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Projectory Research

Research methodology and data dictionary

This page defines how Projectory classifies UAE property registrations, packages downloadable aggregates and records revisions. Individual reports state their coverage dates, sources and any report-specific exceptions.

Market scopes

Home sales
Apartments, villas, townhouses, duplexes and penthouses. A report may also include a source-specific residential home subtype when it says so explicitly.
Residential land
Plots registered separately for residential use. DLD rows already matched to villa inventory stay in the home series and are not counted again as land.
Whole residential assets
Complete residential buildings in Dubai and whole residential complexes in Abu Dhabi.
Total residential market
The non-overlapping sum of homes, residential land and whole residential assets. Non-residential property is excluded.

Comparisons and calculations

  • Dubai and Abu Dhabi are calculated separately and are not combined into one market total.
  • Each transaction identifier is counted once within its scope.
  • Values are registered transaction values rather than asking prices.
  • Off-plan shares and home-price medians use the home-sale scope unless a report states otherwise.
  • Week-on-week, month-on-month and year-on-year changes compare like-for-like scopes.
  • Government registers can add or correct historical rows. Every report therefore records its data-refresh date.

Common CSV fields

Current weekly and newly packaged reports use a long-form aggregate structure. The original Abu Dhabi H1 file retains its richer wide structure for backwards compatibility; its headers remain self-describing and its report page supplies the same version, source, refresh and rights information.

section
The analytical block the row belongs to, such as market summary, sale status or location movement.
geography
The market or named location presented to readers.
segment
The property scope, status, price band, project, developer or area measured by the row.
metric
The human-readable measure, such as registered sales, registered value or market share.
current_period / previous_period
ISO dates or date ranges. A range uses start/end format.
current_value / previous_value
Machine-readable numeric values without display abbreviations.
unit
The value's unit, including count, AED, percent or AED per square foot.
source
The originating register or official release, normally DLD or ADREC.
geography_id
A stable lowercase identifier for the market or geography where the package uses the common long format.
metric_id
A stable lowercase identifier for the measure where the package uses the common long format.
dataset_version
The release version of the downloadable file.
methodology_version
The version of the classification and aggregation rules used to build the report.
notes
A concise qualification, source alias or rounding explanation where one is needed.

Versions and revisions

Dataset version changes when the downloadable values, labels or packaging change. Minor corrections increment the decimal version; a materially rebuilt dataset receives a new major version.

Methodology version changes when Projectory alters its classification, inclusion or calculation rules.

The report keeps its original publication date. A later material change adds a modified date and a visible revision entry explaining what changed.

Sources and reuse

Projectory reports identify the official sources used, normally the Dubai Land Department and Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre. Source records remain subject to the relevant provider's terms.

Where a report links to the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence, it applies to Projectory's original written analysis, derived aggregate tables and graphics. Reusers must credit Projectory and should link to the report.

Download files contain aggregates only. They do not include personal details or individual transaction records.