Rental yield against capital growth, area by area

Each dot is one area. Across is the gross rental yield: a year's rent as a share of the price. Up is the published change in the average price per square foot over the window you choose, compared with the window of the same length before it.

The two dividing lines split the chart into four. The horizontal line is no change. The vertical line is the middle yield of the areas on screen, so half sit either side of it. Top right means a higher yield and a rising average; bottom left means a lower yield and a falling one.

Dubai areas come from Property Finder's transaction pages, which average sales and tenancy contracts registered with the Dubai Land Department. Areas in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah come from Bayut's asking-price index, which only publishes a 12-month change, so they appear on the 1-year view only. The two are drawn with different markers because they measure different things.

A hollow marker means the source's figures for that window carry a mix shift caution: a change of 100% or more in price or in the number of sales. Treat those dots as a change in what sold, not in what homes are worth.

• Gross yield, Dubai: Property Finder's average rental yield for each community, which Property Finder calculates from registered sales and rents over the last 12 months.
• Gross yield, other emirates: Bayut's published gross yields, where Bayut publishes one.
• Price change, Dubai: Property Finder's "% vs. last period" figure for the average sale price per square foot, read with the page's own 1-year and 3-year filters.
• Price change, other emirates: Bayut's "last 12 months change" in the asking price per square foot.

Every dot links to the page it came from, with the date we read it. We copy figures as published and do not adjust, average or fill them.

• Averages move with the mix. If a large new project registers its first sales, the area average can jump without any home becoming more valuable. Hollow markers flag the worst cases, but smaller shifts are not flagged.
• Gross is not net. Service charges, management, vacancy and buying costs come off the gross yield. The rental yield calculator works out the net figure.
• Asking is not sold. Bayut's figures are advertised prices, which usually sit above what buyers pay. Compare Bayut dots with each other, not with Property Finder dots.
• Past change is not a forecast. Nothing here predicts what an area will do next.