As more and more expats move to Abu Dhabi, the number of available apartments is expanding, which is lowering the vacancy rate and raising rents by double digits. Rental costs in the capital are likely to keep going up because there aren't enough homes available and more small families and other expats are moving there. Also, project deliveries are not meeting their original goals.

Cavendish Maxwell's recent research shows that apartment rental prices in Abu Dhabi kept up in the third quarter of 2025, with a citywide year-on-year increase of 14.2%.

Haider Tuaima, managing director and head of real estate research at ValuStrat, says that rental prices rose significantly in the third quarter of 2025. The rental index rose 2.3% quarterly and 9.3% yearly. Apartment rentals went up 12.8% from one year to the next, while villa rents went up 5.6% from one year to the next.

Cavendish Maxwell says that the rate of expansion may be different in different parts of the city because of fresh supply delivery and changing tenant needs. Villa rents in Abu Dhabi also went up in the third quarter of 2025, although not as quickly as apartment rents. They went up 5.1 percent across the city compared to the same time last year.

"Demand for villas stayed high across the Emirate, but how well they sold varied from community to community. It went on to say, "Most areas saw rents go up every year, but a few neighborhoods saw rents stay mostly the same."

Cavendish Maxwell says that builders in Abu Dhabi will put up 8,000 new homes by the end of 2025 and 12,800 more in 2026. There are plans for 12,400 more units in 2027 and 21,400 more in 2028, but these numbers may not be accurate.

"We might not get as many properties delivered as we had planned in the next few years, based on how handovers have gone in the past." Andrew Laver, associate director of Cavendish Maxwell Abu Dhabi, said, "This staggered approach, which is common in Abu Dhabi's history, lets the market slowly take in new supply and stops sudden jumps in available stock."

The company noted that in the first nine months of the year, almost 2,700 flats, townhouses, and villas were put up for sale in the UAE capital. There was still interest from both end-users and investors.

Haider Tuaima remarked that the supply of new homes was still limited, with only 10.3% of the planned 2025 pipeline supplied by September. In the next five years, nevertheless, some 33,000 additional homes are expected to be built.

In the third quarter of this year, Abu Dhabi saw a lot of sales, with more than 6,400 residential unit transactions, mostly for off-plan apartments, villas, and townhouses. 5,100 of all transactions were for apartments. Sales of villas and townhouses went up 0.3% from the previous year. There weren't many new releases, so buyers turned to apartments.

Between July and September, the overall value of residential unit sales was Dh20.5 billion, with Dh16.3 billion coming from off-plan purchases. Andrew Laver stated, "We expect both sales and rental prices to go up even more in the near future. However, the rate of growth will depend on where you are as new supply comes to market."