Dubai Hills Estate vs Dubai Islands
At the median, Dubai Islands asks AED 2,492 per sqft against AED 2,240 in Dubai Hills Estate, 11% dearer per sqft. Half of Dubai Islands inventory sits between AED 2,139 and AED 2,962 per sqft, against AED 2,040 to AED 2,538 in Dubai Hills Estate.
Dubai Islands carries the larger pipeline: 183 tracked off-plan projects and 2,309 priced units, against 46 projects and 328 priced units in Dubai Hills Estate.
Payment plans are lighter before handover in Dubai Islands: the median plan asks 50% before keys across 196 published plans, against 80% across 61 plans in Dubai Hills Estate.
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.
- Dubai Islands2,492 2,309
- Dubai Hills Estate2,240 328
Dot is the median asking price per sqft, bar is the middle half of the priced inventory. Bases are 328 priced units in Dubai Hills Estate and 2,309 in Dubai Islands.
Side by side
| Metric | Dubai Hills Estate | Dubai Islands |
|---|---|---|
| Off-plan projects tracked | 46 | 183 |
| Priced units | 328 | 2,309 |
| Median AED per sqft | 2,240 | 2,492 |
| AED per sqft, p25 to p75 | 2,040 to 2,538 | 2,139 to 2,962 |
| Median asking price | AED 2.67M | AED 3.41M |
| Lowest starting price | AED 872K | AED 1.10M |
| Median paid before handover | 80% | 50% |
| Plans with a post-handover tail | 10% | 12% |
| Peak handover year | 2026 (13 projects) | 2027 (79 projects) |
| Active developers | 13 | 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 Hills Estate is the cheaper side per sqft, at AED 2,240 against AED 2,492 in Dubai Islands, so Dubai Islands is 11% dearer per sqft. On the typical unit that reads as AED 2.67M for a median 1,178 sqft home in Dubai Hills Estate, against AED 3.41M for a median 1,391 sqft home in Dubai Islands.
Inventory is weighted differently. Dubai Hills Estate is dominated by 2 BR units, 121 priced records at a median AED 2,216 per sqft and AED 2.77M 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 872K in Dubai Hills Estate and AED 1.10M in Dubai Islands.
Supply and delivery
Dubai Hills Estate peaks in 2026, when 13 of its 46 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, 61% in Dubai Hills Estate 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.
13 developers are active in Dubai Hills Estate, led by Emaar, Ellington, H&H. Dubai Islands has 86, led by Nakheel, Imtiaz, Ellington.
Go deeper
More comparisons
The full report: every community, every developer, ranked.
Dubai Hills Estate 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.