Business Bay vs Dubai Islands
At the median, Business Bay asks AED 3,188 per sqft against AED 2,492 in Dubai Islands, 28% dearer per sqft. Half of Business Bay inventory sits between AED 2,650 and AED 3,664 per sqft, against AED 2,139 to AED 2,962 in Dubai Islands.
Dubai Islands carries the larger pipeline: 183 tracked off-plan projects and 2,309 priced units, against 68 projects and 1,458 priced units in Business Bay.
Payment plans are lighter before handover in Dubai Islands: the median plan asks 50% before keys across 196 published plans, against 60% across 124 plans in Business Bay.
Price per sqft, and the band around it
Dot is the median AED per sqft, bar is p25 to p75. Figures after each name are the median AED per sqft and the priced units.
- Business Bay3,188 1,458
- Dubai Islands2,492 2,309
Dot is the median asking price per sqft, bar is the middle half of the priced inventory. Bases are 1,458 priced units in Business Bay and 2,309 in Dubai Islands.
Side by side
| Metric | Business Bay | Dubai Islands |
|---|---|---|
| Off-plan projects tracked | 68 | 183 |
| Priced units | 1,458 | 2,309 |
| Median AED per sqft | 3,188 | 2,492 |
| AED per sqft, p25 to p75 | 2,650 to 3,664 | 2,139 to 2,962 |
| Median asking price | AED 3.61M | AED 3.41M |
| Lowest starting price | AED 650K | AED 1.10M |
| Median paid before handover | 60% | 50% |
| Plans with a post-handover tail | 20% | 12% |
| Peak handover year | 2027 (29 projects) | 2027 (79 projects) |
| Active developers | 50 | 86 |
Every figure is computed by OffplanIndex over developer-published unit inventories and payment plans. Rows a community cannot answer are left out rather than filled in. Not investment advice.
Price
Dubai Islands is the cheaper side per sqft, at AED 2,492 against AED 3,188 in Business Bay, so Business Bay is 28% dearer per sqft. On the typical unit that reads as AED 3.41M for a median 1,391 sqft home in Dubai Islands, against AED 3.61M for a median 1,209 sqft home in Business Bay.
Inventory is weighted differently. Business Bay is dominated by 2 BR units, 609 priced records at a median AED 2,969 per sqft and AED 3.76M a unit. Dubai Islands leans to 2 BR units, 1,045 records at AED 2,490 per sqft and AED 3.37M a unit.
Entry pricing: the lowest published starting price is AED 650K in Business Bay and AED 1.10M in Dubai Islands.
Supply and delivery
Business Bay peaks in 2027, when 29 of its 68 tracked projects are scheduled to hand over. Dubai Islands peaks in 2027 with 79 of 183. Published handover dates move, so read them as developer intent rather than a delivered date.
Of the projects tracked, 37% in Business Bay and 25% in Dubai Islands are listed as sold out or out of stock, which is the share of the pipeline no longer taking new bookings at listed prices.
50 developers are active in Business Bay, led by DAMAC, Select Group, Omniyat. Dubai Islands has 86, led by Nakheel, Imtiaz, Ellington.
Go deeper
More comparisons
The full report: every community, every developer, ranked.
Business Bay and Dubai Islands in context: price per sqft by community and developer, payment plan structures ranked by cash due before handover, the 2026 to 2029 delivery pipeline, and the CSV behind every table. PDF plus data, delivered instantly.
Source: OffplanIndex derived analytics, built 2026-09-02 from developer-published project facts and unit inventories aggregated from public portals (latest observation 2026-07-30). All statistics are computed by OffplanIndex; no third-party database is reproduced. See the methodology and data policy. Not investment advice.