Source hierarchy
Tier one: official or primary
Land registries, financial-centre results, government statistics and company disclosures. These carry the core quantitative claims in the edition.
Tier two: leading institutional research
Agency market data, rating-agency commentary and established wealth research houses. Used when clearly attributed and dated.
Tier three: supporting context
Trade press and consultancy projections. Context only; no load-bearing quantitative claim rests on a tier-three source alone.
Confidence levels
High: official primary source, figure stated directly, no interpretation applied. Medium: reputable institutional source or official source reported at one remove. Low: single source or material disagreement; never the sole basis of a claim. Conflicted: credible sources disagree; the disagreement is reported or the figure is omitted.
Continuity policy
Definitions are intended to remain stable between editions. When evidence requires a methodology change, the change and its reason will be disclosed, and prior periods will be restated where the underlying data allows.
Prime
Top decile of residential transactions by price per square metre, computed separately for apartments and villas and recalculated annually.
Super prime
A residential transaction at or above US$10 million using one stated annual conversion rate.
Off-plan and ready
Taken from the relevant registry's own registration-type field, not from editorial judgement.
Currency
Dirhams are native. Dollar figures use one stated annual rate. Figures are nominal and no deflator is applied.
The Two Market Monitor
Dubai and Abu Dhabi registry series are presented without weighting, normalisation, composite scoring or an artificial winner. Where definitions differ, the difference remains visible and the measures are not combined.
- Measures include transaction value and volume, sales value and count, mortgages, foreign participation where published, and investor or buyer counts.
- Missing measures are left blank and marked; they are never estimated.
- Price is excluded because no Abu Dhabi residential index of comparable standing was located.
- Registry restatements are carried into subsequent editions transparently.
Analyses not published in the first edition
| Analysis | Data required | Expected |
|---|---|---|
| UAE Property Transaction Monitor | DLD transaction-level extract | 2027 edition |
| Dubai three-index rebased comparison | 18 monthly readings from each of Property Monitor, ValuStrat and REIDIN | When supplied |
| Transactions by price band | DLD transaction-level extract | 2027 edition |
| Off-plan vs ready index | Registration-type field per transaction | 2027 edition |
| Abu Dhabi value by investment zone | Quarterly series by named zone from ADREC | When published |
Open factual queries
Two questions remain open with Dubai Land Department: the criteria defining the published luxury-investment segment, and the small inconsistency in the Q1 2026 investor-base figures. The report prints both qualifications rather than smoothing them away.
Revisions & corrections
Both registries may restate prior periods. Each future edition will republish the previous year on the current data pull and disclose revisions rather than silently adopting them. Corrections to the 2026 edition will be dated and published on this method page with a concise description of what changed.
Research instruments
UAE Property Transaction Monitor: specified now; first reading planned for 2027 when the underlying extract is held. UAE Investor Sentiment Survey: fielding 1 October 2026 to 31 January 2027, minimum 150 active allocators for publication, with brokers and agents reported separately. The Two Market Monitor: first reading appears in this edition and in the downloadable data bank.