Ready market share just dropped to 17.5% in April. Is anyone buying secondary?

April DLD data is out.

• Total AED 68.56bn in transactions, up 20%+ from March (Dubai Media Office, May 2).
• On the sales side, fäm Properties reports AED 48bn across 13,977 deals. Off-plan apartment share hit 82.5%, ready/secondary dropped to 17.5% (AIQYA Research, April DLD freehold data).
• Median apartment price at AED 1,865 psf, up from March. Off-plan apartments alone did AED 19.7bn, highest month of 2026 so far (Al Masdar Al Aqaari/DLD).

So volume is back, prices held up, but almost everything is flowing into off-plan. The secondary market is getting quieter while new launches absorb the demand.

Makes me wonder if developer payment plans have permanently shifted the math. Why buy secondary at full price when you can go off-plan at 1% monthly with a post-handover plan?

Anyone here actively buying or selling in the secondary market right now? What's it actually like out there?