Abu Dhabi Property Market Rises to 33rd in Global Transparency Index
Digitalisation, market information and regulatory development support Abu Dhabi’s latest jump in JLL’s 2026 assessment
Abu Dhabi has recorded a notable improvement in the latest international assessment of real estate market transparency, moving from 41st place in 2024 to 33rd in 2026.
The emirate received a composite score of 2.42 in the latest JLL Global Real Estate Transparency Index (GRETI). JLL's research identifies Abu Dhabi as the leading improver in the latest edition of the index.
The result comes during a period in which Abu Dhabi has been expanding its digital property services, publishing more market information and developing its regulatory framework.
JLL's biennial study looks beyond a single measure of market openness. Its 2026 assessment combines quantitative information and survey results across 88 countries and 146 city markets, using 260 transparency measures covering six broad areas, including market fundamentals, performance measurement, regulation, transaction processes and sustainability.
The changing way property information is accessed in Abu Dhabi
For Abu Dhabi's property sector, one of the most important developments has been the move towards more accessible digital information.
The amount of real estate information available to market participants has expanded, with data relating to transactions and individual property information forming part of the emirate's increasingly digital property ecosystem.
The Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC) has played a central role in this development. Its digital infrastructure includes market dashboards, interactive mapping tools and open APIs intended to make property information easier to access and analyse.
This changes the way buyers, sellers, developers, brokers and institutional investors can research the market. Instead of depending entirely on individual market reports or manually collected information, users can increasingly work with data provided through official digital channels.
Transparency is becoming part of Abu Dhabi's wider property strategy
The latest ranking should also be viewed alongside regulatory changes taking place in Abu Dhabi's real estate sector.
In March 2026, the Department of Municipalities and Transport announced a package of administrative decisions covering areas such as project escrow accounts, jointly owned properties, owners' committees and certain procedures connected with off-plan transactions. ADREC said the measures were intended to strengthen transparency and governance within the sector.
These developments are relevant to the broader transparency picture because market transparency involves more than publishing statistics.
The regulatory environment, availability of information, transaction procedures and protections surrounding property ownership all contribute to how clearly a market operates.
Abu Dhabi's latest JLL result therefore comes against a wider backdrop of regulatory and digital development.
A top-25 target is now on Abu Dhabi's agenda
The emirate has also established a longer-term objective for its transparency performance.
ADREC has set a target of placing Abu Dhabi among the world's 25 most transparent real estate markets by 2030.
Reaching that position would require continued progress rather than relying on the improvement recorded in the latest index.
Future developments are expected to involve broader market datasets, improved digital services and greater use of analytical technology.
Rashed Al Omaira, Director General of ADREC, has highlighted the importance of moving from simply making information available towards using that information to generate useful market insights.
This includes potential applications of advanced analytics and artificial intelligence in areas such as demand analysis, risk assessment and property-market performance.
New property sectors are creating a fresh data requirement
The traditional parts of the real estate industry are no longer the only focus for global investors.
Specialised sectors such as data centres, life sciences and student accommodation are becoming increasingly important, yet information covering these asset classes is not always as extensive or standardised as data available for conventional property markets.
JLL identifies alternative sectors as one of the areas where transparency is evolving particularly quickly. Its 2026 research says alternative real estate sectors account for approximately 20 percent of global real estate transaction volumes.
For Abu Dhabi, the development of better information across these categories could become increasingly relevant as demand grows for specialised infrastructure linked to technology, healthcare, education and other knowledge-driven activities.
More detailed information would also make it easier for market participants to compare specialised assets across locations and markets.
The transparency conversation is moving into the buildings themselves
Property-market transparency is increasingly concerned with what happens after a building is constructed.
Energy consumption, efficiency, building performance and climate-related exposure are becoming part of the information investors may consider when evaluating real estate assets.
JLL's 2026 index expanded its sustainability-related assessment to include subjects such as building energy use, efficiency reporting, energy-performance standards, emissions information and climate-risk reporting.
This reflects a broader change in the property industry. Financial information remains central to investment decisions, but investors are also increasingly examining operating characteristics and environmental performance.
For Abu Dhabi, further development of these types of disclosures could contribute to its longer-term transparency objective.
Real estate analysis is entering the AI era
Another major development identified by JLL is the increasing use of artificial intelligence across the property industry.
According to JLL's 2026 research, more than 90 percent of occupiers and investors now use AI tools when working with real estate datasets. Applications include portfolio analysis, optimisation and capital planning.
The significance for Abu Dhabi extends beyond the technology itself.
As more market information becomes digitally available, analytical systems can potentially process larger volumes of information and identify patterns that would be difficult to examine manually.
For the emirate's property sector, this creates an opportunity to move towards a model in which data is not simply published but actively used to understand market behaviour.
The quality of those insights, however, will continue to depend on the accuracy, coverage and consistency of the underlying datasets.
Gulf property markets continue to make transparency gains
Abu Dhabi's progress is part of a broader trend across the Gulf.
JLL's 2026 research identifies Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar among the markets that have recorded significant transparency improvement over the past decade. The report points to developments such as digitalisation, regulatory changes and better access to real estate information.
Globally, JLL found that two-thirds of the markets covered by the index improved their transparency scores in the latest edition.
The research also found that transaction volumes in the 13 markets classified by JLL as "Highly Transparent" rose by 64 percent over the previous two years. Those markets represented more than 80 percent of global direct real estate investment.
These figures describe a relationship observed in JLL's research; they should not be interpreted as evidence that transparency alone determines investment returns or market performance.
Abu Dhabi's next phase will be measured by depth, not just ranking
The move to 33rd place gives Abu Dhabi a stronger position than it held two years earlier, but the emirate's stated 2030 objective means further work remains.
The next phase is likely to involve expanding the range of property information available, particularly for newer asset classes, while improving information related to building performance and sustainability.
Greater adoption of analytics and AI could also change how the emirate's property data is used.
JLL's 2026 index is designed to measure transparency across a wide range of market conditions rather than simply ranking the availability of transaction statistics. Its methodology covers 260 individual measures divided into 14 topic areas, which are then grouped into six broader sub-indices.
For Abu Dhabi, the latest result provides an international benchmark for the progress made so far.
The bigger test will be whether the emirate can continue expanding reliable property information, strengthen the systems surrounding real estate transactions and make its growing data resources increasingly useful to the market as it works towards its 2030 transparency target.
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