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.