Abu Dhabi Climbs Eight Places in Global Real Estate Transparency Ranking
Abu Dhabi has risen eight places in JLL’s 2026 Global Real Estate Transparency Index, marking the largest improvement among the markets assessed in the latest edition.
The emirate ranked 33rd globally, compared with 41st in 2024, achieving a composite score of 2.42. JLL’s biennial index evaluates real estate markets based on factors including market data availability, governance, regulation, transaction processes and sustainability.
The improvement reflects Abu Dhabi’s efforts to expand access to property market information for investors and the wider public. Available data now includes transaction activity, service charges and other unit-level property information.
The Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC) has also introduced public market dashboards, interactive maps and open APIs, providing investors and businesses with greater access to property data and analytical tools.
ADREC has set a target of positioning Abu Dhabi among the world’s 25 most transparent real estate markets by 2030, signalling a continued focus on market infrastructure and investor access to reliable information.
“Being recognised as the world’s leading improver in real estate transparency is an important achievement for Abu Dhabi and a measure of the progress made across the market,” said Rashed Al Omaira, Director General of ADREC.
He said the progress had been supported by stronger governance, investor protection and improved access to trusted market information, while the next phase would focus increasingly on using data for market analysis through advanced analytics and artificial intelligence.
“The markets that lead in transparency will increasingly be those that can turn trusted data into earlier insight on demand, risk and performance,” Al Omaira said.
Data gaps remain across emerging property sectors
Despite Abu Dhabi’s improved ranking, further gaps remain in areas that could influence institutional investment decisions. Data availability remains more limited across alternative real estate sectors such as data centres, life sciences and student housing.
JLL estimates these alternative asset classes account for around 20 per cent of global real estate transaction volumes, increasing the need for consistent and comparable market information for institutional investors.
Building performance and energy disclosures represent another area for potential improvement. More mature real estate markets are increasingly providing information on building performance, energy consumption and resilience, allowing investors to evaluate environmental and operational risks alongside conventional financial measures.