Dubai Islands

Dubai Islands is Nakheel's redevelopment of the former Deira Islands: five islands, more than 20 km of beach, a marina and a hotel strip, connected to the mainland by the Infinity Bridge. The first pieces are open — RIU, Centara Mirage and Park Regis hotels, a Blue Flag beach and Nakheel Marinas — and the district is a 24-minute drive from Downtown and about 10 km from Dubai International Airport. It is the only new beachfront apartment supply on the Deira side of the city.

Pricing is the case. Apartments are registering at a median AED 2,741/sqft across 5,035 DLD registrations (DataHabibi, September 2026), against AED 3,529/sqft for Palm Jumeirah apartments in Bayut's H1 2026 report — beachfront at a 22% discount. One-bedrooms of 700–1,100 sqft ask AED 1,650–2,200/sqft (Oliva). Bay Villas, Nakheel's own villa cluster, averaged AED 11.1 million and was the most searched mid-tier off-plan villa project in Dubai in H1 2026 (Bayut).

The honest part: there is almost no rental history, because almost nothing has handed over. Nakheel's Rixos Residences and Beach Residences are due in Q4 2026; Bay Grove Residences (1,154 homes across 15 buildings) hands over in 2028. Much of the rest is third-party developers of uneven size. Palm Jumeirah apartments returned 4.48% gross in H1 2026 (Bayut) — that is the realistic benchmark for mature beachfront, not the 8% some launch brochures quote. Buy on developer track record and beach frontage, not on the render.