International City Phase 1 · Retail · Dubai

Retail space in International City Phase 1, 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. 79 sales and 3,187 leases in this district say something the listings do not.

87 registered sales · AED 66.44M · 3,187 registered leases · 1 January – 14 July 2026 · Source: Dubai Land Department
What this district actually trades
Ready
1,068
AED / sqft · 85 deals
Median ticket AED 630K
Median unit 592 sqft

Only 2 off-plan sales registered in 7 months — below the ten-deal threshold at which a median means anything. So this page publishes ready stock only. Anyone quoting you a off-plan comparable in International City Phase 1 is working from a handful of deals.

What that does to the yield
3,187 registered retail leases in International City Phase 1 clear a median of AED 72,000 per year on 527 sqft — that is 115 AED/sqft. The tenant pays that rate regardless of when the building was finished. So the purchase price is the only variable.
Ready @ 1,068
10.8%
Vacant lets higher than tenanted. The 3,187 contracts split: 1,070 new leases at a median 108 AED/sqft, 2,117 renewals at 120. A ready unit bought empty and let at the new rate reaches 10.1%; the same unit bought with a sitting tenant on a renewal delivers 11.2%. That -1.1-point spread separates two purchases that look identical in a listing.
Gross, before service charge, vacancy, and agency cost — a ceiling, not a forecast.

Month by month

Median AED/sqft · complete months only, July excluded as partial
MonthDealsMedian AED/sqft
January 2026229972,0352.0×
February 2026331,2441,9061.5×
March 202661,060——
April 202621,052——
May 20269989——
June 20264875——
July 20266859——

The median held between 875 and 1,245 across 6 complete months — a 42% 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 0.63M actually buys here

Ready stock · 77 registered sales · whole segment: 79 deals
10th percentile
0.44M
smallest tickets clearing
Median ticket
0.63M
592 sqft typical
75th percentile
0.88M
larger-floorplate territory
90th percentile
1.02M
above this is rare

The entry point is where most assumptions break. A tenth of registered sales here cleared under AED 437,000, and the top decile starts at AED 1,016,000 — a 2-fold range inside one district and one segment. A quoted “International City Phase 1 price” without a size attached to it is not information.

International City Phase 1 against everything else

Median AED/sqft, registered retail sales, same window · districts with 10+ deals and registered rent
Dubai South (Madinat Al Mataar) →
3,927
Al Satwa →
3,878
Business Bay →
2,880
Jumeirah Village Circle →
2,197
International City Phase 1
1,081

International City Phase 1 registered 79 retail sales in the period. Jumeirah Village Circle registered 94. 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
Offices
1,513
48 deals · AED/sqft
Retail
1,081
79 deals · AED/sqft
Apartments
712
821 deals · AED/sqft

A commercial foot in International City Phase 1 costs 1.52 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 International City Phase 1?
Across 79 registered sales between January and July 2026, the median was AED 633,360 at 1,081 AED/sqft. 77 of those were ready stock, clearing AED 629,646 at 1,076 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 International City Phase 1 actually achieve?
3,187 registered leases show a median of AED 72,000 per year on a median 527 sqft, which is 115 AED/sqft/year. The number splits: 1,070 new leases sign at 108 AED/sqft, 2,117 renewals sit at 120 — a vacant unit lets for more than a tenanted one delivers.
What yield will a retail unit in International City Phase 1 produce?
Against the registered rate of 115 AED/sqft, ready stock at 1,076 produces roughly 10.7% gross. Both are before service charge, vacancy and agency cost, so treat them as ceilings rather than forecasts.
Is a retail unit more expensive per foot than an apartment in International City Phase 1?
Yes — 1,081 against 712 across 821 registered apartment sales, so 1.52 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 International City Phase 1 compare with other Dubai retail unit districts?
Al Satwa 3,878 across 11 deals, Jumeirah Village Circle 2,197 across 94 deals, Dubai South (Madinat Al Mataar) 3,927 across 67 deals, Business Bay 2,880 across 64 deals. International City Phase 1 registered 79 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.
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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.