Dubai Islands vs Mohammed Bin Rashid City
At the median, Dubai Islands asks AED 2,492 per sqft against AED 2,181 in Mohammed Bin Rashid City, 14% dearer per sqft. Half of Dubai Islands inventory sits between AED 2,139 and AED 2,962 per sqft, against AED 1,858 to AED 2,529 in Mohammed Bin Rashid City.
Dubai Islands carries the larger pipeline: 183 tracked off-plan projects and 2,309 priced units, against 61 projects and 660 priced units in Mohammed Bin Rashid City.
Payment plans are lighter before handover in Dubai Islands: the median plan asks 50% before keys across 196 published plans, against 52% across 74 plans in Mohammed Bin Rashid City.
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
- Mohammed Bin Rashid City2,181 660
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 660 in Mohammed Bin Rashid City.
Side by side
| Metric | Dubai Islands | Mohammed Bin Rashid City |
|---|---|---|
| Off-plan projects tracked | 183 | 61 |
| Priced units | 2,309 | 660 |
| Median AED per sqft | 2,492 | 2,181 |
| AED per sqft, p25 to p75 | 2,139 to 2,962 | 1,858 to 2,529 |
| Median asking price | AED 3.41M | AED 3.82M |
| Lowest starting price | AED 1.10M | AED 675K |
| Median paid before handover | 50% | 52% |
| Plans with a post-handover tail | 12% | 11% |
| Peak handover year | 2027 (79 projects) | 2026 (21 projects) |
| Active developers | 86 | 30 |
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
Mohammed Bin Rashid City is the cheaper side per sqft, at AED 2,181 against AED 2,492 in Dubai Islands, so Dubai Islands is 14% dearer per sqft. On the typical unit that reads as AED 3.82M for a median 1,337 sqft home in Mohammed Bin Rashid City, 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. Mohammed Bin Rashid City leans to 1 BR units, 289 records at AED 2,228 per sqft and AED 1.70M a unit.
Entry pricing: the lowest published starting price is AED 1.10M in Dubai Islands and AED 675K in Mohammed Bin Rashid City.
Supply and delivery
Dubai Islands peaks in 2027, when 79 of its 183 tracked projects are scheduled to hand over. Mohammed Bin Rashid City peaks in 2026 with 21 of 61. Published handover dates move, so read them as developer intent rather than a delivered date.
Of the projects tracked, 25% in Dubai Islands and 49% in Mohammed Bin Rashid City 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. Mohammed Bin Rashid City has 30, led by Ellington, Sobha Realty, MAG.
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Dubai Islands and Mohammed Bin Rashid City 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.