Dubai's listed property REITs: what they own, pay out and report

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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A unit in a real estate investment trust, or REIT, is a share of a fund that owns buildings. Three such trusts publish figures on Dubai property: Emirates REIT, ENBD REIT and Dubai Residential REIT. Between them they report homes, office towers, a shopping mall and schools.

This guide describes the position as read in October 2026. It works from what the trusts themselves have published this year: results releases, a fact sheet, announcement lists, and one press report of annual results. Every figure below is the trust's own claim for the date it gives, and is attributed in that way. Nothing here is advice, and no trust is presented as better than another.

The guide is equally plain about its limits. The trusts' results documents say a great deal about rent, profit, valuation and dividends. They say very little about fees, the rulebook limits that apply to each trust, or tax. Those gaps are set out in the final section so that a reader knows which questions remain open.

As published by each trust: Dubai Residential REIT and Emirates REIT at 30 June 2026, ENBD REIT at 31 March 2026 (as reported by Zawya).

Three trusts and where they sit

Emirates REIT's website, read in October 2026, says it was founded in 2010, calls it the first REIT incorporated in the United Arab Emirates, and says it is incorporated in the Dubai International Financial Centre, the DIFC, and licensed by the Dubai Financial Services Authority, the DFSA. The same page says its shares were listed on Nasdaq Dubai on 8 April 2014 and names its seed investors as Dubai Islamic Bank, Tecom and Dubai Properties. Its manager is Equitativa (Dubai) Limited, which the website describes as part of a group regulated by the DFSA. The trust describes itself as Sharia-compliant.

Dubai Residential REIT is listed on the Dubai Financial Market. Its release of 3 August 2026, as carried by Zawya, gives its ticker on the Dubai Financial Market as DUBAIRESI and describes it as a Shariah-compliant fund managed by DHAM REIT Management. In a release of 24 June 2026 the trust said its initial public offering raised AED 2.1 billion, drew demand of more than AED 56 billion and was 26 times oversubscribed, and that the offer was enlarged from 12.5% to 15% of the units in issue. That release reports an award from EMEA Finance for the best initial public offering in the Middle East for 2025, and calls the trust the largest REIT in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. That description is the trust's own.

ENBD REIT is managed by Emirates NBD Asset Management Limited and is described as a Shariah compliant REIT in a Zawya report of its results for the financial year ended 31 March 2026. That report does not name the exchange on which its shares trade, and no filing of the trust itself was read for this guide, so the venue is left out here rather than assumed. Everything this guide says about ENBD REIT rests on that single report, which shows no publication date.

One practical difference shows at once. Emirates REIT and ENBD REIT report in United States dollars. Dubai Residential REIT reports in dirhams. The amounts in this guide stay in the currency each trust uses, and none is converted.

What Dubai Residential REIT holds

The residential trust owns rented homes and nothing else that its release describes. At 30 June 2026 it reported 35,976 residential units, against 35,701 a year earlier. The boilerplate of the same release, as carried by Zawya, speaks of 22 integrated communities and more than 35,900 homes.

The trust values that portfolio at AED 25.2 billion at 30 June 2026, up from AED 23.5 billion at 31 December 2025. It calls the figure gross asset value and defines it in a footnote as the fair market value of the real estate portfolio at that date. The release puts the rise at 6.9% and adds that growth on a like-for-like basis, which leaves out newly bought homes, was about 1.4%. The gap between the two numbers is the effect of acquisitions.

Two purchases are listed in the trust's news for the first half of 2026. A headline of 26 March 2026 reports the addition of Garden View Villas for AED 241 million. A headline of 30 June 2026 reports 220 townhouses at Jebel Ali Village for AED 894 million. As a worked example from the second headline alone, AED 894 million divided by 220 townhouses is about AED 4.06 million a townhouse. The two purchases together come to AED 1,135 million.

The operating figures the trust reports for the half are these. Average occupancy was 98.6%, against 98.1% in the first half of 2025. The retention rate, the share of tenants who stayed, was 94.1%. Average rent was AED 56,638 per leased unit, which the trust says is 7.7% higher than a year earlier, or AED 59.7 per square foot of leased area, up 7.5%.

How its dividend is worked out

Revenue for the six months to 30 June 2026 was AED 1,035.7 million, according to the release of 3 August 2026, up 8.1% from AED 957.8 million. The trust then reports a figure it calls net profit before fair value changes of investment property: AED 716.5 million, up 15.1% from AED 622.3 million. The name matters. It is profit before any gain or loss from revaluing the homes, so it reflects rent collected and costs paid, not a valuer's opinion.

The interim dividend is tied to that line. The board approved AED 573.2 million, or 4.4 fils per unit, which the release describes as about 80% of that profit. The arithmetic can be checked: 80% of AED 716.5 million is AED 573.2 million, and AED 573.2 million spread over the 13 billion units the release mentions is 4.4 fils a unit.

The release does not give a record date or a payment date, and it does not set out a dividend policy in words. It says what was approved for this half, and that is all this guide can report. The release also does not say what was paid for 2025.

The trust gives two yield figures of its own. Annualised, it says, the dividend is about 8.0% of the offer price and 7.1% of the closing price at 30 June 2026. Annualising here means doubling a half-year payment: 4.4 fils becomes 8.8 fils. The release states neither the offer price nor the closing price, and this guide does not derive them.

Two other measures in the release describe how much of revenue becomes cash. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were AED 822.6 million, a margin of 79.4% on revenue. Free cash flow conversion was 94.8%, which the trust says is 2.2 percentage points higher than a year before.

Emirates REIT: offices, a mall and schools

Emirates REIT holds commercial and education property. Its website names Index Tower, Loft Offices, Building 24, European Business Centre, Index Mall, Lycée Français Jean Mermoz, GEMS World Academy and Durham School Dubai. That is eight names, while the same page gives the number of properties as seven. The page does not explain the difference, and this guide does not try to.

The trust's fact sheet for the first half of 2026, listed among its announcements of 26 August 2026, values investment properties at US$1,203.4 million at 30 June 2026, up 4.1% from US$1,156.4 million at the fact sheet's comparison date. The website shows a portfolio value of US$1,235.1 million without a date. The two figures differ by US$31.7 million, and the dated one is the fact sheet's. Net lettable area is 166,152 square metres in the fact sheet, and occupancy is 96%.

The portfolio has been getting smaller by number. The trust's announcement list records the sale of Trident Grand Mall on 18 July 2024, the completion of the sale of the Office Park Building on 21 October 2024, and the sale of the Indigo 7 Building, announced on 16 June 2026. The fact sheet reports a profit on disposal of US$2.6 million for the one property sold in the period.

Rent moved the other way. Total property income for the half was US$44.9 million against US$39.2 million, which the fact sheet rounds to a rise of 15%. Net property income, after the costs of running the buildings, was US$40.4 million against US$33.7 million, a rise it gives as 20%. Fund expenses fell to US$11.9 million from US$15.1 million, and net finance costs were US$11.3 million against US$11.5 million.

Profit and cash are two different lines

Emirates REIT's figures show clearly why a headline profit can mislead. The fact sheet reports net profit of US$54.3 million for the first half of 2026, against US$184.6 million in the first half of 2025, a fall of about 71% by arithmetic.

The fact sheet splits the profit in two. Funds from operations, which it defines as profit before fair valuation, rose to US$17.1 million from US$7.2 million. The net unrealised gain on revaluation fell to US$37.2 million from US$177.4 million. Add the two for 2026 and the result is the reported net profit: US$17.1 million plus US$37.2 million is US$54.3 million. The fall in profit is a smaller valuation gain. Funds from operations more than doubled.

The fact sheet calls the revaluation gain unrealised. The other two trusts draw the same line: the residential trust measures its dividend against profit before fair value changes, and the report on ENBD REIT, described below, gives funds from operations next to net income.

On dividends, the Emirates REIT fact sheet gives two amounts. A final dividend of US$13 million for the 2025 financial year was paid in June 2026, and an interim quarterly dividend of US$7 million was to be paid in September 2026. The fact sheet gives totals only, with no amount per share, and whether the September payment was made was not confirmed for this guide.

ENBD REIT's year to March 2026

The figures in this section come from one Zawya report with no visible date; no document of the trust itself was read. For the year ended 31 March 2026, Zawya reports a property portfolio valued at US$430 million, up from US$395 million. Offices make up 72% of the portfolio by value. Occupancy was 95%, unchanged from a year earlier. One building is named: The Edge in Dubai Internet City, which the report says was 99% occupied at the year end after a tenant expansion of 15,000 square feet and a renewal of 30,000 square feet.

Gross rental income was US$37.7 million, against US$36.9 million the year before. Finance costs fell to US$11.9 million from US$13.2 million. Funds from operations were US$12.5 million, up from US$11.2 million. Net income, which the report says includes unrealised valuation gains, was US$45.5 million, up from US$33.7 million. The pattern is the one seen at Emirates REIT: net income is more than three times funds from operations, and the difference is valuation.

The board proposed a final dividend of US$5 million, or 2 cents a share. That takes the total for the year to US$10.1 million, or 4.04 cents a share, which the report describes as consistent with the previous year. Two comparisons follow from the published numbers. The year's dividends of US$10.1 million are about 81% of funds from operations of US$12.5 million, and about 22% of net income of US$45.5 million. The two percentages differ only in the profit line used.

Borrowing: three figures that are not alike

Each trust publishes a measure of debt against property, and each uses its own words for it.

The residential trust's figure is a net one, and the release says the measure was previously called loan-to-value. It was 3.3% a year earlier, and the release attributes the rise mainly to the two acquisitions completed in the half. The release gives no formula.

Emirates REIT's figure can be rebuilt from its fact sheet. Islamic financing was US$243.9 million and total assets were US$1,282.5 million at 30 June 2026, and the first is 19% of the second. The fact sheet's comparative figure is 20%. The trust's announcement list shows how the debt has been reshaped: a new secured sukuk, an Islamic bond, was issued on 16 December 2024 and the earlier US$380 million secured certificates were fully redeemed, and an Islamic financing facility with Ajman Bank was refinanced on 25 November 2025. The website records that the trust raised US$400 million through a sukuk in December 2017.

ENBD REIT's 42% is given by Zawya without a definition. Because one figure is net, one is measured against total assets and one is undefined in the report read, the three percentages are not like-for-like. Side by side, they do not measure the same thing.

Net asset value and the price on the screen

Net asset value is assets less liabilities. Emirates REIT's fact sheet shows the sum: total assets of US$1,282.5 million less total liabilities of US$333.0 million is US$949.5 million. The trust gives that as US$2.97 a share at 30 June 2026, against US$2.77 at its comparison date; it gives the rise in net asset value as 7.4%.

Dubai Residential REIT reports net asset value of AED 22.6 billion at 30 June 2026, against AED 22.0 billion at 31 December 2025. On 13 billion units that is AED 1.74 a unit, against AED 1.70 six months earlier, a rise of about 2.4%. ENBD REIT's net asset value was US$254.7 million, or US$1.02 a share, at 31 March 2026, up 16.5% from US$218.6 million, according to Zawya.

None of these is a market price. Emirates REIT's own website shows how far the two can differ. When the page was read in October 2026 its header displayed a share price of US$0.777, with no date beside it. Against a net asset value of US$2.97 a share at 30 June 2026, that price is about 26% of the stated value. The two numbers carry different dates, so the comparison is indicative only.

A worked example, illustrative only, shows why the base matters to yield. Assume a holder of 10,000 units of Dubai Residential REIT on the relevant date, and take only the interim dividend of 4.4 fils. The payment is AED 440. Measured against net asset value of AED 1.74 a unit, or AED 17,400 for the holding, that is about 2.5% for the half year. Doubled, as the trust does when it annualises, that is about 5.1% of net asset value, against the 7.1% the trust quotes on the closing price and about 8.0% on the offer price. The dividend is the same in each case. Only the base changes.

A trust's dividend is one number. Its yield is as many numbers as there are prices to divide it by.

What a unit holder's claim rests on

The trusts' own figures show what a unit stands for, without settling whether it suits anyone.

A unit in the residential trust is one of the 13 billion the release mentions, set against a pool of 35,976 homes and not against any one of them. The pool's occupancy was 98.6% in the first half of 2026 by the trust's account. The average rent the trust reports, AED 56,638 per leased unit, is an average across that pool, and it is not what a holder receives. What the board approved for holders for the half was the dividend, about 80% of profit before fair value changes.

The documents also show where the decisions were taken. In the first half of 2026 the residential trust announced the purchase of 220 townhouses and the addition of Garden View Villas, and Emirates REIT announced the sale of the Indigo 7 Building. Each appears in the trust's own news or announcement list.

Borrowing is reported at the level of the trust: 6.8% on the residential trust's net measure and 19% of total assets at Emirates REIT, with 42% reported for ENBD REIT.

Value is reported on fixed dates. Each trust publishes a net asset value at a period end, and the Emirates REIT figures above show how far a displayed share price can sit from it. What the documents read do not provide is any statement of the fees charged to the fund, so the cost of holding a unit cannot be described from them.

What the documents read do not say

Several questions are not answered by the results documents read for this guide. They are listed here as open points, not as facts.

The first is the rulebook. Emirates REIT says it is licensed by the DFSA. The DFSA has rules for property funds within its collective investment funds regime, according to Gulf News, which, in an article last updated on 15 September 2018, reported that the authority amended them, in areas including valuation, borrowing limits, investment restrictions and custody, with effect from a 1 February whose year the article does not give. The report states no percentages, and the authority's rulebook could not be opened for this guide. No distribution requirement or gearing limit under DFSA rules is therefore stated here.

The second is the onshore regime. The pages read identify Dubai Residential REIT by its listing on the Dubai Financial Market and do not name its regulator. No page of the Securities and Commodities Authority was read, and no onshore limit is given.

The third is fees. None of the three sets of figures gives a management fee rate. Emirates REIT's fact sheet shows fund expenses of US$11.9 million for the half without breaking them down.

The fourth is tax and dealing. No official source on the tax treatment of a resident holder's dividends or gains was read, nor any exchange page on how units are bought and settled. This guide makes no statement on either.

The last concerns history. Dividend records over several years, the residential trust's listing date and offer price, and ENBD REIT's trading venue would each need the trusts' annual reports and prospectuses, which carry the terms that a results release takes as read.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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