Dubai office supply to 2030: why Grade A space stays tight

Dubai's office shortage is a supply story as much as a demand story. New Grade A buildings take years to deliver, most of the pipeline lands after 2028, and companies are arriving faster than towers are completing.

How much is coming

Estimates vary with what each consultancy counts, but they point the same way:

• Reidin counts around 1.13 million sq m of office space scheduled between 2027 and 2030, with 86.2% of it due from 2028 onwards.
• Savills expects just 1.9 million sq ft to complete in 2026, rising to 4.2 million sq ft by 2030.
• Knight Frank tracks around 24.2 million sq ft scheduled between 2026 and 2030, concentrated in Business Bay, Meydan City, Jumeirah Lake Towers and DIFC.

Total Dubai office stock stood at about 9.46 million sq m in mid-2026, according to Cavendish Maxwell, after 92,300 sq m was added in the first half of the year.

Business Bay's pipeline is built to sell

Knight Frank notes that Business Bay's entire under-construction office pipeline is build-to-sell stock. New towers are sold floor by floor to investors and owner-occupiers rather than held by a single landlord, which is why off-plan offices have become the district's main entry point.

Who is taking the space

• Banking and finance made up 32.5% of office demand and technology 23.1%, according to Knight Frank.
• The Dubai Chamber of Commerce registered more than 2,700 new companies in March 2026 alone, and DIFC added 775 firms in the first quarter.
• Deutsche Bank and Moody's have taken new space in DIFC, Citadel has been fitting out offices there, and DIFC Square was fully leased before completion.
• JLL put prime office vacancy at just 0.7% in the first quarter of 2026.

The other side of the ledger

The market is not one-way. Savills recorded no rental growth in the second quarter of 2026 for the first time since the first half of 2021, as occupiers took longer to decide amid regional uncertainty. ValuStrat's median asking-rent gauge fell 6.6% over the same quarter, even as its office capital-values index reached a record. Savills expects leasing to pick up gradually in the second half of 2026 rather than rebound sharply.

What it means for a 2031 handover

A tower completing in 2031 would arrive after most of today's pipeline. The question for buyers is whether demand keeps pace with the deliveries clustered in 2028 to 2030. The evidence so far, from company formation to pre-leasing of new buildings, suggests Grade A space in the core districts stays in demand, but it is a forecast, not a certainty. More on the Dubai office market.

Sources

• Reidin, Dubai office market analysis H1 2026
• Enterprise, Office rents are cooling in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for first time in years (July 2026)
• Khaleej Times, Dubai office prices jump 29% as investors chase prime assets (Knight Frank)
• Khaleej Times, Dubai office sales nearly triple to Dh15.8 billion in H1 2026 (Cavendish Maxwell)
• ICE, Dubai office sales rocket as off-plan market hits 15-year high (June 2026)
• Hedgeweek, Hedge funds and banks support Dubai office market despite regional tensions
• Khaleej Times, Dubai office rents stabilise as demand for Grade A space stays strong (Savills, July 2026)