Off-Plan Projects in Downtown Dubai

Emaar is the master developer of Downtown Dubai and built most of what stands there today, from the Burj Khalifa and The Dubai Mall to the tower clusters around the Boulevard. Its current launch on this page is St. Regis Residence. The other projects are by developers who bought individual plots, so each one has its own track record to check.

Binghatti has two towers here. Binghatti Skyblade sits on Burj Khalifa Boulevard, and Mercedes-Benz Places is a residential tower built with the car maker, revealed in January 2024. Shamal Holding owns Baccarat Residences, part of the Baccarat Hotel and Residences scheme designed by Studio Libeskind, which broke ground in January 2024. DarGlobal is behind W Residences Downtown, and ALTA Real Estate Development behind Mr. C Residences Downtown. Because almost every launch here is branded, read what the brand actually provides, such as hotel services or only a name and interior design, and what that means for running costs.

Downtown Dubai covers about 2 square kilometres. It runs along Sheikh Zayed Road, with Business Bay to the south and Financial Centre Road on the north-east side separating it from Za'abeel and Trade Centre 2. Before 2000 the land was called Umm Al Tarif.

The Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall station on the Red Line opened on 4 January 2010, the same day as the Burj Khalifa, and a walkway has linked it straight to The Dubai Mall since December 2012. In 2025 the Roads and Transport Authority announced an expansion of the station with Emaar to raise its capacity. Dubai Opera, a 2,000 seat venue, opened on the Boulevard in August 2016. For a fuller picture of daily life, buildings and schools, read our Downtown Dubai area guide.

Under Dubai Law No. 8 of 2007, a developer who sells homes off-plan must open an escrow account for the project with the approval of the Dubai Land Department, buyers' payments go into that account, and the money can only be used to build that project. Law No. 13 of 2008 set up the Interim Property Register, and an off-plan sale that is not entered in it is void. The Land Department runs this register through its Oqood system. In practice:

• Pay only into the escrow account. The account details belong in your sale contract. Do not send money anywhere else.
• Get the sale registered. Ask for proof that your contract is in the Interim Property Register before you treat the purchase as done.
• Check the developer, not the brand. A hotel or fashion name does not build the tower. Look at what the developer has already completed and handed over. Our guide on how to check a developer before buying off-plan lists the questions to ask.
• Ask about service charges early. Branded towers with hotel services, staffed lobbies and large amenity floors usually cost more to run. The Land Department Service Charge Index shows approved fees by project and year, but a new tower may not have a figure yet, so ask the developer for its estimate in writing. Our guide to checking service charges before you buy explains how.

One more protection is worth knowing: once the completion certificate is issued, the escrow agent must hold back 5% of the account, and that sum only goes to the developer one year after the homes are registered in the buyers' names.

Downtown has a deep stock of finished apartments, many of them Emaar towers from the late 2000s and 2010s, so the choice is a real one. Off-plan gets you a new building, current layouts and stage payments, but you wait for handover and buy from plans. A ready apartment lets you check the exact view of the Burj Khalifa or the Fountain, see the building's service charge history and move in or let it straight away.

If views matter to you, a ready unit is the safer way to be sure of them, because a plot that is empty today may not stay empty. Compare both by browsing the apartments for sale in Downtown Dubai alongside the projects above.