Dubai has licensed 186 new property developers so far in 2026 — about 25 a month
A licence proves a company may sell in Dubai; it does not prove the company has ever delivered. With 186 new developers entering the market in seven and a half months, that distinction is the one a buyer has to make for themselves.
What happened
- 186 property development companies entered the Dubai market between January and mid-August 2026, according to Dubai Land Department data. — Gulf News, citing Dubai Land Department data,
- This represents approximately 25 new developers monthly. — Gulf News, citing Dubai Land Department data,
- The majority of new entrants — 180 companies — received licences from Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism. — Gulf News, citing Dubai Land Department data,
- Trakhees issued three additional licences, the Mohammed bin Rashid Establishment for Small and Medium Enterprises Development issued two, and Expo City Dubai granted one. — Gulf News, citing Dubai Land Department data,
The KÂMO View
A developer licence is a permission, not a track record — and in Dubai those two things are routinely heard as one. The emirate’s registration machinery is genuinely strict about what it governs: project registration, escrow accounts, advertising permits. Buyers reasonably read that strictness as a blanket assurance that any licensed name is a proven one. It is not. A licence means a company has cleared the requirements to sell. It says nothing about whether that company has ever handed over a finished building, in Dubai or anywhere else. At roughly 25 new entrants a month, the share of brochures reaching a buyer from companies with no delivery history behind them is rising, not falling.
What we would check, in order. First, that the company appears on the Dubai Land Department’s own register of approved developers — not just that a brochure says so. Second, that the specific project is registered and has an escrow account with a named escrow agent, because that is the mechanism which ties your instalments to certified construction progress rather than to a developer’s request. Third, what the company has actually completed and handed over before this one, with addresses. A first project from a new entrant is not disqualifying — every established developer had a first project — but it should be contracted as what it is. Read the delay and cancellation clauses before the payment plan, and weigh how much of the build is finished at each instalment date against how much you will have paid by then.
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The KÂMO Research Desk. “Dubai has licensed 186 new property developers so far in 2026 — about 25 a month.” KÂMO Market News, 15 August 2026. https://kamoproperty.com/news/dubai-186-new-developers/