Practical guide
Getting Started with Dubai Market Research
A first research session, step by step: how to frame the question, set filters, read the headline figures and know when to stop.
PropertyMetric Research · · 7 min read
The hardest part of market research is not the data; it is deciding what you are actually trying to find out. This guide walks through a first session from question to conclusion.
- 1
Write down the question before you open anything
Vague questions produce vague research. "Is Dubai a good market" cannot be answered. "Have two-bedroom apartment prices in Dubai Marina moved over the last twelve months, and how does that compare with Business Bay" can. Be specific about property type, location, measure and period — those four define the entire session.
- 2
Set the filters first, then look at the numbers
Set emirate, community, property type and time range before reading any figure. This sounds procedural but prevents the most common error in the platform: reading a city-wide KPI and mentally attributing it to the community you have in mind.
- 3
Read the KPIs as a set, not individually
Transaction value, volume, median price, median AED/sqft and gross yield are more informative together than apart. Volume falling while value rises tells you about transaction size. Price rising while volume falls tells you something different from both rising.
- 4
Check the sample before you believe anything
Narrow filters produce small samples, and small samples produce medians that jump around for reasons that have nothing to do with the market. If a figure is based on a handful of records, widen the period before drawing a conclusion.
- 5
Drill into the transactions
Every aggregate on the platform is computed from records. Before you quote a median, look at the transactions behind it. If the list contains three unusually large sales, you now know why the median looks the way it does.
- 6
Write down the filters you used
This is the step people skip and regret. A conclusion is only repeatable if you know the segment and period it came from. Saving the research view does this for you, and it is what makes next quarter’s comparison valid.
Definitions used in this guide: data methodology