Nakheel

Nakheel was set up in the early 2000s as Dubai's reclamation and master-development arm, most commonly dated to 2003 as a subsidiary of the state-owned holding company Dubai World, and it was the developer behind Palm Jumeirah. It has never been publicly listed. On 16 March 2024 Nakheel and Meydan were merged into Dubai Holding and Nakheel ceased to exist as a standalone entity, so it now operates inside a government-owned group.

15Live projects

6Communities

AED 600KStarting price

Nov 2026Earliest handover

2003 (most commonly cited; some sources give 2000)Founded

About the developer

What Nakheel builds

Waterfront and island master developments at the top of the market — Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali and Dubai Islands — alongside very large mid-market residential communities including Jumeirah Village Circle, Jumeirah Lake Towers, Al Furjan, Jumeirah Park and Discovery Gardens, plus retail assets such as Nakheel Mall and Dragon Mart. That gives it an unusually wide price range, from mid-market apartments to beachfront villas and penthouses.

Nakheel delivered Palm Jumeirah and several of Dubai's largest communities, so the completed-product record is real and verifiable on the ground. It is also the clearest documented example of Dubai's crash risk: it reported a loss of AED 13.4bn ($3.65bn) in the first half of 2009, Dubai World requested a standstill on debt payments on 25 November 2009, Abu Dhabi provided rescue funding that December and Dubai followed with a $9.5bn package in March 2010, and in 2011 Nakheel restructured AED 59bn ($16bn) of debt, of which AED 32bn was government assistance. Palm Jebel Ali stalled for years before being relaunched in 2023. Its position inside Dubai Holding now puts state backing behind it, but island buyers are buying long-horizon phased delivery: AED 750m of Palm Jebel Ali infrastructure works is scheduled for completion by the end of 2026, first villa handovers are phased from late 2026 through 2027, and the 544 villas on Fronds A to F awarded in April 2026 target Q4 2028 — so confirm the handover date and construction stage of the specific phase.

Government-owned; part of Dubai Holding since the March 2024 merger · Founded 2003 (most commonly cited; some sources give 2000)