Dubai Silicon Oasis: the highest yield we measure, and what it costs you
What yield does Dubai Silicon Oasis pay? Around 8.3 per cent gross on registered transactions and registered rents, which is the highest of any Dubai area we publish figures for. Resale prices sit near 10,000 AED per square metre, the cheapest as well.
That combination is genuinely attractive, and it comes with a catch that most listings do not mention. The register shows it plainly.
| Quarter | Resale | Off-plan |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-Q3 | 9,776 (348) | 19,264 (675) |
| 2025-Q4 | 10,263 (406) | 20,101 (547) |
| 2026-Q1 | 10,168 (274) | 16,480 (209) |
| 2026-Q2 | 10,206 (175) | 16,967 (120) |
Median AED/m², number of registered sales in brackets.
Source: Dubai Land Department, retrieved August 26, 2026. Datasets: Real Estate Transactions
The catch: the off-plan column
Compare the two price columns. Resale sits around 10,000 AED per square metre. Off-plan sits between roughly 16,500 and 20,100.
New build in Silicon Oasis costs between about sixty and a hundred per cent more than existing stock in the same district. And the rent does not care which one you bought: a tenant pays the market rent for a Silicon Oasis apartment either way.
Run the arithmetic and the headline collapses. At the registered rent of about 830 AED per square metre a year:
| Price per m² | Gross yield | |
|---|---|---|
| Existing stock | ~10,200 | ~8 % |
| New build | ~17,000 | ~4.9 % |
The eight per cent everyone quotes belongs to the old, cheap stock. Buy the new tower at the launch price and you have bought a Downtown-level yield in a Silicon Oasis location, which is the worst of both.
Gross yield
Medians of the last four quarters. Selecting an area fills in the median for that area; every field can be overwritten. Changing the size recalculates price and rent from the median per m².
Gross is not what reaches your account. Service charges, vacancy, re-letting and maintenance come off it, and how much depends on the individual building rather than the area. We quote no figure for that, because an honest one exists only per property.
Source: Dubai Land Department, retrieved August 26, 2026. Datasets: Real Estate Transactions, Rent Contracts
Why the yield is high in the first place
High yield is not a reward for cleverness. It is compensation for something, and here it is two things.
The stock is older and plainer. Silicon Oasis was built as a technology free zone with residential around it, and much of the housing reflects the era and the budget it was built to. That is why it is cheap, and cheap is the denominator in the yield calculation.
The tenant base is local rather than international. Rents are steady and the demand is real, drawn from the free zone, the university and the surrounding employment. It is not a market driven by prestige, which is exactly why it does not price like one.
Neither is a problem for an income buyer. Both matter for a capital-growth buyer, and the resale prices show it: roughly 9,800 to 10,300 across four quarters is a market moving sideways.
Who Silicon Oasis suits
An income buyer who checks the price column. The yield is real and it is registered, not projected. Buy existing stock and it holds.
Not a buyer chasing appreciation. Nothing in four quarters of registered data suggests price momentum, and we are not going to invent some.
Not a buyer being shown a new launch here on yield arguments. If a presentation quotes you eight per cent alongside a new-build price, those two numbers do not belong on the same slide. Our off-plan guide shows the same pattern across forty areas: the districts with the best headline yields tend to carry the steepest new-build premiums, because the high yield comes from cheap old stock, not from the new one.
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Frequently asked questions
Where is Dubai Silicon Oasis? A mixed technology and residential district in the south-east of Dubai, around twenty-five minutes from Downtown outside peak hours. The Dubai Land Department records it within the Nadd Hessa area.
Is Silicon Oasis freehold? Designated parts of the district are freehold and open to foreign ownership. Confirm the status of the specific building in the title documents rather than in the listing.
Is 8 per cent yield in Dubai realistic? On existing Silicon Oasis stock, that is what the registered rents and registered prices produce. It is a gross figure: service charges, void periods and the roughly four per cent acquisition cost come off it, and our yield guide works the full sum.
Should I buy new or existing here? On the registered numbers, existing stock is where the yield case lives. If you are being offered new build, ask what rent it will achieve and divide it by what you are paying, rather than by the district average.
Sources
- undefined — Real Estate Transactions — accessed 2026-08-26
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