The Journal

By January 2025, villa values in Jumeirah Islands had roughly tripled from their pandemic-era levels. ValuStrat recorded annual capital growth of 42.4 per cent, compared with 31.2 per cent across Dubai’s villa market as a whole. The increase is notable because Jumeirah Islands is not a newly launched development establishing its first market price. It is a mature community of 851 villas spread across 46 islands and 19 lakes.

One of Emirates Hills’ clearest lessons predates today’s appetite for larger mansions. In 2003, Hopkins Architects completed 20 villas for Emaar and Frayland Construction, ranging from approximately 6,000 to 9,000 square feet. Each centred on a majlis, while an arcaded route kept family and reception rooms apart from kitchens and service areas. The architecture was restrained, and the household plan did the heavy lifting.

On 29 September, Sotheby's London turns its attention to South Asia with a sale devoted to the region's modern and contemporary art. The auction gathers paintings, sculpture and works on paper by artists whose careers, taken together, chart the emergence and evolution of South Asian modernism across the twentieth century and beyond. It is a sale built as much around scholarship as around market appeal, assembling works that have, in several cases, not been seen publicly for decades.

When DIFC Square opened in March 2026, its 600,000 square feet of Grade A offices had already been fully pre-leased. Delivered ahead of schedule, the development added capacity at a time when demand for workspace within Dubai International Financial Centre remained strong. Across the road in Zabeel, a considerably larger phase of growth is now under way.

Dubai’s short-term rental market has moved well beyond the early phase of holiday-home investment. What began as an alternative to hotel stays is now a mature part of the city’s residential landscape, shaped by tourism, business travel, relocation demand and a steady appetite for furnished homes.