Short-let is where the 11–13% yield claims come from, and it is where they fall apart. Here is the comparison with the real costs in.
The gross numbers look wonderful
A one-bed at AED 500 a night at 50% occupancy grosses about AED 91,000 a year. The same unit long-let achieves around AED 118,000. So long-let wins on gross before you have done anything clever — and the short-let case only starts working at higher nightly rates or higher occupancy, both of which have to be earned.
Then the costs arrive
- Management at 18–22%, against 5% for long-let. Short-let management includes cleaning, linen, guest communication and platform fees, and it is genuinely more work.
- Holiday Homes permit, payable annually per unit.
- Service charge, which is the same either way.
- Utilities and internet, which on a long-let are the tenant’s problem and on a short-let are yours.
- Voids between guests, which are already inside the occupancy figure but tend to be underestimated when people quote it.
Run it honestly on these assumptions and short-let lands roughly 1.3 percentage points behind long-let. The calculator on this site lets you set your own inputs and watch it move.
The occupancy problem, specifically here
Occupancy is the number the whole short-let case rests on, and on Dubai Islands nobody can evidence it for residential stock. One residential project has been delivered. One building is not a market.
What we do have is hotels. RIU has been operating on the islands since 2020 — 787 rooms, all-inclusive — so seasonal room rates here are observable rather than projected. That tells you something real about seasonal demand on this coastline. It does not tell you what a privately managed one-bed achieves, because a branded all-inclusive resort and an apartment on a platform are different businesses with different guests.
Why I underwrite long-let
Not because short-let cannot work. Because long-let can be evidenced from comparable completed Deira waterfront stock, and short-let on this island currently cannot.
Buy on the long-let number. If the beach clubs open, the promenade fills and short-let beats it, that is upside you did not pay for. That is the right way round.
Part of the buying sequence. It sits inside the full buying process, step by step. When you are ready to choose, browse off-plan units on Dubai Islands.