Up the Ladder

Houses first listed in 2025 had been on the market a median of 466 days by the end of October (594 listings).

In the first ten months of 2026, 286 new houses came to the Aruban market, against 314 in the same months of 2025. The median ask rose to $649,500, from $575,000. The houses at either end of the market moved in opposite directions: 93 asked under $400,000 from January to October last year, and 55 did this year, while those asking $1m or more rose from 73 to 83.

The median price per square metre of built-up area did not follow the median ask up. It eased, from $3,469 to $3,236. The higher median comes from what is being listed, with fewer small, cheap houses and more large, expensive ones, rather than from the same house asking more.

October itself was the busiest month of the year: 45 new listings against 17 last October. Its median ask, $776,250, sits below last October's $850,000, but that was a median of seventeen houses.

Months are compared on the same brokerages as the ten-month totals, so October reads 14 → 40 here.

Since May, every month's median ask has been higher than the same month a year earlier. The shortfall in listings came early in the year, in January and April; October more than made up for one of those months.

Houses first listed here in 2025 had been on the market a median of 425 days by the end of October (270 listings). A dash means too few listings to quote a reliable median.

Twenty-three new houses came to market in the north in October, against five a year earlier, at a median ask of $1,400,000. Twenty of them were in Palm Beach and Malmok, and twelve of those asked $1m or more. They ranged from $289,325 to $3,250,000.

Over ten months the north listed 109 houses against 130, still close to two in five of all new listings on the island. Its median barely moved, $799,000 against $797,500, but its mix did: houses under $400,000 fell from 24 to 10, houses at $1m and above rose from 42 to 47, and the price per square metre rose to $4,351, the highest of any district.

Houses first listed here in 2025 had been on the market a median of 518 days by the end of October (129 listings). A dash means too few listings to quote a reliable median.

Twelve new listings in October against six a year earlier, at a median of $502,500. They ranged from $365,168 in Tarabana to $2,800,000 in Sabana Blanco and Mahuma, with three each in Eagle and Paardenbaai and in Sero Blanco and Cumana.

Across ten months Oranjestad listed 80 houses against 71, one of two districts to list more than a year earlier. Its median ask eased from $645,000 to $632,216. Its 2025 houses have waited the longest on the island, with Savaneta's, a median of 518 days by the end of October.

Houses first listed here in 2025 had been on the market a median of 426 days by the end of October (77 listings). A dash means too few listings to quote a reliable median.

One new listing in October, in Ayo, asking $407,303 and already pending at the time of observation.

Over ten months Paradera listed 21 houses against 40, the steepest fall of any district, and the median ask eased from $550,000 to $533,700. Five of the 21 asked under $400,000, against thirteen last year.

Houses first listed here in 2025 had been on the market a median of 428 days by the end of October (58 listings). A dash means too few listings to quote a reliable median.

Four new listings in October: two in Papilon, at $265,363 and $502,793, and two in Hooiberg, at $749,000 and $899,000.

Santa Cruz listed 45 houses in ten months against 37, the largest rise of any district. Its median ask, $488,827, is the lowest of any district outside San Nicolas, and it kept almost all of its cheaper houses: fourteen asked under $400,000, against fifteen last year. A quarter of the island's houses under $400,000 were listed here.

Houses first listed here in 2025 had been on the market a median of 518 days by the end of October (38 listings). A dash means too few listings to quote a reliable median.

One new listing in October, in Pos Chikito, asking $2,800,000.

Over ten months the district listed 18 houses against 22, and the median ask went from $387,416 to $1,053,000. Last year twelve of its 22 houses asked under $400,000 and one asked $1m or more. This year four asked under $400,000 and nine asked $1m or more. On samples this small the size of the jump matters less than its direction.

Houses first listed here in 2025 had been on the market a median of 513 days by the end of October (21 listings). A dash means too few listings to quote a reliable median.

Four new listings in October, after none a year earlier: three in Watapana and Gezaag, two of them at $190,000 and one at $503,000, and one in Juwana Morto at $1,450,000.

San Nicolas listed 13 houses in ten months against 14, at a median of $213,485, by a wide margin the lowest on the island. Ten of the 13 asked under $400,000, as many as last year.

Marine areas, nature and parks are left out. 23 of this year's 286 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. A district says where a house is. A zone says what kind of place it is allowed to be.

Read this way, both ends of the market have an address. Listings under $400,000 fell by 38 across the island, and 26 of those were in the main residential zone, where they fell from 57 to 31. Listings at $1m and above rose in two zones: the tourism zones, from 9 to 19, and the main residential zone, from 38 to 49.

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. Six in ten new house listings sit here: 181 in ten months, against 195 a year earlier, at a median of $650,000, up from $559,000.

October brought 24 new listings against nine, at a median of $769,500. Over ten months, houses under $400,000 fell from 57 to 31 while those at $1m and above rose from 38 to 49. The price per square metre eased, from $3,562 to $3,238.

The built-up neighbourhoods around the two towns, where the plan allows the densest housing. 32 houses were listed here in ten months against 33, and the median ask rose from $349,000 to $415,674.

It remains the zone where a house under $400,000 is most likely to appear, with fourteen this year against twenty. Its price per square metre, $2,170, is the lowest of any zone. October's six new listings here ran from $190,000 in Watapana and Gezaag to $1,450,000 in Juwana Morto.

The two town centres and the Oranjestad harbour front are zoned for mixed use, and few houses come to market there. Eleven did in ten months, against fourteen, at a median of $515,223. October brought one, in Eagle and Paardenbaai, asking $435,000.

Land the plan keeps for agriculture and low-density housing. Nineteen houses were listed here in ten months against 31, at a median of $755,000, above the island's $649,500. None came to market in October. Nine rural houses asked under $400,000 in the first ten months of 2025. This year two did.

A dash means too few listings to quote a reliable median.

The coastal strip the plan sets aside for hotels and vacation accommodation. Twenty houses were listed here in ten months against seventeen, nineteen of them at $1m or more. No house in this zone asked under $400,000 in either year.

October brought eight, all in Palm Beach and Malmok or in Eagle and Paardenbaai, at a median of $1,490,000. The zone's price per square metre, $7,860, is more than twice the island's.