Downtown Dubai

Downtown is the postcard, and it prices accordingly. The stock is mostly Emaar towers along Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard and around the Opera district, and buyers split between end users who want the address and investors running short lets off the tourist footfall. What you are really buying is a sightline: a unit with a clear Burj or fountain view and one facing the back of another tower are separated by a gap that no amount of internal finish closes, so view the actual apartment rather than the floor plan. Service charges here are among the highest in Dubai and belong in the model before you underwrite a yield. The district is properly walkable, but the Boulevard is a loop with limited exits, and evenings, weekends and every fountain show put traffic through it. Yields sit below Marina and Business Bay; people buy Downtown for the asset, not the return.