Loading...
Loading...
For income-focused investors
Most rental yield numbers shown to buyers in Dubai are estimates. Oliva pulls actual rents from 16 years of Ejari registry contracts and subtracts real Mollak service charges, so you compare net cash flow, not asking-rent fiction.
The honest question
Often, no. The two-line "Expected Yield" on a portal listing is usually a marketing estimate, not a contracted rent. The number can be 1 to 3 percentage points higher than what comparable units in the same project actually rent for, and it almost never accounts for service charges. That gap is where investors lose money.
Common belief
Listing portals and brokers quote rental yields in the high single digits across most Dubai areas. The implication is that any well-located unit will produce that level of income.
What the data shows
Net yields after Mollak service charges typically run 4 to 7 percent in established areas, and Ejari-registered contracts often differ from asking rents by 5 to 15 percent. Once you compare like-for-like contracts to actual paid charges, the spread between projects is much wider than brochures suggest.
How this looks in practice
Option A
Listed at 7.2% projected gross yield. Twelve months of Ejari contracts in this project show actual rents 11% below the asking number. Mollak service charges in the building are AED 22 per square foot.
4.8%
Net yield after Mollak (Ejari-matched)
Option B
Listed at 6.8% projected gross yield. Thirty Ejari contracts across the project show actual rents within 2% of asking. Mollak charges AED 14 per square foot.
6.1%
Net yield after Mollak (Ejari-matched)
What the data tells us: Project B looks weaker on the headline yield. Once you account for what tenants actually paid in the last 12 months and what the service charges actually cost, Project B produces 130 basis points more cash flow per year. Oliva surfaces this delta on every project page so you compare the real numbers, not the asking ones.
How your Oliva Score reweights
For rental income, Financial Value and Risk Assessment carry more weight, because cash flow durability depends on both the price you pay and how stable that income is across cycles. Macro Context lifts slightly because rental demand follows the Dubai population and rate environment.
Default column shows the baseline Oliva Score weighting (visible to every visitor on every project). The for-this-goal column shows your Preference Match weighting once you tell us your investment purpose during onboarding. Read the full scoring methodology.
The data behind every score
Every claim on this page and every Oliva Score on every project ties to a named data source. No estimates, no guesswork, no marketing yields.
Actual rental contracts by project and unit type. We compute per-project rental yield only when 5 or more Ejari contracts match the project; below that threshold we drop the metric and flag the lower confidence on the project page.
16 years of contracts, 481K records, refreshed weekly.
Approved annual service charge per square foot per building. Subtracted from gross rent to compute net yield, instead of using a flat 15 percent assumption.
Refreshed each time RERA publishes new approved service charges.
Sale prices for the per-square-foot percentile and price-vs-area-median metrics, plus 38 years of transaction history for area-level supply and absorption signals.
38 years of transactions, refreshed daily.
Population and demographic trajectory by Dubai community (DSC), plus US Federal Reserve rate, treasury yield, and currency context (FRED).
DSC refreshed quarterly, FRED refreshed nightly.
How this differs from the default
From the founder
I built Oliva because I wanted to invest in Dubai property the way an institutional analyst would underwrite it. The hardest part was always the rental side: brochures quote one number, real contracts say another. Now we ground every yield calculation in Ejari and Mollak, and the gap closes.
Common questions
Ejari rental contracts are refreshed weekly. Mollak service-charge schedules update each time RERA publishes a new approved charge for a building, typically once a year per project. The data freshness is shown on each project page.
We do not compute a project-specific yield in that case. Instead we surface the area-level Ejari yield with a lower-confidence chip, and we say so plainly. Sparse data is not a substitute for real data.
Service charges in Dubai range from AED 8 per square foot in some communities to over AED 35 per square foot in others. On a 1,000 square foot apartment that is the difference between AED 8,000 and AED 35,000 a year. Gross yield ignores this; net yield does not. Two projects with the same gross yield can produce very different cash flow.
No. No RERA-licensed brokerage can honestly guarantee future rental returns. They depend on tenant demand, market cycles, and unit condition over time. We can only commit to the accuracy of the data we present at the time we present it.
We coordinate with vetted property management partners across Dubai who handle marketing, tenant screening, Ejari registration, and rent collection. We are not a property management firm ourselves; we connect you to one and manage the handover.
Standard RERA brokerage commission at closing, paid from the transaction. We earn the same commission whether you buy a higher-yielding or lower-yielding property, so we have no incentive to steer you toward a higher price tag.
Risks, stated honestly
Rental income is not passive. The list below is honest about the main ways a Dubai income property can disappoint, and what we do to surface that risk before you commit.
Even in tight markets, units sit empty between tenants. Common turnover in Dubai is 4 to 8 weeks per move. A 1-month vacancy on a 7 percent yielding property reduces the year to roughly 6.4 percent.
What we do: We surface area absorption rates and Ejari renewal rates so you can see which areas keep tenants longer. We do not subtract vacancy from yield by default, so you can model your own assumption.
RERA-approved service charges can rise year on year, particularly in newer buildings as facilities mature. A 20 percent service charge increase compresses net yield meaningfully.
What we do: We show the Mollak history per project where available, so you can see whether charges have been stable or rising over the last several years.
Dubai goes through cycles where new supply in an area runs ahead of tenant demand. Net yield falls and vacancy rises in the same period.
What we do: Our supply pipeline ratio and months-of-inventory metrics are visible on the project page. Areas with concerning ratios are flagged in the Risk Assessment dimension.
Ejari registration is mandatory but does not protect against late or unpaid rent. A property management partner reduces but does not eliminate this risk.
What we do: We coordinate with management partners who handle screening and collections. We cannot eliminate this risk; we can lower it through professional management.
A unit can pay you cash flow for years while its market value declines, especially in oversupplied or aging buildings. Income alone is not the full picture.
What we do: Capital and risk dimensions in the Oliva Score still apply to the rental-income weighting. We do not over-emphasize cash flow at the cost of capital protection.
Browse the data, compare net yields, see the underlying Ejari and Mollak sources for every number. No commitments, free to browse.