
2,338
Jumeirah Village Circle →
2,197
Dubai Marina →
2,108
International City Phase 1 →
1,076

Al Satwa registered 11 retail sales in the period. Dubai Marina registered 16. Depth is what makes an exit possible: a district that prices itself off hundreds of comparables does not depend on whoever happens to show up.

Every district on this list has its own page, built the same way from the same register. All districts →

A commercial foot against a residential one

Same district, same window
Retail
3,878
11 deals · AED/sqft
Apartments
2,283
1,046 deals · AED/sqft

A commercial foot in Al Satwa costs 1.70 times a residential one. That premium is ordinary for a district with real business demand — and it is the number to hold up against any pitch that treats the two as interchangeable.

Questions people actually ask

Answered from the register, not from a brochure
How much does a retail unit cost in Al Satwa?
Across 11 registered sales between January and July 2026, the median was AED 2,851,777 at 3,878 AED/sqft. 11 of those were off-plan stock, clearing AED 2,851,777 at 3,878 AED/sqft. The other side of the market is too thin here to publish a median against — which is itself worth knowing before you buy.
What rent does a retail unit in Al Satwa actually achieve?
508 registered leases show a median of AED 114,000 per year on a median 379 sqft, which is 254 AED/sqft/year. The number splits: 88 new leases sign at 278 AED/sqft, 420 renewals sit at 247 — a vacant unit lets for more than a tenanted one delivers.
What yield will a retail unit in Al Satwa produce?
Against the registered rate of 254 AED/sqft, off-plan stock at 3,878 produces roughly 6.6% gross. Both are before service charge, vacancy and agency cost, so treat them as ceilings rather than forecasts. And off-plan earns nothing at all until handover, which the percentage does not show.
Is a retail unit more expensive per foot than an apartment in Al Satwa?
Yes — 3,878 against 2,283 across 1,046 registered apartment sales, so 1.70 times. Commercial foot sits above the residential one here, which is worth checking before you assume one is the cheaper way into the district.
How does Al Satwa compare with other Dubai retail unit districts?
Dubai Marina 2,108 across 16 deals, Jumeirah Village Triangle 2,338 across 15 deals, Jumeirah Village Circle 2,197 across 94 deals, International City Phase 1 1,076 across 79 deals. Al Satwa registered 11 sales in the period. Depth matters most when you want to sell: a district with hundreds of comparables gives a valuer something to work with, a district with a dozen does not.
You have the district's numbers. Now the one that matters: is the price you were quoted the price this market pays?
Send the unit you are looking at. You get it checked against the DLD comparables above — what was actually paid in the same building, at the same size, in the same month. Free, no obligation, no subscription.
Or WhatsApp +971 58 508 5260
Methodology. Every figure is AED per square foot. The DLD export records area in square metres — median 79.0 across the file — and is converted at 10.764 sqft/m², with the unit decided once for the dataset rather than row by row. Retail means PROP_TYPE Unit with sub-type Shop: the sub-types labelled “Commercial” and “Industrial” in DLD data are almost entirely land, and mixing them in drags the commercial median from 3,302 to 1,919 across Dubai. USAGE_EN is not used to classify sales — every office in the file is tagged “Residential” in that column. Duplicate transaction numbers are collapsed after filtering to Sales, and Mortgage and Gift registrations are excluded. Rent covers 1 January – 14 July 2026 and comes from registered Ejari contracts, filtered to PROP_TYPE Unit above 200 sqft and AED 30,000 to strip flexi-desks and business addresses. Ejari carries no contract number, so lease records are never de-duplicated: identical amounts registered in the same batch are separate units in separate buildings, and collapsing them understates the median rate by 9%. DLD records sales under marketing district names and Ejari under official community names; the two are matched through shared project names, never by hand. Medians throughout, never averages. Districts below 10 registered sales get no page. Registered transactions only: this is what was paid, not what was asked.
Disclaimer. This analysis reflects the independent opinion of OSNOVA Property, based on publicly available Dubai Land Department data at the time of publication. It is not financial, legal, or investment advice, and does not constitute an offer, recommendation, or guarantee of returns, capital appreciation, or rental yield. Yield figures are gross and illustrative. Past registered transactions are not a reliable indicator of future prices. Property investment carries risk, including loss of capital. Verify all figures independently and take professional advice before committing funds. OSNOVA Property is a licensed brokerage and may act for a party to a transaction discussed here.