Buyer Price-Drop Expectations fall to 63% in May 2026, down from over 70% at Conflict Onset, Property Finder Analysis shows

• Sellers have barely budged, with advertised prices just 2% below pre-conflict levels.

• More house-hunters are choosing to rent for now, with new rental contracts just 20% below pre-conflict levels in May, improving from 32% below in March, as buyers and owners wait to close the price gap.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, June 29, 2026 – The gap between what UAE buyers expect to pay and what sellers are asking narrowed again in May 2026, according to the latest Property Finder analysis. The share of buyers expecting prices to fall eased to 63%, down from a peak of more than 70% immediately following the onset of the conflict – a second consecutive monthly decline – while sellers’ advertised prices held close to where they were before the conflict.

Before the conflict, buyers were fairly evenly divided on where prices were heading. In Property Finder’s January–February 2026 consumer sentiment poll, buyers were split almost three ways: 36% expected prices to fall, 35% expected them to rise, and 29% thought they would hold steady – a market in which prices were widely seen as high, and views on their next move were mixed.

Once the conflict began, the majority of buyers shifted to expecting price reductions and held back in anticipation of discounts. Expectations of a decline have eased each month since, reaching 63% in May. The direction is consistent: buyer expectations are adjusting, slowly but clearly.

Sellers, by contrast, have moved only marginally. Property Finder’s proprietary listing price index shows advertised asking prices sitting approximately 2% below pre-conflict levels in May, compared with roughly 1% below in April. With sellers largely holding firm, the gap between buyers and sellers is closing, though slowly.

This is the market working through price discovery: the process by which buyers and sellers gradually align on what homes are worth.

“When buyers and sellers sit far apart on price, deals take a pause, and that distance is exactly what’s narrowing now,” said Cherif Sleiman, Chief Revenue Officer at Property Finder. “What matters is how it’s narrowing: through expectations settling, not through panic on either side. A market where more people expect prices to hold is steadier ground than one swinging between fear and optimism, and that steadiness usually has to come first. Typically, the two sides close that gap before deals start picking up again, not after; which is why we watch this behavioral pattern as closely as the transaction numbers itself.”

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