# Dubai rent-index source register: period, sample and revisions (2026)

> A dated source register for DLD's Rental Index and RRPI, covering inputs, population, period and revision status.

Source: https://withlida.com/insights/dubai-rent-index-source-register-2026

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:::intro
The Dubai Land Department's Residential Rental Performance Index page still ends at November 2022 and exposes 120 monthly data points, while its current Rental Index is an input-driven service rather than a comparable time series. For research use, they belong in separate rows: one produces a property-specific result, the other reports historical index values.
:::

:::summary
- The DLD Rental Index is a calculator service. The Residential Rental Performance Index, or RRPI, is a historical statistical series.
- The live residential service accepts contract and property fields; it does not expose a downloadable history of calculator results on the public form.
- The RRPI chart spans December 2012 to November 2022, exactly 120 monthly positions, and the page labels its displayed yearly, quarterly and monthly values as preliminary.
- DLD describes registered rental contracts, building classifications, outlier removal and weighted averages for the Smart Residential Rent Index, but the service pages do not disclose a period-specific estimation sample.
- For both products, the revision field is not displayed. One capture cannot establish whether a historical value changed or remained unchanged.
:::

## The source register

The products answer different questions. The Rental Index service answers a contract and property query. The RRPI describes aggregate rental-price performance over time. Treating either as a Dubai property price index would also mix rents with sales prices, a separate set of series covered in the [Dubai property price-index concordance](/insights/dubai-property-price-indexes-compared).

| Issuer | Product | Input or population | Geography | Property type | Displayed period | Publication or access date | Revision field |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Dubai Land Department | Rental Index service | **Input:** one contract and property query. **Underlying data:** DLD's Smart Residential Rent Index note names registered rental contracts, outlier exclusion and weighted averages, but gives no period-specific estimation sample. | Residential areas across Dubai, including free zones and privately developed areas, excluding DIFC, according to the [official Smart Residential Rent Index note](https://dubailand.gov.ae/media/thwlcxn4/smart_rental_index_en.pdf). | Residential form: hotel apartment, apartment or villa. | Point calculation using entered fields. No public historical result series is displayed. | Smart Rental Index announcement: [2 January 2025](https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/news-media/smart-rental-index-announcement). Service and PDF accessed 29 September 2026. | **Revision field not displayed.** The PDF says the index is updated annually and building classifications can be updated; it does not expose a historical result revision log. |
| Dubai Land Department with Property Finder | Residential Rental Performance Index | **Series context:** registered lease counts appear beside the index, but the page does not identify the period-specific records used to estimate each point. | Emirate of Dubai; the RRPI page does not state the service's DIFC exclusion. | Overall, apartments, villas and townhouses. | Monthly chart from December 2012 to November 2022; yearly, quarterly and monthly views. | Launch article: [27 February 2022](https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/news-media/dld-first-ever-residential-rental-performance-index-rrpi-for-dubai-released/). Series page accessed 29 September 2026. | **Revision field not displayed.** Values are labelled preliminary. A method-change note is present, but no historical-value revision history is shown. |

::figure{src="images/blog/dubai-rent-index-source-register-2026/inline-1.png" alt="Physical comparison of the DLD Rental Index service and the 120-point RRPI series" caption="The service takes one property query; the RRPI page exposes a historical series ending in November 2022."}

The neutral read is simple: issuer adjacency does not make the products comparable. Product name, input, observation unit and time basis have to match before values can be placed in one series.

## What the live Rental Index service exposes

The public Rental Index is an immediate calculation service, not a published table of observations. DLD says the customer enters the tenancy contract expiry date, property type, region, room count and current annual rent, then views the required information. The [service description](https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/eservices/rental-index/) and [current form](https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/eservices/rental-index/rental-index/) were accessed on 29 September 2026.

| Field class | Visible residential fields | What the field establishes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Contract | Contract end date; current annual rent | The tenancy period endpoint and the rent supplied by the user |
| Property | Hotel apartment, apartment or villa; bedrooms | The residential category used for the query |
| Identifier route | DEWA premise number, Ejari contract number or area; route-specific building, community, land or municipality fields | The property or locality being matched |
| Returned result | Not displayed before a completed query and CAPTCHA | No result was recorded in this source register |

Ejari is DLD's tenancy-registration system. A DEWA premise number identifies premises in Dubai Electricity and Water Authority records. Those are input identifiers, not observations in a statistical time series.

The 2025 [Smart Rental Index announcement](https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/news-media/smart-rental-index-announcement) says the residential calculation uses building classifications covering structural characteristics, finishes, maintenance, location, services and facilities. Its companion [official PDF](https://dubailand.gov.ae/media/thwlcxn4/smart_rental_index_en.pdf), accessed 29 September 2026, adds energy efficiency, outlier exclusion and weighted averages. The PDF says the index is updated annually.

A separate [worked calculator example](/insights/rera-rent-calculator-worked-example) shows why the entered rent, calculator comparison point and any renewal arithmetic must stay in different fields. A hypothetical or returned calculator value is not an RRPI observation.

## What the RRPI page still publishes

The accessible RRPI page is a dated historical surface. Its monthly chart contains 120 data points from December 2012 to November 2022. The page shows a 2013 base of 1 and identifies Q3 2022 as its reference period when [accessed on 29 September 2026](https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/open-data/residential-rental-performance-index/).

| RRPI field | Displayed value | Period | Status on page |
| --- | ---: | --- | --- |
| Overall monthly index | 0.996 | November 2022 | Preliminary |
| Overall monthly index price | AED 54,886 | November 2022 | Published beside the monthly index |
| Apartment monthly index | 1.006 | November 2022 | Published component |
| Apartment monthly index price | AED 50,304 | November 2022 | Published component |
| Villa and townhouse monthly index | 0.929 | November 2022 | Published component |
| Villa and townhouse monthly index price | AED 142,939 | November 2022 | Published component |
| Overall quarterly index | 0.988 | Q3 2022 | Preliminary |
| Overall yearly index | 0.884 | 2021 | Preliminary |

The neutral read is that these are index fields and related index-price fields returned by the RRPI page. They are not asking rents, calculator outputs or sales-price observations. The page's November 2022 endpoint is the boundary of the accessible series, not evidence about the state of the rental market in September 2026.

:::aside{title="Method label, not a transferred methodology"}
The RRPI page says the residential rental performance index uses a hedonic regression model. The paragraph below it and the linked methodology PDF use house-price terminology. This register records the RRPI page's model label but does not import the linked sales-index methodology into the rental series.
:::

## Population and sample are not the same field

The official pages provide market context but do not publish a period-specific estimation sample for every RRPI point. DLD's [27 February 2022 launch article](https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/news-media/dld-first-ever-residential-rental-performance-index-rrpi-for-dubai-released/) says 51,452 leases were registered in January 2022: 52% were new, 48% renewed, 81% annual and 19% non-annual. The same article reports a January 2022 overall monthly index of 0.938 and an index price of AED 51,101.

Those returned fields can sit beside each other, but the article does not say that all 51,452 registered leases formed the estimation sample for the 0.938 index. The registered count is therefore recorded as market context, not silently relabelled as the model sample.

The [2 January 2025 Smart Rental Index announcement](https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/news-media/smart-rental-index-announcement) gives another contextual total: more than 900,000 registered rental contracts in 2024, stated as 8% growth from the prior year. It does not assign that count to one calculator result or to a point in the RRPI series.

For a bounded extract, the record-level nouns matter:

- **Registered lease or contract:** a DLD registration count for a stated period.
- **Calculator input:** a value entered for one contract or property query.
- **Calculator result:** the fields returned after that query is completed.
- **Index observation:** a monthly, quarterly or yearly value in the RRPI series.
- **Editorial classification:** this register's description of a product as a service or a series.

## Revision status is not established

Neither accessible product page exposes the evidence needed for a changed or unchanged historical-value claim. The Smart Residential Rent Index PDF says the index is updated annually. It also says an owner or landlord can request an update to a building classification. Those statements describe update processes, not a public revision field attached to a past calculator result.

The [RRPI page](https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/open-data/residential-rental-performance-index/) labels its displayed values preliminary and says DLD and Property Finder may adjust methodologies, with changes published through user notes. That establishes the possibility of a method change. It does not establish that any listed historical value was revised, nor that it stayed unchanged.

A defensible revision comparison needs two bound captures of the same product, with the same field names and observation periods, followed by a code comparison. This article has one capture dated 29 September 2026. Its reportable result is therefore **revision field not displayed** and **change status not established**.

The DLD footer stated that the site was updated on 23 September 2026. That footer applies to the site, not specifically to either product page, so it is not used as a product revision date.

## How to cite each product without mixing it

The Rental Index service citation needs the input route and access date: for example, “DLD Rental Index service, residential query by Ejari contract number, accessed 29 September 2026.” If a result is used, the saved input fields and returned fields belong in separate records.

The RRPI citation needs the frequency, observation period, status and access date: for example, “DLD Residential Rental Performance Index, overall monthly index 0.996, November 2022, preliminary, accessed 29 September 2026.”

The base belongs with the series too. DLD's launch article states a 2013 base year, January 2013 monthly base and Q1 2013 quarterly base. None of those fields should be attached to a current calculator result.

## FAQ, checked 29 September 2026

::::faq
:::faq-item{q="Is the DLD Rental Index a time series?"}
The public Rental Index is an input-driven calculation service. Its current page does not expose a historical series of calculator results, so it should not be cited as though it were the RRPI chart.
:::
:::faq-item{q="How current is the DLD Residential Rental Performance Index?"}
The accessible monthly chart ends in November 2022. That is the page's visible boundary when accessed on 29 September 2026, not a current September 2026 rental reading.
:::
:::faq-item{q="Does DLD revise its rental-index data?"}
The Smart Residential Rent Index note says the product is updated annually, and the RRPI page allows for methodology adjustments with user notes. Neither accessible page displays a historical-value revision log, so a changed or unchanged claim is not established from this single capture.
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:::callout{variant="note" title="Keep the source register current"}
Subscribe for the next quarterly report and the next source-method update.
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