Business Bay vs Dubai South
At the median, Business Bay asks AED 3,188 per sqft against AED 1,847 in Dubai South, 73% dearer per sqft. Half of Business Bay inventory sits between AED 2,650 and AED 3,664 per sqft, against AED 1,528 to AED 2,155 in Dubai South.
Dubai South carries the larger pipeline: 136 tracked off-plan projects and 4,518 priced units, against 68 projects and 1,458 priced units in Business Bay.
Payment plans are lighter before handover in Dubai South: the median plan asks 50% before keys across 176 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 South1,847 4,518
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 4,518 in Dubai South.
Side by side
| Metric | Business Bay | Dubai South |
|---|---|---|
| Off-plan projects tracked | 68 | 136 |
| Priced units | 1,458 | 4,518 |
| Median AED per sqft | 3,188 | 1,847 |
| AED per sqft, p25 to p75 | 2,650 to 3,664 | 1,528 to 2,155 |
| Median asking price | AED 3.61M | AED 1.34M |
| Lowest starting price | AED 650K | AED 426K |
| Median paid before handover | 60% | 50% |
| Plans with a post-handover tail | 20% | 34% |
| Peak handover year | 2027 (29 projects) | 2028 (49 projects) |
| Active developers | 50 | 66 |
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 South is the cheaper side per sqft, at AED 1,847 against AED 3,188 in Business Bay, so Business Bay is 73% dearer per sqft. On the typical unit that reads as AED 1.34M for a median 891 sqft home in Dubai South, 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 South leans to 2 BR units, 1,663 records at AED 1,998 per sqft and AED 2.41M a unit.
Entry pricing: the lowest published starting price is AED 650K in Business Bay and AED 426K in Dubai South.
Supply and delivery
Business Bay peaks in 2027, when 29 of its 68 tracked projects are scheduled to hand over. Dubai South peaks in 2028 with 49 of 136. Published handover dates move, so read them as developer intent rather than a delivered date.
Of the projects tracked, 37% in Business Bay and 35% in Dubai South 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 South has 66, led by Emaar, Dubai South Properties, Azizi.
Go deeper
More comparisons
The full report: every community, every developer, ranked.
Business Bay and Dubai South 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.