How distress.ae Computes Per-Area Distressed-Property Data

Sources

Three primary sources feed the per-area data table on each area page:

• Dubai Land Department (DLD) — the authoritative registry of every property transaction completed in Dubai. Transaction records are released as public open data and include sale price, area, property type, and registration date.
• Dubai Pulse — the Dubai government open data portal that hosts the DLD transaction dataset for programmatic access (dubaipulse.gov.ae). All medians, transaction counts, and as-of dates trace back to records pulled from this portal.
• DXBinteract — an independent aggregator that maps DLD records to standardised area names and building-level rollups. Used as a cross-reference to catch area-naming inconsistencies and confirm the median computation against an outside view.

Areas outside Dubai's open data feed

Everything above describes Dubai. The three sources are all Dubai-specific: DLD registers Dubai transactions, and Dubai Pulse publishes them. No equivalent open transaction feed exists for Abu Dhabi or Ras Al Khaimah.

In Abu Dhabi the regulator is the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC) and transactions register through DARI, but neither publishes a transaction-level dataset a third party can compute a median from. ADREC releases headline figures — annual transaction value and volume — not the underlying records.

So we do not publish a computed price table on those pages. The rule is deliberate and it runs one way only: a number appears on this site either because we computed it from records we can point you at, or because a named source published it. Never because it seemed about right. On Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah area pages every market figure is the second kind, and each one carries its source in the sentence — ADREC, Cavendish Maxwell, ValuStrat, or the developer. Each page also states in its own footer that it carries no computed table, so the distinction is visible where the numbers are, not only here.

The practical consequence for you: on a Dubai area page you can check our median against the same public records we used. On an Abu Dhabi page you should check the figure against the named source, and prove any specific discount against recent comparable transactions for that tower and layout — which, in a market with no open feed, means asking the agent or a valuer for them.

What each number means

Median secondary price (AED per sqft)

The median sale price per square foot for completed secondary-market transactions in the area, computed over the 12 months preceding the as-of date. Off-plan registrations (oqood) are excluded — they trade on a different legal and pricing regime, and including them skews the secondary-market signal that distressed buyers actually compete in.

Median is preferred over mean to limit the influence of outlier penthouse and tower-floor sales. We additionally cap top and bottom 5% of records by price-per-sqft to drop clearly-mispriced records (broken plots, mixed-use registrations) before computing the median.

Why area pages show no distress-discount range

We do not publish an area-wide distressed-sale discount range. The data used for our area tables does not identify a verified sample of distressed sales, and those tables are not calculated from eMart or Dubai Courts auction results. A price below an area median does not by itself establish seller distress or current market value. For the separate comparison shown on a listing, see How listing discounts are checked.

Transactions, last 90 days

Total count of DLD-registered secondary-market sales in the area over the rolling 90 days preceding the as-of date. Excludes off-plan and oqood registrations. Treat as a proxy for liquidity: high transaction counts mean both that the area is actively trading and that comparable-sale evidence is fresh enough to support negotiation.

As of

The last day of the 90-day window for the transaction count and the 12-month window for the median. Always a date, not a month — to make freshness explicit.

Refresh cadence

Each area page is refreshed when the underlying DLD dataset is updated upstream — typically monthly, no longer than quarterly between bumps. The page's as-of date and the “Last verified” line both move forward together. The sitemap lastModified field tracks the same date so Google's crawler is alerted to the refresh.

Limitations

• Off-plan excluded. Off-plan registrations trade as receivables, not titled property. Distressed off-plan exits show up on our off-plan exit guide rather than in the area-level secondary-market median.
• AED only. All numbers are in dirhams. Buyers paying in another currency should adjust for the AED peg and any conversion costs themselves.
• No yield projections. The data table stops at sale-price metrics. Rental yield, ROI, and forecast appreciation depend on inputs (rent levels, service charges, holding period, financing) that vary more by unit than by area — this page makes no claim about them.
• Sample-size sensitivity. A median based on a small number of sales can change substantially with each additional sale. The area median uses a 12-month window, while the displayed transaction count covers 90 days. The 90-day count is not the sample size used to calculate the median. Compare properties with similar characteristics before using an area median to assess an individual asking price.

How listing discounts are checked

Every listing shows the seller's own asking price. The red discount badge next to it compares that price with one of two figures, and never with a market price the seller or agent typed themselves.

• “% below DLD sales”. For Dubai listings posted from 28 September 2026, distress.ae fills in the market price from sales of the same layout in the same building, registered with the Dubai Land Department. The seller types only the asking price. We use the middle price of up to 15 recent sales of that layout within 12 months (24 months when it sells rarely), or, when too few match the exact size, the middle price per sq ft of similar-size units times the unit's size. The listing page says which sales it used under “How we checked”.
• “% below OP”. An off-plan resale can show the gap to its original price: the price in the seller's contract with the developer.

A market price typed by a seller or agent is never shown as a discount; the listing page labels it as their estimate. Gaps under 1% are not shown, and every percentage is rounded down, never up.

What this page does not claim

Nothing on the per-area pages should be read as investment advice or as a buy/sell recommendation. The data is published to help buyers calibrate negotiation against recent comparables, not to recommend specific buildings, units, or transactions. Distressed property carries above-average risk: above-market service charges, undisclosed liens, occupancy disputes, and developer default risk are real and not visible in summary statistics. Buyers should commission independent valuation and legal review on every transaction.

Corrections

Spotted an error? Email murad.k@distress.ae with the area, the metric, and the correction. Verified corrections are reflected on the next refresh; the underlying claims-and-sources sheets in the site repository are also updated.