Dubai Islands property guide: prices, supply and what to check before you buy

Thinking about buying Dubai Islands property? Here is the short version: it is a very active off-plan area, with about 3,550 sales in the first nine months of 2026. A typical 1-bedroom sold for about AED 2.4 million, and almost none of it is finished yet. That mix of strong demand and a long build-out is exactly why you need the numbers before you sign.

In this guide I cover what is there today, what homes cost, how fast projects sell, what hands over when, and the checks I run with clients. Every market figure comes from Dubai Land Department (DLD) transaction data, with the period stated.

What and where is Dubai Islands?

Dubai Islands is a group of five man-made islands off the Deira coast, on the northern side of the city, developed by Nakheel (the company behind Palm Jumeirah). It used to be called Deira Islands and was relaunched under its new name in August 2022.

The master plan Nakheel published then covers 17 square kilometres, with more than 20 km of beaches, about 2 sq km of parks and open space, golf courses, marinas and more than 80 resorts and hotels. Nakheel describes it as a short distance from Dubai International Airport, Dubai Creek and Downtown Dubai.

It is a freehold area, so foreign buyers can own here outright, with no residency needed. I explain the full process in my guide on how to buy off-plan in Dubai as a foreign investor.

What is on Dubai Islands today?

Be clear about this before you fall in love with a render: today Dubai Islands is a hotel and leisure destination with a very large building site around it.

• Beach and resorts. Dubai Islands Beach is open, close to two large resorts, Hotel Riu Dubai and Centara Mirage Beach Resort (Khaleej Times, May 2023).
• A marina. It has 248 wet berths and room for 13 superyachts (same Khaleej Times report).
• Souk Al Marfa. An air-conditioned waterfront market that runs 1.9 km along the shore (The National, August 2021).
• Homes. Only 3 residential projects with about 200 homes are complete, against more than 110 projects and over 12,000 homes under construction (DLD project records, early October 2026).

A large mall has been planned here for years. The building contract was awarded in 2018 with a 2020 target, Gulf News reported at the time. It is still not finished, and I have not seen a confirmed opening date. Until there is one, I treat it as a bonus, not as a reason to buy.

How much does Dubai Islands property cost in 2026?

These are the apartment sales registered with the DLD between January and September 2026. The price shown is the median, the middle of all sales, so one very expensive penthouse does not distort it.

Source: Dubai Land Department (DLD) transaction data, apartment sales on Dubai Islands, 1 January to 30 September 2026. Median prices, rounded. Almost all of these are off-plan sales, so they are launch prices paid over a payment plan, not resale values.

Across all homes, the median price was about AED 2,840 per sq ft, up 21 percent from about AED 2,340 in January to September 2025. The number of sales rose 19 percent, from about 2,980 to about 3,550 (DLD data).

One caution on that 21 percent. In an off-plan area, the median mostly rises because newer launches come out at higher prices, often on better plots. It does not mean a flat bought last year is worth 21 percent more today. Only resales can tell you that, and so far there are very few.

Villas exist too, in small numbers. Nakheel's Bay Villas, 636 villas and townhouses launched in February 2024, are fully sold, with a stated handover of May 2027 (DLD project records, early October 2026).

With a typical 1-bedroom above AED 2 million, many homes here pass the price threshold for the 10-year Golden Visa. Off-plan cases have extra conditions, so read the Golden Visa property rules and check your specific unit first.

How does Dubai Islands compare with other waterfront areas?

Here is the same measure, the median price of apartments sold, for six waterfront areas over the last 12 months.

Source: DLD transaction data, apartment sales, 12 months to early October 2026. Medians, rounded. Unit sizes and the share of off-plan sales differ from area to area, so read this as a guide, not a like-for-like valuation.

Dubai Islands sits in the middle: about 19 percent below Palm Jumeirah per sq ft, and about 37 percent above Dubai Marina. For context, homes sold direct by developers across the whole of Dubai went for a median of about AED 1,660 to AED 1,880 per sq ft, month by month, between January and September 2026 (DLD data).

The difference is that Palm Jumeirah and Dubai Marina are finished places with proven rents. On Dubai Islands you pay a waterfront price for a place that is still being built.

How fast are Dubai Islands projects selling?

Fast, for the right product. DLD project records in early October 2026 show:

• Nakheel's Bay Villas and every Bay Grove Residences phase recorded so far are 100 percent sold.
• Two launches from late 2025, of about 470 and 690 apartments, were each about 90 percent sold in under a year.
• Newer and larger launches take longer. One collection of about 940 homes launched in April 2026 was about half sold after six months, and one 500-home project launched in spring 2024 was about 59 percent sold.

Two things to keep in mind. First, sales were slower over the summer of 2026, here as all over Dubai (DLD data).

Second, almost nobody has tested the resale market yet. Of about 3,550 sales in January to September 2026, only about 105 were resales, roughly 3 percent (DLD data).

What is being built, and when does it hand over?

This is the number I look at first. About 6,000 homes in 71 projects have a stated handover between now and the end of 2027, and about 6,400 more in 62 projects from 2028 onwards (DLD project records, early October 2026). These are the developers' own dates, and dates slip.

What it means for you: if you plan to rent the unit out, you will compete with many similar new flats arriving in the same 12 to 18 months. If you plan to sell at handover, so will many others. Homes that stand out (first row to the water, a strong brand, a sensible size) hold up best when that happens.

What rental yield can you expect?

Honest answer: it is too soon to say. Of the newer developments, I know of only one completed tower so far, by Imtiaz, and fewer than 10 residential leases have been registered on Dubai Islands in 2026 (DLD data). That is far too few to work out a yield I would put my name to. Any yield you are shown for Dubai Islands today is a projection.

So work backwards. Ready 1-bedroom apartments in established areas such as Dubai Marina and Business Bay earned about 6 percent gross in 2026, as I showed in my article on Dubai rental yields by area (DLD data, January to August 2026). A typical AED 2.42 million 1-bedroom on Dubai Islands would need about AED 145,000 a year in rent to match that. The typical new 1-bed lease in Dubai Marina was about AED 87,000.

Units on Dubai Islands are often larger and newer, so the comparison is not perfect. But it tells you what kind of purchase this is: you buy here for the beach and for long-term growth first, and for rental income second.

Getting there: the new bridge

Today you reach the islands by road from Deira. The big change is a new bridge from Bur Dubai: 1,425 metres long, four lanes each way, built for 16,000 vehicles an hour, with a path for walking and cycling. The RTA (Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority) awarded the AED 786 million contract in April 2025, Gulf News reported. When the bridge was first announced in 2023, the target opening was 2026, according to The National.

As I write this in October 2026, the bridge is still under construction. Ask for the latest status before you buy, and never pay a premium for an infrastructure date alone.

What I check before a client buys on Dubai Islands

1. Which island, which rowA first-row plot on the beach or marina is a different product from one three streets back. Ask to see the exact plot, and what can be built in front of it.
2. The developer's recordMore than 110 projects means many developers, and for some this is their first building in Dubai. I look at what they have delivered before, and whether it was on time.
3. Construction progress against the handover dateCompare the progress registered with the DLD with the date in the brochure. A project due in a few months that is less than half built will be late.
4. The payment plan against your cash flowCheck you can carry every instalment up to handover without relying on selling the unit first.
5. What hands over around youCount the similar units due in the same year on the same island. That is your competition for tenants and buyers.
6. Your exitAsk who buys this home from you in five years, and what makes it different from the 12,000 others.

On costs, budget for the 4 percent DLD fee on top of the price. On off-plan, the agent's commission is always paid by the developer, never by you.

If you want to see what a first-row plot looks like in practice, have a look at Le Château Piétrus, a branded residence by Mr. Eight on the marina front with 86 homes, which I am selling.

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About the author

Stefano Iannotti

Real estate advisor in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, specialising in off-plan property for local and international buyers. RERA Broker Card No. 84308. Speaks Italian, English and Spanish.