OffplanIndex
Dubai · Community head to head · July 2026

Dubai Islands vs Dubailand

At the median, Dubai Islands asks AED 2,492 per sqft against AED 2,189 in Dubailand, 14% dearer per sqft. Half of Dubai Islands inventory sits between AED 2,139 and AED 2,962 per sqft, against AED 1,900 to AED 2,355 in Dubailand.

Dubai Islands carries the larger pipeline: 183 tracked off-plan projects and 2,309 priced units, against 108 projects and 2,507 priced units in Dubailand.

Payment plans are lighter before handover in Dubai Islands: the median plan asks 50% before keys across 196 published plans, against 60% across 112 plans in Dubailand.

Dubai Islands: AED 2,492/sqftDubailand: AED 2,189/sqft291 projects compared
Dubai Islands against Dubailand

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.

  1. Dubai Islands2,492 2,309
  2. Dubailand2,189 2,507
1,9002,4312,962

Dot is the median asking price per sqft, bar is the middle half of the priced inventory. Bases are 2,309 priced units in Dubai Islands and 2,507 in Dubailand.

Dubai Islands against Dubailand

Side by side

MetricDubai IslandsDubailand
Off-plan projects tracked183108
Priced units2,3092,507
Median AED per sqft2,4922,189
AED per sqft, p25 to p752,139 to 2,9621,900 to 2,355
Median asking priceAED 3.41MAED 895K
Lowest starting priceAED 1.10MAED 396K
Median paid before handover50%60%
Plans with a post-handover tail12%7%
Peak handover year2027 (79 projects)2028 (33 projects)
Active developers8623

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.

Where the two sit on AED per sqft

Price

Dubailand is the cheaper side per sqft, at AED 2,189 against AED 2,492 in Dubai Islands, so Dubai Islands is 14% dearer per sqft. On the typical unit that reads as AED 895K for a median 471 sqft home in Dubailand, against AED 3.41M for a median 1,391 sqft home in Dubai Islands.

Inventory is weighted differently. Dubai Islands is dominated by 2 BR units, 1,045 priced records at a median AED 2,490 per sqft and AED 3.37M a unit. Dubailand leans to studios, 1,271 records at AED 2,351 per sqft and AED 796K a unit.

Entry pricing: the lowest published starting price is AED 1.10M in Dubai Islands and AED 396K in Dubailand.

Pipeline shape and how much is already gone

Supply and delivery

Dubai Islands peaks in 2027, when 79 of its 183 tracked projects are scheduled to hand over. Dubailand peaks in 2028 with 33 of 108. Published handover dates move, so read them as developer intent rather than a delivered date.

Of the projects tracked, 25% in Dubai Islands and 24% in Dubailand are listed as sold out or out of stock, which is the share of the pipeline no longer taking new bookings at listed prices.

86 developers are active in Dubai Islands, led by Nakheel, Imtiaz, Ellington. Dubailand has 23, led by Aldar, DAMAC, Azizi.

Both communities in full

Go deeper

Every other pair each community is in

More comparisons

Dubai Off-Plan Q3 2026

The full report: every community, every developer, ranked.

Dubai Islands and Dubailand 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.