Dubai Islands: the last waterfront land, from about $5 200 a square metre

Dubai Islands is a chain of reclaimed islands developed under a single government master plan. There is almost no coastal land left inside the emirate from which you can walk directly onto a beach, and this is one of the last places where that is still being created.

Why everyone went there

• From about $5 200 per square metre at the start of development — a low base for a waterfront location.
• Direct beach access, a characteristic that can no longer be bought in the established districts of the city.
• A government master plan, which means predictability in how the territory develops.

The result: one or two new projects launch here practically every month, and the roster of developers spans major players and small companies, including foreign entrants.

What that creates

Opportunity and risk in the same fact. The opportunity is entering a location before it forms. The risk is being one of dozens of near-identical offers at the moment all these buildings complete within the same eighteen months.

That risk is concrete rather than theoretical. A district where supply arrives simultaneously produces a period of intense competition for tenants and for buyers, and the properties that suffer least are the ones that are not interchangeable: a genuine sea view rather than a partial one, a layout that is not repeated four hundred times, a floor above the surrounding roofline.

What to check before buying here

• Which island and which side. Beach frontage is not distributed evenly, and the master plan shows what will stand between your building and the water.
• The developer, not the location. With small and foreign companies entering, the delivery record matters more here than in an established district — project number, escrow, construction progress in the register.
• The completion calendar of neighbours. How many units hand over within a year of yours, and where.
• Access. Road connections to the mainland are being built alongside the islands, and the drive times quoted at launch describe the finished network rather than today's.