Abu Dhabi Climbs Eight Places in Global Real Estate Transparency Ranking

Abu Dhabi has recorded a significant improvement in global real estate transparency, climbing eight places in JLL’s 2026 Global Real Estate Transparency Index.

The emirate now ranks 33rd globally, up from 41st in 2024, with a composite score of 2.42. According to the index, Abu Dhabi recorded the largest improvement among the real estate markets assessed.

The progress reflects continued efforts to strengthen the emirate’s regulatory environment, improve access to reliable property data and increase transparency for investors, property owners and other market participants.

Greater Access to Abu Dhabi Real Estate Data

A key contributor to Abu Dhabi’s progress has been the expansion of publicly available real estate information.

The Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre has introduced market dashboards, interactive maps and open application programming interfaces, providing greater access to information covering property transactions, service charges and unit-level market data.

These initiatives form part of broader efforts to create a more transparent and data-driven property market while supporting informed investment decisions.

The Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre has now set a target for the emirate to rank among the world’s 25 most transparent real estate markets by 2030.

Technology and Data to Support the Next Stage

As Abu Dhabi continues to develop its real estate ecosystem, greater emphasis is expected to be placed on how market data can be analysed and used.

Advanced analytics and artificial intelligence are increasingly becoming important tools across global real estate markets, helping investors and industry professionals assess demand, performance and risk.

According to JLL, more than 90% of occupiers and investors globally now use artificial intelligence tools to analyse real estate data for areas including portfolio analysis, optimisation and capital planning.

Further Opportunities for Market Transparency

Despite Abu Dhabi’s significant progress, further development is expected across emerging real estate sectors where market information remains more limited.

These include sectors such as data centres, life sciences and student housing, which are becoming increasingly important to institutional real estate investors globally.

Building performance, energy use and sustainability disclosures are also becoming more important measures of transparency, providing investors with additional information to evaluate environmental and operational risks.

Strengthening Abu Dhabi’s Position as a Global Real Estate Market

Abu Dhabi’s improvement comes as transparency continues to increase across global property markets. Two-thirds of the markets included in JLL’s 2026 index improved their scores.

Markets classified as highly transparent accounted for more than 80% of global direct real estate investment, highlighting the importance of reliable data, effective governance and clear regulatory frameworks in attracting international capital.

Abu Dhabi’s rise to 33rd globally represents another step in the emirate’s continued development as an internationally competitive real estate market.

The next phase will focus on expanding the breadth and quality of available market information, strengthening technology-driven analysis and improving transparency across emerging property sectors as Abu Dhabi works towards its goal of reaching the global top 25 by 2030.