Dubai's big tenants want one landlord. What does that leave the buyer of a single floor?

All of the office pipeline under construction in Business Bay is designated build-to-sell, Knight Frank finds. The same research says blue-chip tenants stay focused on single-owned buildings. Strata titling made office space a product that small investors can buy in Dubai. It also splits control of a building among many owners. A large occupier wants one counterparty and one set of decisions. A single-owner tower can offer that, and a floor-by-floor tower cannot.

This article is journalism. It is not investment or legal advice. Read the documents for the building you are considering and take professional advice before you buy.

What is strata in a Dubai office tower?

Strata means that each owner holds a unit, and all owners share the common parts. Dubai's Law No. 6 of 2019 on jointly owned real property defines a unit to include an office or a floor%20of%202019%20Concerning%20Ownership%20of%20Jointly%20Owned%20Real%20Property%20in%20the%20Emirate%20of%20Dubai.html). Article 3 says the law applies to projects in special development zones and free zones.

The law gives running of the building to a management entity. An owners committee oversees that work. It reviews the annual budgets for maintenance and passes complaints to the entity. Owners pay service charges to the management entity.

The law also sets how the committee forms. In two of the law's project categories, the regulator appoints up to nine members, and a committee forms once at least 10% of units are registered. Owner complaints go to the regulator if the management entity does not address them within 14 days. These are rules for oversight and dispute handling. They are not rules for letting space as one landlord would.

So the owners of floors do not run the tower together. They supervise it. The English text is a translation, and the Arabic text prevails.

What does fragmentation cost a tenant?

The cost is a missing decision-maker. Article 16 of the law lets each owner lease out its own unit, and Article 24 limits the owners committee to a closed list of oversight duties. We found nothing in the law that lets any party lease the tower as one. That has three consequences for a tenant.

• Each owner decides on the lease of its own floor or unit.
• No single party can offer a tenant a package across floors.
• Capital works need a service-charge budget that the owners committee reviews and RERA approves, where a single landlord decides alone.

The tenant's problem is practical. A firm that needs three floors may face three owners, three sets of terms and three timelines. It may also face an unequal building, because floors in one tower can be leased on different terms.

A second cost is time. An occupier searching for a regional headquarters may compare a tower in Dubai's financial centre, a free-zone campus and a Business Bay floor on the same day. The first two can usually answer with one landlord. The third may need a broker to find out who owns which floor and on what terms.

Why do large occupiers prefer one owner?

Knight Frank says that blue-chip occupiers have remained focused on well-managed, single-owned buildings rather than strata or multi-owned stock.

The supply split explains why such buildings are scarce in some districts. Knight Frank finds 100% of Business Bay's pipeline under construction is build-to-sell. Dubai's financial centre has a pipeline of 7.7 million sq ft to 2040, almost entirely build-to-rent.

Single-owner supply also tends to be leased early. Savills notes that a new Grade A tower in Dubai's financial centre was substantially pre-leased prior to completion. Our piece on the 2027 and 2028 supply wave shows how much of the new space follows each model.

Not every strata tower is hard to lease. Many floors are let every quarter. The difference shows in large and complex requirements. For those, the structure of the building matters as much as its grade.

Where does strata work well?

It works for small occupiers and for investors.

• Savills reports that transactions below 500 sq ft were 66% of all leasing activity in the Dubai Land Department data for Q2 2026. That data covers only leases registered with the Dubai Land Department.
• Business Bay took about AED 8bn of office sales value in H1 2026, across 814 deals, more than half of the total, according to W Capital citing Dubai Land Department data.

Strata gave investors an entry ticket and an exit that whole-building ownership does not offer. Cushman & Wakefield puts Grade B stock at nearly 70% of Dubai's office inventory. It adds that Grade A, single-owned and institutional assets have remained resilient. The numbers also show how large the investor side is. Cavendish Maxwell counts the same 814 Business Bay deals out of about 2,600 citywide in H1 2026, which is just under a third, on our arithmetic from one source.

Strata is not a flaw. It built a market of small tickets. The leasing data shows small units dominating, though it does not say which of them are strata.

What does the buyer of one floor own and control?

A unit, and a share of the parts everyone uses. Under Article 11 of the same law%20of%202019%20Concerning%20Ownership%20of%20Jointly%20Owned%20Real%20Property%20in%20the%20Emirate%20of%20Dubai.html), an owner holds an undivided interest in the common parts, set by the ratio of the unit's area to the total area of the property. Article 28 says an owner may not refrain from paying the service charges approved by the regulator, RERA.

Control is limited by design. In a major project the developer manages and maintains the common parts. In most other projects, outside the hotel category, a specialised management company is selected and contracted by RERA. Article 24 sets out a closed list of the owners committee's duties, including verifying that the management entity does its job and reviewing and making recommendations on the annual maintenance budgets. RERA may not approve a service-charge budget unless a certified audit firm recognised by RERA has approved it.

The documents a buyer can ask to see:

• Which category the project falls in, and who manages the common parts today.
• The building's management regulation and the committee's statute.
• The latest approved service-charge budget and the accounts behind it.
• The charge history for the past few years.

Can the floor be let, and what yield is real?

Letting depends on who wants to be in the building. Cushman & Wakefield says rental softening is concentrated in Grade B and strata stock, which make up close to 70% of Dubai's office inventory, while Grade A occupancy stays above 96%. A buyer should ask which tenants the building already holds, what they pay, and who runs the building they pay to sit in. A good tenant will ask the same questions. Our piece on what tenants ask of landlords sets out the list.

We publish no yield figure. Sales brochures and research notes quote yields that do not always agree, and we could not confirm any against a primary source. Three questions help instead.

1. Is the quoted yield based on rents actually registered, or on an asking or marketing rent? 2. Is it gross or net of service charges, vacancy and letting costs? 3. What is the rent history for the same floor and for similar floors in the building?

The gap between gross and net yield depends on the charges, which is why the service-charge history comes before the yield.

When does it complete, and how do you finance and exit?

Many strata offices are sold before they are built. Cushman & Wakefield reports that off-plan office sales volume remains 507% higher than in the first half of 2025, after recent strata launches. We found no verified figure for how many strata projects are late, so the documents to read are the developer's delivery record, the payment plan, and the clauses on what happens if handover slips.

Article 12 of the law allows a unit owner to sell the unit and to mortgage it to a bank or financing institution licensed to operate in the emirate. Whether a lender will lend against a given floor, and at what loan-to-value, is a question for before commitment.

On exit, Cushman & Wakefield reports that secondary office sales volume fell 53% quarter on quarter and 43% year on year, and is now less than half of all office sales, as buyers favour new developments over older strata stock. It describes a market that is recalibrating, with some buyers, investors and tenants more cautious. For a floor buyer today, the next buyer is the unknown.

What would close the gap?

The gap closes if a multi-owner tower can behave like a single landlord. There are two routes, and the public data shows neither in use.

• Consolidation. One buyer collects floors to assemble a tower or a block that an institution can hold.
• Governance. Owners agree leasing rules, or appoint a manager with authority to lease on a set of terms.

We could not find a public count of strata towers where owners have pooled leasing, so we make no claim about how common this is. Practitioners are better placed to say.

The two routes may also work together. A buyer who assembles floors needs governance to let them as one. A committee with leasing authority needs enough floors under one hand to matter. Under Law No. 6 of 2019, the management entity runs the building, so any pooled leasing would sit beside that structure, not replace it.

For an investor or a small occupier, strata offers access and flexibility. A large occupier with a floorplate need will probably shortlist single-owner buildings early, and strata towers will have to earn their place on the list. Knight Frank already reports that sorting, and it is why we expect the two tiers to price apart over time. The data to prove it, such as lease size by building type, is not yet public.

What to watch

• Average lease size and occupier type in strata towers against single-owner towers in the same district.
• Whether large occupiers' requirements pass over Business Bay stock and go to the financial centre or free-zone campuses.
• Floor-consolidation deals in strata towers.
• Whether owners committees take on a leasing role, where the law gives them an oversight one.
• Whether service-charge history and committee accounts become easier to obtain.
• Whether secondary sales recover, or keep falling behind off-plan.
• Whether the strata pipeline reaches handover on schedule.

Join the discussion at “Dubai Office Summit”.

Sources

• Dubai Legislation Portal: Law No. 6 of 2019, unit includes office and floor%20of%202019%20Concerning%20Ownership%20of%20Jointly%20Owned%20Real%20Property%20in%20the%20Emirate%20of%20Dubai.html)
• Knight Frank
• Savills: Transactions below 500 sq ft 66% of leasing
• Property Time
• Cushman & Wakefield: Grade B nearly 70% of inventory
• Zawya: Business Bay 814 of about 2,600 H1 office transactions
• Dubai Media Office: Dubai CommerCity is a joint venture of DIEZ and Wasl Group