AI Off-Plan Due Diligence in Dubai

Off-plan prices in Dubai have eased since April 2026, while ready prices have steadied. The PIX© off-plan index stood at 253.84 in September 2026. That is 1.58% below September 2025 and 5.2% below its April peak. The PIX© ready index stood at 181.94, which is 1.84% above a year earlier and up for two months in a row.

DLD classes every sale as off-plan or ready. A home stays off-plan until it is handed over, so a delayed handover still counts as off-plan. The two indices each start at 100 in January 2012. The higher off-plan line means off-plan prices have risen further since then. The gap between the lines is not the price gap. In September 2026, off-plan sales had a median of AED 1,710 per sqft and ready sales AED 1,355.

Off-plan sales still dominate the market. DLD recorded 7,443 off-plan apartment and villa sales in September 2026 against 2,655 ready ones, so about three in four sales were off-plan. Volume has halved on a year: September 2025 had 15,187 off-plan sales. Ready sales fell less, from 3,685 to 2,655.

The backdrop matters to a buyer at handover. An off-plan purchase is priced today and valued as a ready home later. When ready prices hold up and off-plan prices soften, new launches face more competition from finished stock. The month-by-month version of this reading is covered in monitoring the Dubai property market with AI.

A developer's track record shows up in three readings of DLD sales. Sales over the last 12 months show how much the developer is selling now. The split between completed and under-construction projects shows how much it has delivered against how much it still owes buyers. Resales in its delivered buildings show what its finished homes trade at once the launch is over.

Emaar is the largest developer by DLD sales over the last 12 months. The conversation below is the check a buyer would run through the PropertyIndex plugin before committing to one of its launches. The same prompt works for any developer.

Claude

PropertyIndex plugin connected

Show Emaar's DLD apartment and villa sales from October 2025 to September 2026, split off-plan and ready. What do its finished homes resell at per sqft, and how many of its projects are completed or under construction?

PropertyIndex · Queried DLD sales by developer, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026

PropertyIndex · Queried project status by developer

Emaar recorded 17,117 sales between October 2025 and September 2026.

Measure	Emaar
Off-plan sales	11,666
Ready sales	5,451
Median AED/sqft, off-plan	2,135
Median AED/sqft, ready resales	2,148
Completed tower locations	389
Tower locations under construction	90

Emaar's finished homes resell at about the same price per sqft as its off-plan sales. Both figures mix communities and home types, so compare like with like inside one project before drawing a conclusion.

The ratio of completed to under-construction projects is a quick first measure of delivery. Emaar has 389 completed tower locations against 90 under construction. A developer with far more under construction than delivered carries more promise than proof, so ask for this ratio for every developer you consider.

The project list is the next step. Emaar's Dubai Creek Harbour projects include two launches still under construction beside towers it has handed over.

A launch price is fair when it sits sensibly above what similar finished homes nearby resell for. The resales show what the home is likely to be worth once it is ready. The gap above them is what the buyer pays for a new building, a better position or a payment plan.

Creek Bay is a useful test. It is Emaar's busiest launch in Dubai Creek Harbour, and none of its apartment sales so far is a resale. Every price on record is a first sale from the developer. The comparison set is Emaar's completed towers in the same community.

ChatGPT

PropertyIndex plugin connected

Is the launch price for 2-bedroom apartments in Creek Bay high compared with resales in Emaar's finished towers in Dubai Creek Harbour? Use October 2025 to September 2026.

PropertyIndex · Searched Creek Bay, Dubai Creek Harbour

PropertyIndex · Queried DLD sales, Creek Bay, 2 Bed, off-plan

PropertyIndex · Queried DLD sales, 8 completed Emaar projects, 2 Bed, ready

Creek Bay 2-bedroom apartments sell at a 33% premium per sqft to ready 2-bedroom resales in Emaar's completed towers nearby.

Measure	Creek Bay (off-plan)	Completed towers (ready)
Sales	287	278
Median price	AED 3,810,888	AED 2,500,000
Median AED/sqft	3,036	2,281
Median size	1,434 sqft	1,107 sqft

Creek Bay units are also larger, so the price per sqft is the fairer comparison. The completed set covers Creek Beach, Creek Rise, Harbour Gate, Creek Edge, Harbour Views, Creek Horizon, Creek Gate and Creekside 18.

A 33% premium is not a verdict on its own. A waterfront position or a better tower can earn part of it. The question for the buyer is whether the premium will hold once Creek Bay is a ready building competing with its neighbours. The same comparable-sales method sits behind an AI property valuation in Dubai.

Three rules keep the comparison honest. Compare the same bedroom count. Compare price per sqft, not total price, when sizes differ. Choose finished buildings from the same community and, where possible, the same developer.

A resale before handover is a sale still classed off-plan where the previous buyer sold to a new party. DLD records each sale. PropertyIndex links it to the previous sale of the same property and checks whether the buyer changed. That separates a genuine resale from a later record of the same purchase.

Resales before handover are about one in ten off-plan sales. DLD recorded 12,253 resales among 127,087 off-plan apartment and villa sales between October 2025 and September 2026. The share varies by developer. Resales made up 23% of Emaar's off-plan sales (2,722 of 11,666) and 11% of Damac's (1,235 of 10,944).

The resale prices show whether earlier buyers exit above or below what they paid. In Dubai Creek Harbour, 399 Emaar homes resold before handover in the 12 months. Their median resale price was AED 2.43M, against a median earlier price of AED 2.33M. Those are medians of two groups, not the gain on each home.

A deep resale market before handover is a good sign for liquidity. It means a buyer who needs to exit early has found counterparties. Per-home gains, holding periods and yields are the subject of AI property investment analysis in Dubai.

DLD sales show what buyers paid and when. They do not show how far a building has progressed or where the money has gone. Four checks sit outside the data and belong with the official channels.

Construction progress

PropertyIndex reports whether a project is completed, under construction or not started. It does not hold a completion percentage or a handover date. The Dubai Land Department publishes project status and progress through the Dubai REST app.

Escrow status

Off-plan payments in Dubai go into a project escrow account overseen by the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA), the regulatory arm of the Dubai Land Department. Confirm the escrow account with the developer and through DLD before paying.

The contract

Off-plan sale contracts are recorded on Oqood, the Dubai Land Department system for off-plan sales. Confirm that your contract is recorded there and read the payment plan with a lawyer.

The unit itself

DLD records price, size, floor and date. It does not record view, finish or orientation, so two units on one floor can deserve different prices.

Specific prompts get specific answers. Name the project, the community, the bedroom count and the period. Each prompt below works with the PropertyIndex plugin in ChatGPT or Claude.

More starting points for every kind of Dubai property question are in the ChatGPT and Claude prompts for Dubai real estate. The wider picture of how assistants use Dubai real estate data is in the AI for Dubai real estate overview.