Studios Lead Dubai's Gross-Yield Ladder — but the Median Is Not a Net Return

Studios produce the strongest gross-yield signal in Dubai's matched DLD data. The median high-confidence studio yield across 26 communities is 7.66%. Every larger bedroom group sits between 5.26% and 5.93%.

That 1.79 percentage-point gap between studios and one-bedroom homes is meaningful. On the same AED 1 million purchase price it would equal AED 17,900 of extra gross rent a year. But the chart is a screening tool, not a promise of cash in the bank.

The citywide pattern is not perfectly linear

One-bedroom and two-bedroom medians fall to 5.87% and 5.65%, then three- and four-bedroom homes edge back up to 5.75% and 5.93%. Five-bedroom evidence is thinner: only ten communities clear the high-confidence sample threshold, and their median is 5.26%.

The result is not “smaller is always better.” It is “studios have the most consistent gross-yield advantage.” Family layouts can still outperform in individual communities because the tenant pool, villa supply and sale-price mix vary sharply.

Three communities show why local detail matters

Community	Studio	1 bed	2 bed	3 bed
Jumeirah Village Circle	7.77%	7.47%	6.64%	7.89%
Business Bay	6.48%	5.87%	5.54%	4.56%
Dubai Silicon Oasis	8.70%	8.00%	5.83%	6.45%

Business Bay follows the intuitive pattern: yield declines as the bedroom count rises. JVC does not. Its three-bedroom median reaches 7.89%, supported by 2,120 rent contracts and 1,731 sales. Silicon Oasis has a strong studio and one-bedroom tier, a weaker two-bedroom result and a partial recovery for three bedrooms.

This variation is why a citywide bedroom rule should never replace a community and building check. Even within one district, towers can have different service charges, vacancy, cooling arrangements, maintenance quality and tenant demand.

Gross yield leaves out the expensive parts

Gross yield is annual rent divided by purchase price. It excludes service charges, maintenance, vacancy, leasing commission, management, insurance, furnishing and transaction costs. Studios often turn over more frequently, and a fixed annual service-charge bill consumes a larger share of their rent.

A 7.7% gross studio can therefore produce a lower net return than a 6.5% two-bedroom home with stable tenants and lower building costs. The correct workflow is:

1. Use the bedroom yield to find a promising community-layout pair.
2. Replace the community sale median with the actual unit price.
3. Verify the current achievable rent in the same building and condition.
4. Subtract the latest RERA-approved service charge and a realistic vacancy allowance.
5. Stress-test the result at a lower rent and a longer reletting period.

A timing caveat matters here

The rent side uses recent Ejari contracts, while the bedroom sale medians aggregate official sales from 2020 through 7 August 2026. In a fast-rising market, an older sale-price median can overstate the yield available on a new purchase. The large sample makes the ranking useful, but it does not make the time periods identical.

Methodology: figures come from rental-yields.json, generated 11 August 2026. For each community-bedroom pair, gross yield equals the median annual Ejari rent divided by the DLD median sale price. The infographic takes the median of community yields rated high confidence. It includes 26 studio, 31 one-bedroom, 34 two-bedroom, 30 three-bedroom, 21 four-bedroom and 10 five-bedroom community samples. Results are gross, not net.