The pricing ladder, from live launch data
One of the most useful exercises for an off-plan buyer is seeing how launch pricing steps up with each bedroom count — not from marketing brochures, but across the whole market at once. We ran the numbers on every Dubai apartment listing in the InvestOffplan catalog.
Studios start from AED 450,000, with a median launch price of about AED 709,000 across 108 listed options. One-bedroom apartments start from AED 690,000 with a median around AED 1.65 million across 408 options. Two-beds start from AED 992,000 (median roughly AED 2.31 million, 413 options), three-beds from AED 1.1 million (median about AED 3.58 million, 303 options), and four-bed apartments from AED 1.32 million with a median near AED 8.3 million across 63 options.
- Studio: from AED 450k, median ~AED 709k (108 options)
- 1-bed: from AED 690k, median ~AED 1.65M (408 options)
- 2-bed: from AED 992k, median ~AED 2.31M (413 options)
- 3-bed: from AED 1.1M, median ~AED 3.58M (303 options)
- 4-bed: from AED 1.32M, median ~AED 8.3M (63 options)
Why the gap between floor and median matters
Notice how the spread widens as you move up the ladder. At studio level, the floor and the median sit relatively close together — studio pricing is largely a function of size and district. By the time you reach four-bed apartments, the median is more than six times the entry price, because that bracket spans everything from family layouts in outer districts to branded waterfront residences.
For investors, the practical implication is that per-bedroom comparisons only work within a district and product tier. A three-bed at AED 1.1 million and a three-bed at the AED 3.58 million median are not the same asset class, even though they share a bedroom count.
The step between brackets is also informative. Moving from the median studio to the median one-bed costs roughly AED 940,000; from one-bed to two-bed about AED 660,000; from two-bed to three-bed around AED 1.27 million. Buyers stretching between brackets should price that step against the extra rentable space it actually buys in their target district, rather than assuming each additional bedroom scales linearly.
Where the depth is
Inventory depth also shifts across the ladder. One- and two-bed apartments are the backbone of the current launch market, with more than 800 live options between them, while the catalog holds 154 studios and 292 four-bed-plus options across all property types. Buyers hunting studios or large-format apartments are choosing from a genuinely thinner shelf, which tends to reward moving early on well-priced releases.
Across all property types, apartments account for 1,638 of the catalog's 2,241 unit options, alongside 253 villas, 200 townhouses, 75 duplexes and 74 penthouses.
For a first purchase, the depth argument favours the one- and two-bed core: more launches to compare means better price discovery, more payment-plan choice, and a deeper resale and rental market at exit. Specialist brackets can outperform, but they demand more conviction and better district-level research.