Dubai South

Dubai South is a Government of Dubai master development, begun in 2006 as Dubai World Central and renamed Dubai South in 2015. It sits under the Dubai Aviation City Corporation — Khalifa Al Zaffin is executive chairman of both — and is built around Al Maktoum International Airport, with Dubai South Properties as its residential arm. It describes itself as the largest single urban master development in Dubai focused on aviation, logistics and real estate, and says its Residential District now houses more than 25,000 residents.

7Live projects

1Communities

AED 1MStarting price

Dec 2026Earliest handover

2006 (launched as Dubai World Central; renamed Dubai South in 2015)Founded

About the developer

What Dubai builds

Suburban master-planned communities in its Residential District rather than city-centre towers: mid-rise apartment buildings, townhouses and lagoon-and-villa communities, priced mid-market by Dubai standards with the South Bay waterfront villas and mansions at the upper end. Its own communities are The Pulse, The Pulse Beachfront, South Bay and South Square; other developers also build inside the district, including Emaar South (a 50/50 joint venture with Emaar announced in 2016 over about 7 sq km), Azizi's Venice on Dubai South land, and a 22 million sq ft, AED 62 billion mixed-use community with Majid Al Futtaim announced on 19 May 2026.

Dubai South Properties has completed the first 251-villa phase of The Pulse Beachfront, which will total 788 homes, and its group CEO Nabil Al Kindi presented that as delivery on schedule; as a wholly government-owned entity its counterparty risk is lower than a private developer's. The honest caveat is the district rather than the developer: much of the Residential District, South Bay and South Square included, is still being built out in phases, and schools, retail, transport links and the Al Maktoum airport expansion (an AED 128 billion terminal design approved on 28 April 2024, first phase expected within about ten years) arrive progressively over years rather than at handover.

Government-owned — Government of Dubai, through Dubai Aviation City Corporation · Founded 2006 (launched as Dubai World Central; renamed Dubai South in 2015)