Dubai, UAE — Palm Jumeirah recorded 191 residential rental contracts worth AED1 million or more between January and August 2026. That is the largest cluster of conventional high-end leases anywhere in Dubai. The median annualised rent across those contracts was AED1.50 million, according to an analysis of DXBinteract data that brokerage fäm Properties released on 21 September.
The island sits inside a wider pool of 2,046 contracts at or above the AED1 million mark, with a combined value of AED6.79 billion and a median annualised rent of AED1.35 million. That pool is broader than the headline suggests. A quarter of it is labour camp leasing. About a third of it is made up of contracts that cross AED1 million only because they run for more than a year.
Palm Jumeirah Luxury Rentals Clear AED1.70m In The Master Project
At project level, the Palm Jumeirah master development logged 106 contracts at a median annualised rent of AED1.70 million, far ahead of any other named project by volume. Jumeirah Golf Estates came second with 38 contracts at AED1.68 million, and Al Barari third with 29 at AED1.30 million.
The difference between the area count of 191 and the project count of 106 comes from standalone developments on the island that DXBinteract lists separately. The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences is one of them, with 23 contracts at a median of AED1.35 million. The highest medians on the project list sat off the Palm. IL Primo, Emaar’s tower in the Opera District, recorded AED1.95 million across 19 contracts, and Jumeirah Islands posted AED1.80 million across 25.
The September release carries no year-on-year comparison, so it cannot show whether this tier grew. An earlier fäm analysis gives a partial answer for the Palm. In June, the brokerage put the value of new contracts above AED1 million on Palm Jumeirah at AED113 million for January to May, up 14% from AED99 million in 2025. That figure covered villas only.
Apartments Match Villas On Value With Barely Half The Contracts
Villas were the largest category, with 951 contracts worth AED2.49 billion and a median annualised rent of about AED1.12 million. Apartments accounted for 531 contracts worth AED2.41 billion, at a higher median of AED1.40 million. That puts the average apartment contract at roughly AED4.5 million in total value, against about AED2.6 million for a villa.
The release does not break the apartment figures down further. The project table suggests where they come from: tower developments such as IL Primo and The Royal Atlantis, where a single lease can carry a larger total value than a family villa in Al Barari or Jumeirah Golf Estates.
Jabal Ali Industrial First Outranks The Palm On Volume
The Dubai Land Department classifies labour camps as residential use. That category accounted for 520 contracts worth AED1.72 billion, at a median annualised rent of about AED1.84 million, the highest of any property type. Villas and apartments together made up 1,482 contracts, or 72% of the total.
This explains the top of the area table. Jabal Ali Industrial First recorded 204 contracts at a median of AED2.05 million, ahead of the Palm’s 191. Dubai Investment Park First, an industrial and logistics district, placed fourth on the project list with 28 contracts. “The figures underline the scale of the upper end of Dubai’s rental market, while also showing how high-value contracts extend beyond individual villas and apartments into larger residential-use assets and accommodation categories,” said Firas Al Msaddi, CEO of fäm Properties.
One-Year Leases Show Who Pays AED1m A Year
The AED1 million threshold applies to total contract value, not annual rent. One-year agreements made up 1,353 of the 2,046 contracts, at a median annualised rent of AED1.65 million. Two-year deals numbered 299 at AED800,000 a year, three-year deals 224 at AED600,000, and contracts of four years or more 170 at AED390,000.
Those 693 multi-year contracts are 34% of the total, and most of them fall well short of a million dirhams a year. New leases accounted for 1,423 contracts, or 69.6%, at a median of AED1.30 million. The 623 renewals recorded a higher median of AED1.50 million. The release does not split renewals by property type, so the gap may reflect category mix rather than rent increases for sitting tenants.
A Few Hundred Tenants Set The Palm’s Rental Ceiling
For buyers weighing Palm Jumeirah luxury rentals as an income play, the depth of the tenant pool matters as much as the median. Across the whole area, 191 contracts in eight months works out to about 24 a month. A vacancy of two or three months at AED1.5 million a year costs more than most service-charge bills on the island.
Indian and NRI investors comparing the Palm with Jumeirah Islands or Jumeirah Golf Estates should check DXBinteract at building and unit-type level before relying on any area median. The next test is the full-year figure. It will show whether the Palm’s share of conventional high-end leasing holds as new branded towers on the island reach handover.
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