How long does it take to find a tenant in Dubai Hills? What new towers show, and what 2027 brings

How long will your new Dubai Hills flat stay empty before the first tenant moves in? The record says months, not weeks. Take towers handed over from 2019 to 2022. A typical flat waited 5.2 months to find a tenant in Dubai Hills (counting flats rented within two years). In towers handed over in 2023 and 2024, the wait was 6.6 months. A quarter of those flats waited more than a year.

One note before the numbers. No public source gives the handover date of every tower. So I start each tower’s clock on the day its first tenancy contract was registered (Ejari). In past buildings, that came about two months after DLD showed the tower 100 percent built. So the time from the day you get your keys may run a little longer than shown here. These figures also count registered tenancies only, so they show the least that tenants have taken, not how many flats are empty. The full method is at the end.

So think twice before you budget twelve months of rent from the day the keys arrive. The record has rarely delivered that year.

I could not find another source that puts three things side by side. So this article does. First, what happened in every new tower since 2019. Second, how the towers handed over in 2025 and 2026 are renting right now. And third, what the 2027 wave of new towers could mean for anyone getting keys next.

One landlord, one new tower

Picture a landlord who got the keys this summer to a two-bedroom flat in a new Dubai Hills tower. She did her sums the usual way: rent times twelve, minus the service charge.

She advertised at about AED 159,000, the typical asking rent for a two-bedroom on 12 October. That felt safe. Then she counted the other adverts in Dubai Hills. There were 2,482 apartments for rent, and the newest towers had the most.

Meanwhile, the typical rent actually agreed for a new two-bedroom tenancy from July to September was AED 130,000. Her neighbours in the same tower were also advertising. Some still had the developer’s snagging list taped to the door.

She is an illustration built from the group figures, not a real client. Still, her question is real: how many months will this take, and what rent should she ask?

Where I stand: I advise buyers, sellers and investors in Dubai Hills Estate. The data is public record. The estimates are mine, not DLD or developer forecasts, and none of this is advice on a single flat.

What you will get from this article

1. How many empty months to budget (estimate), based on what really happened in Dubai Hills.
2. How the 2025 and 2026 towers are renting today, and at what rent.
3. Why a tenant who renews now pays more than a new tenant, and why that matters.
4. How the 2027 to 2028 wave of new towers could arrive while your tower is still filling.
5. What to do now: set the right rent, decide on furniture and cheques, and plan your first year on its own.

Key takeaways

• Expect empty months, not weeks: in towers handed over from 2019 to 2022, a typical flat waited 5.2 months for its first tenant (3,620 flats). In towers handed over in 2023 and 2024, it waited 6.6 months (631 flats).
• When a tower opens matters more than its size: towers handed over from 2019 to 2022 rented half their flats in 2.4 to 8.1 months. Towers handed over in 2023 and 2024 took 16.2 to 19.8 months.
• Nothing this big has been tested: no Dubai Hills tower of 850 flats or more has filled up before. Elvira, with 902, is the first.
• The 2025 and 2026 towers sit in between: take the eight with five months or more of tenants. Six are renting faster than the 2023 to 2024 towers did, and all eight slower than 2019 to 2022.
• Asking is not agreed: for the same kind of flat, asking rents sit 12.6 percent above the rent tenants actually agree, and 15.3 percent in the newest towers (online adverts, a rough guide).
• Your first year earns much less: after the empty months, first-year net yield runs about 1.9 to 2.7 points below a normal rented year (estimate).

How long it takes to find a tenant in Dubai Hills: the record since 2019

Let’s start with the record, because it is longer than most people think. Seventeen Dubai Hills towers and tower groups have at least two years of tenancies behind them. They were handed over between July 2019 and June 2024.

How fast did past towers fill up?

The answer depends far more on when a tower opened than on anything else.

Take the 13 towers handed over from 2019 to 2022. At month six, the typical one had 45.6 percent of its flats rented. By month twelve, it had 62.7 percent. Each one rented half its flats within 2.4 to 8.1 months. Sway Residences was the fastest, at 2.4 months. Park Point was the slowest of that group, at 8.1.

Now take the four towers handed over in 2023 and 2024: Golf Suites, Prive Residence, Socio and Golf Ville. At month six, the typical one had only 26.8 percent rented. At month twelve, 43.0 percent. Renting half their flats took 16.2 to 19.8 months.

That is the same estate, with similar towers. Yet they filled at roughly half the speed. In my reading, the earlier towers opened into a rising market and a fast-growing population. The later ones opened while older flats were already coming back to the market. The data shows the gap clearly. It cannot prove the cause.

Here is the same story flat by flat. Among flats that found a tenant within two years, the wait from handover to the first tenant was:

Handed over	Flats	Typical wait (median)	Middle half of flats
2019 to 2022	3,620	5.2 months	3.1 to 8.1 months
2023 to 2024	631	6.6 months	3.6 to 12.6 months

These waits only count flats that found a tenant within two years. I leave out flats still empty after that, so the true wait is longer, not shorter.

Does the size of the tower matter?

You would think a big tower takes longer. The record is too thin to say.

Only two towers in the record have more than 500 flats: Park Heights 2 (557, two towers) and Acacia (551, three buildings). They rented half their flats in 7.3 and 8.0 months, close to the middle of the pack. Thirteen towers have between 200 and 500 flats, and the typical one took 7.9 months. Two have under 200, and the typical one took 5.4 months. Those groups hold only two, thirteen and two towers. They do not give a firm answer.

One thing the record does say is plain. No Dubai Hills tower of 850 flats or more has ever filled up before. The largest is 557. Elvira, which registered its first tenancy on 3 September 2026, is the first test above that size. The 2027 to 2028 wave includes towers of that size.

Have you seen the claim that the biggest tower filled at less than half the speed of smaller ones? That figure counts Park Ridge as one 1,056-flat project. In fact, its three towers were handed over more than a year apart, from August 2021 to September 2022. Counted tower by tower, Park Ridge Tower C rented half its flats in 6.9 months, which is normal for its time.

Did the first tenants pay more?

They did, slightly, and the higher rent never came back. I compared each tower’s new tenancies with those signed in its first four months. My comparison holds size, bedrooms, month and tower the same. Tenancies signed in months 4 to 11 came in about 3 to 4 percent lower. Months 12 to 23 were about 6 percent lower. From month 24 on, about 7 to 8 percent lower (11,461 new tenancies, 2019 to 2026). The ranges show small changes in how I set up the comparison.

So, on average, the first tenants paid the most, and rents did not jump back up after the first year. That describes this sample, not every tenancy. A new tower’s rents do not “settle up” once it fills. If anything, they settle down.

What the 2022 wave of new towers did

Dubai Hills has taken in a wave before. In 2022, 2,244 apartments reached 100 percent built on the DLD register, at the time the most in any year.

Yet rents did not fall. My rent tracker compares the same kind of flat over time. It rose about 38 percent in the year to the second quarter of 2023 (11,062 tenancies, 2020 to 2026). At the same time, the community’s population grew by 8,036 people in 2023, per Dubai Statistics Center estimates.

In my reading, demand outran that wave. That is the key difference from today, as the next section shows. So treat the 38 percent as a guide to direction and size, not a precise figure.

Dubai Hills new tower rents: what is happening now

The 2025 and 2026 towers are opening into a very different market. Let’s look at it in four parts. First, how fast they fill. Second, what rent tenants agree. Third, how far asking rents sit above that. And last, why renewing now costs more than moving.

How the 2025 and 2026 towers are filling

Here is every tower whose first tenancy came in February 2025 or later. Each one sits against the past record at the same age. The last two columns show how full the typical older tower was at the same month.

Tower	Flats	First tenant	Full months since	Rented on 12 Oct	Towers of 2019 to 2022 at that month	Towers of 2023 to 2024 at that month
The Grove by Iman	125	Feb 2025	20	59.2%	70.4%	52.1%
Ellington House 1	150	Sep 2025	12	39.3%	62.7%	43.0%
Park Field	306	Oct 2025	11	54.2%	60.8%	41.9%
Park Horizon	306	Nov 2025	10	45.1%	59.9%	40.3%
Lime Gardens	293	Dec 2025	9	48.1%	58.0%	39.2%
Hills Park	450	Jan 2026	8	24.4%	57.2%	35.3%
Golf Grand	329	Mar 2026	6	43.8%	45.6%	26.8%
Ellington House 2	166	Apr 2026	5	29.5%	37.9%	21.3%
Parkside Views	389	Jul 2026	2	16.7%	6.4%	6.4%
Golf Residences by Fortimo	200	Jul 2026	2	8.0%	6.4%	6.4%
399 Hills Park B	199	Sep 2026	1	3.0%	2.1%	4.1%
Ellington House 3	110	Sep 2026	1	2.7%	2.1%	4.1%
Elvira	902	Sep 2026	1	0.4%	2.1%	4.1%

Read it row by row. Take the eight towers with five months or more of tenants. Six are renting faster than the 2023 to 2024 towers did, and all eight slower than 2019 to 2022. On the table’s figures, Golf Grand comes closest to the faster record, and Parkside Views has started quickly. Two towers are slower than both: Hills Park at month eight, and Ellington House 1, which slowed after a quick start. One caution: the share rented runs to 12 October, a little past the last full month. That flatters the newest towers slightly.

Then there is Elvira. Its 902 flats make it the biggest tower group the estate has seen open at once. On 12 October, 39 days after its first tenant, the records showed 4 tenancies. Registrations can lag by weeks, so this count will rise. Even so, it is the number to watch.

How can these towers fill faster than the 2023 to 2024 group while rents are falling? In my reading, they fill because they rent at today’s lower rents. A new flat at a lower rent is an easy move for a tenant in an older building. The data shows the speed. It cannot show each tenant’s reason.

More new tenancies, lower rents

The new towers have changed the count. From June to September 2026, Dubai Hills registered 1,463 new apartment tenancies, against 775 a year earlier. The 2025 and 2026 towers took 609 of them. In the third quarter alone, they took 508, up from 20 in the third quarter of 2025.

Rents moved the other way. My rent tracker compares the same kind of flat over time. It fell 18.0 percent from March to September 2026 and 14.4 percent from a year earlier (7,267 twelve-month tenancies). It has held flat for the last three months, at 86.1, 85.9 and 86.0 in July, August and September. My Dubai Hills rent article explains how the tracker works.

Other sources point the same way. Cushman & Wakefield put Dubai Hills apartment rents down 10 percent in the second quarter of 2026, per Khaleej Times. Separately, a brokerage studied DLD contract data for the same building and type of flat. It found new tenancies 15.3 percent cheaper than in January, per Khaleej Times. As of 14 October, I found no third-quarter reading from the big consultancies.

Was it the war or the new towers?

None of this happened in a calm market. The war with Iran began on 28 February 2026, when the US and Israel struck Tehran, per Al Jazeera. A ceasefire followed in early April, and on 8 July the US president said the ceasefire was over, per ABC News. In late September the conflict was still a concern, while UAE airports stayed open, per Gulf News. Dubai’s population dipped by about 61,000 in March, per The National. By the end of June it was back at 4.74 million. In my reading, the war and the new towers both pushed rents down, and the war hit first, in March. The data cannot split the two, so treat them as likely reasons, not proven ones.

Asking rent is not the rent

This is where most first-year budgets go wrong. Landlords price off the adverts, and the adverts sit well above what tenants agree.

On 12 October, Property Finder showed 2,482 different Dubai Hills apartments for rent. That count leaves out repeats and five off-plan adverts. I then compared the adverts with new twelve-month tenancies registered from July to September, for the same tower, bedrooms and size. On that basis, asking rents sat 12.6 percent above agreed rents (1,084 tenancies, 2,406 adverts). In the 2025 and 2026 towers, the gap was 15.3 percent. In older towers, 10.5 percent. These are online adverts, so treat the gap as a rough guide.

Bedrooms	Typical agreed rent, Jul to Sep 2026	Typical asking rent, all adverts 12 Oct	Gap for the same kind of flat
1	AED 85,000 (490 tenancies)	AED 100,000	11.9%
2	AED 130,000 (483 tenancies)	AED 159,000	13.7%
3	AED 240,000 (109 tenancies)	AED 260,000	7.7%

Look at the advert counts in the newest towers, too. Golf Residences by Fortimo showed 186 adverts against 16 registered tenancies so far. Golf Grand showed 181. Parkside Views showed 143 against 65 rented flats. Now take the June to September pace of 366 new tenancies a month. At that pace, all 2,482 adverts would take about 6.8 months to rent. That is a simple ratio, not a forecast: new adverts keep coming and some flats never rent. Some adverts also repeat across agents, so all of these counts are a rough guide.

Furniture and cheques in the adverts

Two things stand out in the 12 October adverts. First, furniture. About 22 percent of adverts offered a furnished flat, and these asked about 14 percent more for the same kind of flat. That is a gap in asking rents, not proof that furniture raises the rent tenants agree. In the towers handed over in 2026, though, under 6 percent were furnished. So a furnished flat in a new tower stands out from the rest of its own building.

Second, cheques. Only 140 of 2,482 advert titles mentioned cheques at all. In the towers handed over in 2026, under 4 percent did. Most landlords in new towers are not yet using payment terms to win tenants. Again, these are online adverts and a rough guide.

How fast do empty flats rent again?

The older towers give a related measure. Take Dubai Hills apartment tenancies that ended without renewal from January to May 2026. Of those flats, 35.7 percent had a new registered tenancy within 90 days (658 tenancies). A year earlier the share was 37.2 percent (744). In the second half of 2025, it was 47.8 percent (1,118). Among flats that did rent again, the typical wait was 11 days, against 20 a year before.

The records cannot see sales, owners moving in or flats left empty on purpose, so this is not an empty-flat count. Still, it shows the shape of the market. The quick rentals stayed quick, and the slow ones got slower. My guide to Dubai apartment vacancy days uses the same idea for Business Bay and Dubai Creek Harbour.

Why staying now costs a tenant more than moving

This one surprised me. For years, a tenant who renewed paid less than a new tenant for the same kind of flat. My comparison shows it in every month from January 2023 to March 2026. Over that time, renewals ran about 8 to 32 percent below new tenancies (12,901 tenancies compared).

Then it flipped. In April 2026 renewals moved above new tenancies for the first time since January 2023, by 1.8 percent. By July they were 8.7 percent above. In August, 4.7 percent. In September, 6.6 percent. Monthly renewal counts are small, at 108 in September, so read the monthly figures as a range.

Why does this matter for a new tower? On average, a tenant in an older building now pays more to stay than a new tenancy would cost. That gap gives them a reason to move. Moving still costs a tenant money, though, from agency fees to a new deposit and a DEWA connection. So a new tower has to beat the renewal rent by enough to cover that. New towers fill by catching those movers. So the rent that wins them is today’s new-tenancy rent, not the renewal rent.

There is a second half to this. Renewal rents fell only 2.9 percent from March to September (5,634 renewals). So once you have a tenant, keeping that tenant is worth more than squeezing the first rent.

Does the rent cap stop rents falling?

No. The cap only limits increases at renewal. Under Decree No. 43 of 2013, Article 1, the allowed increase depends on how far the rent sits below the average for similar flats. If it is up to 10 percent below, the landlord cannot raise it. Beyond that, the steps are 5, 10, 15 and 20 percent, for gaps of 11 to 20, 21 to 30, 31 to 40 and over 40 percent. DLD publishes that average through its Smart Rental Index, launched on 2 January 2025. Per DLD, the index rates each building. It looks at things such as structure, finishes, maintenance, location and services. So check the index for your own flat before you set or change a rent.

The second rule is about notice. Under Article 14 of Law No. 26 of 2007, as amended by Law No. 33 of 2008, either side must give 90 days’ notice before the contract ends to change its terms, unless both agreed otherwise. So a lower first rent is not locked in forever. The further it sits below the index average, the more room the rules allow at renewal. My rent article covers the cap in more detail.

Getting keys in the next year? Your tower’s own tenant count, set against the record at the same age, tells you more than any brochure. It is worth checking before you set a rent.

First-year rental income in Dubai Hills: what to expect

So far we have the record and the present. Now for what comes next, which is what every owner getting keys really wants to know.

What is coming, and when

On 30 September 2026, the DLD register showed 21 Dubai Hills apartment projects under construction, with 8,743 homes. My Dubai Hills new supply article lists them all, using the same method as my JVC supply pipeline study. Here are the more advanced ones, as the register shows them:

How far built (DLD register)	Project	Homes	Completion date filed with DLD
65% or more (7 projects, 2,305 homes)	Greenside Residence	490	none filed
	Club Drive	529	none filed
	Club Place	473	31 Dec 2028
	Parkside Hills	370	30 Jun 2028
	Golf Hillside	185	31 Dec 2028
	Mallside Residence	148	30 Nov 2026
	Ellington House IV	110	none filed
50% to 65% (3 projects, 2,025 homes)	Palace Residences Dubai Hills	962	30 Apr 2028
	Park Lane	854	31 Oct 2028
	Parkland	209	30 Nov 2028
Under 50% (11 projects)	various	4,413	2026 to 2029

Emaar has finished early. Every one of its 8 Dubai Hills apartment projects started since 2022 finished before the date filed with DLD, by a median 9.5 months. (Parkside Views has no filed date, so I used its marketed date.)

My Emaar off-plan investor guide covers the developer in more depth. Based on how fast these towers are being built, about 5,000 homes in Dubai Hills could be handed over in 2027 (estimate). If Emaar keeps finishing early by its usual margin instead, the peak moves to 2028, at about 5,500 (estimate). The record so far points to the earlier date.

Now put that next to how fast towers fill. A tower in the 2019 to 2022 group rented half its flats in a median 6.4 months. A tower in the 2023 to 2024 group took a median 17.9 months. So if your tower is handed over in early 2027, it may still be filling when the next group of towers is handed over later that year. In the slower case, it may still be filling in 2028.

Three scenarios for your first year

I am not going to give you one forecast. Instead, here are three scenarios for a typical two-bedroom flat, each built from the record. All figures are estimates.

The inputs come from my off-plan vs ready article. They are a ready price of AED 2.38 million and an agreed rent of AED 130,000. The service charge comes to about AED 22,500 a year (estimate). That uses the 16-tower median of AED 21.17 per square foot, without the per-bay parking line, on about 1,065 square feet. I assume no letting fee and no management fee.

Here, net yield means rent received minus the service charge, divided by the price. It is not your full return. It leaves out purchase fees, financing, furniture, repairs, insurance, and any cooling or utility charges you pay while the flat is empty. You pay the full service charge during the empty months too, and those months count from the tower’s first registered tenancy.

Two-bedroom, estimate	Demand picks up	Demand stays flat	Demand weakens
Empty months before the first tenant	3 to 5 months	5 to 7 months	7 to 10 months
Rent agreed	AED 136,500 (+5%)	AED 130,000	AED 123,500 (-5%)
Rent received in year one	AED 79,600 to 102,400	AED 54,200 to 75,800	AED 20,600 to 51,500
First-year net yield	2.4% to 3.4%	1.3% to 2.2%	-0.1% to 1.2%
Net yield once rented (one empty month a year)	4.3%	4.1%	3.8%
Sign to watch for	New towers fill as fast as 2019 to 2022	Rent tracker stays near 86; new towers stay in between	Elvira and Hills Park stay slow; adverts keep rising

Each scenario rests on the record. The “picks up” case matches the faster towers of 2019 to 2022. Next, the “flat” case sits on the typical waits of the two older groups, 5.2 and 6.6 months. Finally, the “weakens” case matches the slower half of 2023 to 2024. In that group, a quarter of flats waited more than a year. The rent changes also sit inside past ranges. From August to December in 2023, 2024 and 2025, my rent tracker rose 1.9 to 7.5 percent. That is history, not a forecast.

Which scenario does today look like?

The flat one, for now. The rent tracker has held near 86 for three months. Most new towers sit between the two older groups. But two signs lean towards “weakens”: Hills Park is slower than both, and the newest towers have far more adverts than tenants.

The same arithmetic holds for other sizes. Take 5.2 empty months. The first year then comes to about 2.3 percent for a one-bedroom and 2.4 percent for a three-bedroom (estimate). Once rented, they yield about 4.2 and 4.4 percent. So the first year runs about 1.9 to 2.0 points lower. With 6.6 empty months, the gap widens to about 2.5 to 2.7 points (estimate). One note: the three-bedroom uses an AED 225,000 rent, the June to August median, and a ready price of AED 3.90 million. This article’s July to September median is AED 240,000, which would lift it slightly.

What could change the picture

Three things, mainly.

Population. Dubai Hills is still adding people, but fewer each year. Dubai Statistics Center estimates show 6,800 residents in 2022 and 14,836 in 2023. They show 22,071 in 2024 and 27,971 in 2025. Each year added fewer than the last: 8,036, then 7,235, then 5,900. I use the trend only, since the community boundary may differ from the master plan.

Season. In each of the last three years, my rent tracker rose between August and December: 4.3 percent in 2023, 1.9 percent in 2024 and 7.5 percent in 2025. That is history, not a promise.

Rates and holiday lets. The UAE Central Bank raised its base rate to 3.9 percent from 17 September 2026, per its own release. Earlier in the year, Betterhomes spoke to The National. It said part of the rise in adverts came from holiday-let landlords moving to yearly tenancies. Both add to the number of homes for rent.

Four signs to watch each quarter

1. Your tower against the record. Count your tower’s registered tenancies on DXB Interact. Then compare the share rented with the table above at the same month.
2. Elvira’s count. The first tower group above 850 flats is the best guide to how the big 2027 to 2028 towers might fill.
3. My rent tracker. If it stays near 86, read “flat”. A move of a few points up or down is the first sign of the other two scenarios.
4. The next site inspections. Check the advanced projects on the DLD project status page. Once a tower shows 100 percent, the first tenants have come about two months later (median 1.9 months, 12 buildings).

Your first tenant in a new Dubai Hills building: what to do now

These are not calls to buy, sell or hold. They are the checks I would run in your place.

If you get your keys in 2026

• Price to the agreed rent, not the asking rent. Start from the rents tenants actually agree in your tower and bedroom type. Asking sits about 12.6 percent higher, and more in new towers (online adverts, a rough guide).
• Budget for empty months. Use 5 to 7 months as a planning range for a typical flat (estimate). If your tower is behind the table above, plan for longer.
• Think about furniture. Under 6 percent of adverts in the towers handed over in 2026 are furnished. A furnished flat stands out, and furnished adverts ask about 14 percent more (a rough guide). Weigh that against the cost.
• Offer more cheques early. Few new-tower adverts mention them. More cheques can widen the pool of tenants. They also spread your income and add some payment risk, so weigh both.
• Snag before you rent. Dubai’s jointly owned property law (Law No. 6 of 2019, Article 40) makes the developer responsible for faulty fittings for one year from handover, and for structural defects for ten years from completion. A snagging inspection before the tenant moves in puts any fault on record while that first year runs.
• Holiday lets need a permit. Short holiday lets need a holiday home permit from Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism. In 2026, though, many landlords moved the other way, from holiday lets to yearly tenancies.
• Keep the first tenant. Renewal rents have held up far better than new ones. The rent cap and the 90-day notice rule apply at renewal.

If you get your keys in 2027

• Know who else is getting keys. Based on building speed, about 5,000 homes could be handed over in 2027 (estimate). Check which towers near yours are 65 percent built or more.
• Plan the first year on its own. Do not blend it into a five-year average. Use the empty-month range and the scenario table above.
• Keep cash for the gap. In the weaker case, first-year rent may barely cover the service charge. My guide on how to stress test a Dubai property portfolio shows how to test it. My guide to Dubai property payment plans explains the handover payment that falls due at the same time.
• Watch the season. In past years, tenancies starting from September to December met rising rents. That is history, not a promise.

If you are choosing which tower to buy

• A tower that has filled up is a different buy. Once a tower has its tenants, it has a rent record you can check. New ones do not. My guide to buying a tenanted apartment explains what you get with a tenant in place.
• Read the handover date as a range. My handover price article shows what prices did in the year after handover.
• Compare off-plan and ready on the same terms. My off-plan vs ready article puts a price on the wait, and my Dubai Hills price article has the sales record.
• Check the deal, then the timing. Start with how to tell if a Dubai property is a good deal. Then see rent vs buy in Dubai and my take on the best time to buy property in Dubai. For the wider trade-off, read off-plan vs ready properties in Dubai.

My JVC article on how fast new towers filled uses a similar method for another community. And for a worked example of a first-month owner checklist, see my Six Senses handover checklist.

Let’s go back to our landlord. She now knows her tower’s record. She also knows the agreed rent is about AED 130,000, not the 159,000 she advertised at. Most of all, she knows her first year is a different year. So she can plan for it instead of meeting it by surprise.

How I built this, and how to read the numbers

Where the numbers come from

• Place: Dubai Hills Estate, the Emaar and Meraas master community. On the DLD register it sits inside Hadaeq Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid.
• Tenancies: every registered Dubai Hills apartment tenancy (Ejari) on DXB Interact, from the first in July 2019 to 12 October 2026.
• Handover date: the first registered tenancy in each tower, used as a stand-in for handover.
• Flats per tower: the DLD project register count, or the Property Monitor count where the register does not split towers.
• Rented: a flat counts as rented once it has any registered tenancy.
• Not an empty-flat count: some owners live in their flats or never rent them out. So these figures show the least that tenants have taken, not how many flats are empty.
• What it cannot tell you: the exact handover date of each tower, whether an empty flat is on the market, or what any single flat will rent for.

How to read the numbers

• Counted: taken straight from the records, such as tenancies and adverts.
• Calculated: my arithmetic on those records, such as months to rent half a tower.
• Estimate: a figure that depends on an assumption, such as a first-year yield. It says “estimate” every time.
• My reading: my view on why something happened. Each one comes with a caveat.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to find a tenant in Dubai Hills for a new flat?

In Dubai Hills towers handed over from 2019 to 2022, a typical flat rented within two years waited 5.2 months for its first tenant (3,620 flats). In towers handed over in 2023 and 2024, it waited 6.6 months (631 flats). A quarter of those waited more than a year. Flats still empty after two years are left out.

How long does a new Dubai Hills tower take to rent half its flats?

It depends on when the tower opened. Dubai Hills towers handed over from 2019 to 2022 rented half their flats in 2.4 to 8.1 months, with a median of 6.4. Towers handed over in 2023 and 2024 took 16.2 to 19.8 months. Size made less difference, and no tower above 557 flats has filled before.

Are the 2025 and 2026 Dubai Hills towers renting faster?

Mostly yes against 2023 to 2024, but not against 2019 to 2022. On 12 October 2026, Park Field had 54.2 percent of its flats rented after 11 months, Lime Gardens 48.1 percent after 9 and Golf Grand 43.8 percent after 6. Hills Park and Ellington House 1 are slower than both older groups.

How much below asking do Dubai Hills tenants agree rents?

On 12 October 2026, Dubai Hills asking rents sat 12.6 percent above the rents tenants agreed from July to September, for the same kind of flat. In the 2025 and 2026 towers the gap was 15.3 percent, and in older towers 10.5 percent. These are online adverts, so treat the gap as a rough guide.

Why does renewing now cost Dubai Hills tenants more than moving?

New-tenancy rents fell 18.0 percent from March to September 2026, while renewal rents fell only 2.9 percent. For the same kind of flat, renewals moved above new tenancies in April 2026 for the first time since January 2023, and ran 6.6 percent above in September. Tenants now have a reason to move into new towers.

What first-year rental income should I expect in Dubai Hills?

Take a Dubai Hills two-bedroom at AED 2.38 million and AED 130,000 rent. If demand stays flat, the first year comes to about 1.3 to 2.2 percent net (estimate). That assumes 5 to 7 empty months and the service charge. Once rented, the same flat yields about 4.1 percent net with one empty month a year (estimate).

Should I furnish a new Dubai Hills flat to rent it faster?

On 12 October 2026, furnished Dubai Hills adverts asked about 14 percent more than unfurnished ones for the same kind of flat. In the towers handed over in 2026, under 6 percent of adverts were furnished, so a furnished flat stands out. These are online adverts and a rough guide, and the cost of furniture must come off the gain.

Will the 2027 handovers make it harder to find a tenant in Dubai Hills?

They could. Based on building speed, about 5,000 Dubai Hills homes could be handed over in 2027 (estimate). In the record, the typical tower took 6.4 to 17.9 months to rent half its flats, depending on the period. So a tower handed over in early 2027 may still be filling when the next group of towers is handed over.

How many tenants has Elvira found so far?

Elvira, with 902 flats, registered its first tenancy on 3 September 2026. By 12 October 2026, the records showed 4 tenancies. Registrations can lag by weeks, so the count will rise. Elvira is the first Dubai Hills tower group above 850 flats to look for tenants, so it is the one to watch.

Does the share of flats rented show how many are empty?

No. It counts flats with any registered tenancy against the flats on the DLD register. Some owners live in their flats, keep them empty or sell them, and the tenancy records cannot see that. So the figure shows the least tenants have taken, not how many flats are empty. A flat with no tenant may simply not be for rent.

I am Fahad Al Kuwari, real estate advisor for Dubai Hills Estate. Getting keys in a new tower? I can test your empty months and first year against the record, so you know how long it may take to find a tenant in Dubai Hills. You can reach me at fahadalkuwari.com.