The Houses Came Back
New listings recovered in the third quarter, the first quarter of 2026 to beat last year. Almost none of them are cheap: two of September's 37 new houses asked under $400,000, against twelve of 40 a year earlier.
00Aruba as a whole
Supply came back in the third quarter. The cheap end did not.
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| New listings, September | 40 | 37 (−8%) |
| Median ask, September | $524,500 | $705,000 (+34%) |
| New listings, Jan–Sep | 320 | 274 (−14%) |
| Median ask, Jan–Sep | $559,000 | $616,252 (+10%) |
| Under $400,000, Jan–Sep | 100 | 61 (−39%) |
September brought 37 new house listings to the Aruban market, three fewer than a year earlier, at a median ask of $705,000 against $524,500. The count is ordinary. The price is not, and the reason is what was missing: twelve of last September's houses asked under $400,000, and this September two did.
| Quarter, 2025 → 2026 | Listings | Median ask | Under $400k |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 110 → 94 | $575,000 → $532,213 | 38 → 23 |
| Q2 | 127 → 88 | $500,000 → $648,500 | 39 → 21 |
| Q3 | 83 → 92 | $559,000 → $696,500 | 23 → 17 |
The third quarter is the first of 2026 in which more houses came to market than a year before, and the gap for the year has narrowed from 23% at mid-year to 14%. The houses that came back are dearer ones. Listings at $1m and above rose from 21 to 28 in the quarter while those under $400,000 fell from 23 to 17.
The island is no longer short of new listings. It is short of new listings an ordinary buyer can afford.
01Noord / Tanki Leendert
Fewer houses than last year, and still a third of the island's intake
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| New listings, September | 15 | 12 |
| Median ask, September | $890,000 | $824,500 |
| New listings, Jan–Sep | 125 | 89 |
| Median ask, Jan–Sep | $755,000 | $795,000 |
Houses first listed here in 2025 have been on the market a median of 429 days (245 listings).
Twelve new houses came to market in the north in September, against fifteen a year earlier. The median ask eased from $890,000 to $824,500, on a spread that ran from a $299,000 townhouse to a $3.75m villa in Tierra del Sol. Five of the twelve asked $1m or more.
Over nine months the district is the main reason the island is short of listings: 125 last year, 89 this year. Prices have not followed volume down. The median for the year stands at $795,000, up from $755,000.
The north is listing about 30% fewer houses than in 2025 and asking slightly more for them.
02Oranjestad
Flat on the year, with the two halves of town moving in opposite directions
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| New listings, September | 4 | 7 |
| Median ask, September | $580,338 | $644,611† |
| New listings, Jan–Sep | 68 | 70 |
| Median ask, Jan–Sep | $675,000 | $642,021 |
| of which West, Jan–Sep | 47 | 35 |
| of which East, Jan–Sep | 21 | 35 |
Houses first listed here in 2025 have been on the market a median of 489 days (125 listings). †Four of the seven listings are units in one building.
Seven new listings against four last September, at a median of $644,611. Four of the seven are units in a single building near Eagle Beach, asking between $515,223 and $919,828, so the month describes that building more than the town.
Over nine months Oranjestad has listed 70 houses against 68, at a median that has eased from $675,000 to $642,021. The total hides a shift. The west has fallen from 47 listings to 35, and its 2025 houses have waited longer than any others on the island, a median of 510 days. The east has risen from 21 to 35, the largest increase anywhere.
03Paradera
After August's fifteen houses, one
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| New listings, September | 8 | 1 |
| Median ask, September | $468,000 | — |
| New listings, Jan–Sep | 38 | 20 |
| Median ask, Jan–Sep | $524,500 | $536,850 |
Houses first listed here in 2025 have been on the market a median of 399 days (75 listings). A dash means too few listings to quote a reliable median.
Paradera supplied eight new houses last September, four of them under $400,000. This September it supplied one, at $749,000. The fifteen houses released together at Hooiberg in August are all still listed, at the asks they opened with.
Across the year the district has listed 20 houses against 38, the steepest fall on the island, at a median that is nearly unchanged. It remains the place where 2025's houses have moved fastest, a median of 399 days.
The district that used to feed the cheaper end of the market has almost stopped producing new listings.
04Santa Cruz
September's houses arrived well above the district's usual price
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| New listings, September | 4 | 6 |
| Median ask, September | $469,500 | $754,190 |
| New listings, Jan–Sep | 36 | 41 |
| Median ask, Jan–Sep | $457,500 | $459,000 |
Houses first listed here in 2025 have been on the market a median of 414 days (53 listings).
Six new listings against four, at a median of $754,190 compared with $469,500 a year earlier. The cheapest of the six asked $499,000 and the dearest $1.295m, with two in Cashero close to or above $900,000.
The year reads differently. Santa Cruz has listed 41 houses since January against 36, and its median for the nine months is $459,000, almost exactly where it stood in 2025. One month of dearer houses has not yet moved the district.
Santa Cruz is still the island's affordable sizeable market on the year. September did not look like it.
05Savaneta
Two houses in September, and a median that has doubled over the year
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| New listings, September | 1 | 2 |
| Median ask, September | — | — |
| New listings, Jan–Sep | 20 | 17 |
| Median ask, Jan–Sep | $357,416 | $756,000 |
Houses first listed here in 2025 have been on the market a median of 489 days (38 listings). A dash means too few listings to quote a reliable median.
Two new listings, at $421,000 and $498,000. Too few for a monthly median.
Over nine months Savaneta has listed 17 houses against 20, and the median ask has gone from $357,416 to $756,000. The count has hardly changed; the kind of house being listed has.
Savaneta's volume is steady. What is coming to market there is now priced like the middle of the island.
06San Nicolas
One listing in September, on a year of nine
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| New listings, September | 0 | 1 |
| Median ask, September | — | — |
| New listings, Jan–Sep | 14 | 9 |
| Median ask, Jan–Sep | $202,330 | $213,485 |
Houses first listed here in 2025 have been on the market a median of 467 days (20 listings). A dash means too few listings to quote a reliable median.
A single new listing in September, a multi-unit property asking $370,272. There were none in September last year.
Nine houses have been listed in San Nicolas since January, against fourteen in the same months of 2025. The median ask is $213,485, close to last year's $202,330 and by a wide margin the lowest on the island.
The cheapest houses on Aruba are in San Nicolas, and very few of them are coming to market.
00Aruba as a whole
Most houses are listed in one zone, and that is where the cheap ones went missing
| Zone, Jan–Sep 2025 → 2026 | Listings | Median ask | Under $400k |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residential, with landscape value | 192 → 169 | $554,500 → $621,491 | 59 → 31 |
| Urban residential | 31 → 27 | $308,000 → $410,000 | 18 → 12 |
| Town centres | 14 → 10 | $502,809 → $570,112 | 4 → 4 |
| Rural area | 30 → 23 | $604,500 → $785,000 | 9 → 2 |
| Tourism zones | 16 → 12 | $1,370,000 → $1,574,500 | 0 → 0 |
Marine areas, nature and parks are left out. 33 of this year's 274 listings sit there, in a minor zone, or have no location.
Aruba's spatial plan sorts the island's ground into zones by what may be built on it. Five of them hold almost every house that comes to market, and they do not behave alike. A district says where a house is. A zone says what kind of place it is allowed to be.
01Residential, with landscape value
The island's main housing zone is where the cheap end thinned
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| New listings, September | 25 | 15 |
| Median ask, September | $550,000 | $614,525 |
| New listings, Jan–Sep | 192 | 169 |
| Median ask, Jan–Sep | $554,500 | $621,491 |
| Under $400,000, Jan–Sep | 59 | 31 |
| $1m and above, Jan–Sep | 39 | 44 |
Houses first listed here in 2025 have been on the market a median of 436 days (370 listings).
These are the low-rise neighbourhoods that cover most of the settled island, where the plan limits building to keep the character of the place. Three in five new house listings sit here: 169 from January to September, against 192 a year earlier, at a median of $621,491, up from $554,500.
Listings under $400,000 fell from 59 to 31, while those at $1m and above rose from 39 to 44. In September the zone took 15 new listings against 25, and one of them asked under $400,000. A year earlier six did.
Of the 39 cheaper listings the island lost this year, 28 were lost here.
02Urban residential
Still the cheapest zone, and a third dearer than last year
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| New listings, September | 3 | 2 |
| Median ask, September | — | — |
| New listings, Jan–Sep | 31 | 27 |
| Median ask, Jan–Sep | $308,000 | $410,000 |
| Under $400,000, Jan–Sep | 18 | 12 |
| $1m and above, Jan–Sep | 3 | 2 |
Houses first listed here in 2025 have been on the market a median of 450 days (54 listings). A dash means too few listings to quote a reliable median.
The built-up neighbourhoods around the two towns, where the plan allows the densest housing. 27 houses were listed here this year against 31, and the median ask rose from $308,000 to $410,000.
It remains the zone where a house under $400,000 is most likely to appear, but there were 12 of them this year against 18. September brought two new listings.
The entry point to the market is still in the urban zone. The entry price has passed $400,000.
03Town centres
Ten houses this year, and a long wait for each
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| New listings, September | 0 | 5 |
| Median ask, September | — | $639,431 |
| New listings, Jan–Sep | 14 | 10 |
| Median ask, Jan–Sep | $502,809 | $570,112 |
| Under $400,000, Jan–Sep | 4 | 4 |
| $1m and above, Jan–Sep | 2 | 0 |
Houses first listed here in 2025 have been on the market a median of 512 days (32 listings). A dash means too few listings to quote a reliable median.
The two town centres and the Oranjestad harbour front are zoned for mixed use, and few houses come to market there: ten this year against fourteen, at a median of $570,112.
September was busier than usual, with five new listings after none a year earlier. Houses first listed in the centres in 2025 have waited a median of 512 days.
The centres add little to the housing market, and what they add moves slowly.
04Rural area
The countryside is no longer the cheap alternative
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| New listings, September | 4 | 3 |
| Median ask, September | $1,200,000 | — |
| New listings, Jan–Sep | 30 | 23 |
| Median ask, Jan–Sep | $604,500 | $785,000 |
| Under $400,000, Jan–Sep | 9 | 2 |
| $1m and above, Jan–Sep | 11 | 8 |
Houses first listed here in 2025 have been on the market a median of 406 days (50 listings). A dash means too few listings to quote a reliable median.
Land the plan keeps for agriculture and low-density housing. 23 houses were listed here this year against 30, and the median ask rose from $604,500 to $785,000, well above the island's $616,252.
Nine rural houses asked under $400,000 in the first nine months of 2025. This year two did. The 2025 cohort has waited a median of 406 days, the shortest of any zone.
Rural houses wait the least and now ask more than the island median.
05Tourism zones
Twelve houses, none under $400,000, most above $1m
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| New listings, September | 0 | 3 |
| Median ask, September | — | — |
| New listings, Jan–Sep | 16 | 12 |
| Median ask, Jan–Sep | $1,370,000 | $1,574,500 |
| Under $400,000, Jan–Sep | 0 | 0 |
| $1m and above, Jan–Sep | 9 | 11 |
Houses first listed here in 2025 have been on the market a median of 532 days (25 listings). A dash means too few listings to quote a reliable median.
The coastal strip the plan sets aside for hotels and vacation accommodation. Twelve houses were listed here this year against sixteen, at a median of $1,574,500, and eleven of the twelve asked $1m or more.
No house in this zone has asked under $400,000 in either year. September brought three new listings, all above $1m, after none a year earlier.
The tourism zone is a separate market: a dozen houses a year at about two and a half times the island median.
What the numbers do not say
These are asking prices, not transactions. What a buyer finally pays is not visible in listing data, and on an island this size the gap can be wide.
A single month is a small sample. Three of the six districts took two new listings or fewer in September, and their monthly medians are left blank for that reason. The same holds for the smaller zones. Direction is more reliable than magnitude.
Districts and zones both come from each listing's location. Eight of September's 37 listings could not be placed and appear in the island figures only. A zone says what the island's spatial plan allows on that ground; it does not describe the house that stands there.
Questions about the data or the analysis? Write to info@mercala.org.