Dubai, community by community
Where the money goes in each district, what separates two towers on the same road, and which addresses do what they promise. Six communities in short below. The long guides are being written one at a time, properly, rather than generated six at once, and Business Bay is the first of them.
01 / Apartments · OfficesBusiness Bay
Canal-side towers with Downtown on the doorstep.
Aspect and floor move the price here far more than the name on the building. Ask what the unit above sold for, not what the tower is known for.
02 / Apartments · PenthousesDubai Marina
Dense, walkable, and rented year-round.
The gap between a water line and a road line is wider than the price difference suggests. Worth standing on the balcony before you commit.
- 03 / Apartments · Penthouses
Downtown Dubai
The address everyone recognises.
You are paying for the view, so the first thing we check is what can still be built in front of it. Not every Burj-facing unit stays Burj-facing.
04 / Villas · ApartmentsPalm Jumeirah
Villas on the fronds, apartments on the trunk.
Two different markets that happen to share a postcode. They move at different speeds and attract completely different buyers.
05 / Villas · Townhouses · ApartmentsDubai Hills Estate
Low-rise, green, and built around the schools.
Plots vary far more than the brochures admit. Backing onto the park and backing onto a road are the same house at a different number.
06 / Apartments · TownhousesJumeirah Village Circle
Where the yields are, in the right building.
The spread between one tower and the next is wider here than anywhere in the city. The building matters more than the area does.
We transact well outside these six
Guides take time to write properly and these are the ones we have finished. The practice is wider than the guide, and a good part of what we handle sits in the communities below. Ask us about any of them.
Al FurjanArabian Ranches 3DAMAC LagoonsDistrict OneDubai Creek HarbourDubai HarbourDubai SouthHaven by AldarMajanMohammed Bin Rashid CitySobha HartlandTilal Al GhafTown SquareUmm SuqeimVillanova
What we do in the communities we write about.
Get your shortlist pulled apart
Most people arrive with three communities and a spreadsheet, and the spreadsheet cannot see the things that decide it: what is still an empty plot, which building runs on short-term rentals, what the service charge does to the return. Tell us the shortlist and we will tell you what is wrong with it.
What we will tell you
- Which end of the district
- Within one community the gap between two towers, or two streets, is routinely wider than the gap between communities. That is the part a portal map cannot show you.
- What the service charge does
- Read per square foot against the buildings beside it, because it comes out of the return every year and rarely appears in the pitch.
- What is still to be built
- The plot next door, what is approved on it, and which views are temporary. Worth knowing before you pay for one.
- What actually transacted
- Recent sale and lease prices in the specific building, rather than the asking prices still sitting on the portals.