Dubai Islands vs The Valley
At the median, Dubai Islands asks AED 2,492 per sqft against AED 1,250 in The Valley, 99% dearer per sqft. Half of Dubai Islands inventory sits between AED 2,139 and AED 2,962 per sqft, against AED 1,090 to AED 1,747 in The Valley.
Dubai Islands carries the larger pipeline: 183 tracked off-plan projects and 2,309 priced units, against 49 projects and 242 priced units in The Valley.
Payment plans are lighter before handover in Dubai Islands: the median plan asks 50% before keys across 196 published plans, against 80% across 40 plans in The Valley.
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
- The Valley1,250 242
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 242 in The Valley.
Side by side
| Metric | Dubai Islands | The Valley |
|---|---|---|
| Off-plan projects tracked | 183 | 49 |
| Priced units | 2,309 | 242 |
| Median AED per sqft | 2,492 | 1,250 |
| AED per sqft, p25 to p75 | 2,139 to 2,962 | 1,090 to 1,747 |
| Median asking price | AED 3.41M | AED 2.99M |
| Lowest starting price | AED 1.10M | AED 999K |
| Median paid before handover | 50% | 80% |
| Plans with a post-handover tail | 12% | 5% |
| Peak handover year | 2027 (79 projects) | 2028 (20 projects) |
| Active developers | 86 | 2 |
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
The Valley is the cheaper side per sqft, at AED 1,250 against AED 2,492 in Dubai Islands, so Dubai Islands is 99% dearer per sqft. On the typical unit that reads as AED 2.99M for a median 2,670 sqft home in The Valley, 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. The Valley leans to 4 BR units, 93 records at AED 1,186 per sqft and AED 4.35M a unit.
Entry pricing: the lowest published starting price is AED 1.10M in Dubai Islands and AED 999K in The Valley.
Supply and delivery
Dubai Islands peaks in 2027, when 79 of its 183 tracked projects are scheduled to hand over. The Valley peaks in 2028 with 20 of 49. Published handover dates move, so read them as developer intent rather than a delivered date.
Of the projects tracked, 25% in Dubai Islands and 61% in The Valley 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. The Valley has 2, led by Emaar, Sobha Realty.
Go deeper
More comparisons
The full report: every community, every developer, ranked.
Dubai Islands and The Valley 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.