Business Bay

Business Bay was drawn as an office district, a grid of towers on the far side of the Burj Khalifa from Sheikh Zayed Road, and it became a place people live almost by accident. The offices filled more slowly than the plans assumed, the residential towers filled faster, and then the water arrived: the canal that now runs through the middle of it turned a business park into a waterfront. What you have today is the densest residential district in the city that is not on the coast, a few minutes' walk from the Dubai Mall at its northern end and a few minutes' drive from almost everywhere else.

The place

The district sits in a rough triangle between Downtown Dubai to the north, Al Khail Road to the east and the older industrial streets of Al Quoz to the south. The canal cuts across it on a curve, with a promenade on both banks and footbridges over the water. The towers on the canal are the ones people picture when they hear the name; the towers on the inland streets behind them are where most of the homes actually are.

It helps to think of it in halves. The northern half runs into Downtown without a visible seam: the same boulevard, the same view of the Burj Khalifa, and Dubai Mall close enough that people walk to it in the cooler months. The southern and western half, along the canal and the Al Khail side, is newer, taller and still being built, with cranes on several plots and new towers handing over every year. Prices, rents and the feel of the street change between the two more than the map suggests.

What you get

This is an apartment district, almost without exception. Studios and one-bedroom flats make up most of the stock, two-bedrooms are common, three-bedrooms and above are the minority and tend to be in the larger canal-facing buildings. There are no villas and no townhouses.

Two kinds of building are worth telling apart. The first is the ordinary residential tower, owned flat by flat, managed by an owners' association and let on the usual annual leases. The second is the hotel-branded or serviced tower, where the building carries an operator's name and the flats can be run as short stays. Business Bay has more of the second kind than any other district, which shapes the rental market here: a large share of the homes are furnished, let by the month or the week, and turn over quickly.

Views decide a lot. A canal-facing flat on a high floor in a good building is a different product from the same layout facing a construction site on the Al Khail side, and the register records the difference clearly when both sell.

Getting around

Business Bay has its own stop on the Metro's Red Line, on the Sheikh Zayed Road edge of the district. It is a real asset for the towers within a short walk of it and a long hot walk for the towers on the canal. Most residents drive or take taxis, and the district is well placed for both: Sheikh Zayed Road on one side, Al Khail Road on the other, and Downtown, DIFC and the Financial Centre Road within minutes when the traffic is moving.

When it is not moving, it is not moving. The two or three junctions that feed the district back up in the evening, and anyone choosing a tower here should try the drive home at the hour they would actually make it. Parking is allocated per flat in most buildings and is scarce for visitors on the canal streets.

Day to day

The district's own shopping is modest and spread through the podiums: supermarkets, pharmacies, dry cleaners, gyms and a great many cafes. Bay Avenue, under the Executive Towers, is the closest thing to a high street. Bay Square, the low-rise cluster by the canal, has the restaurants and the offices of small firms. For anything larger, the Dubai Mall is next door.

Evenings are the district's strength. The hotels along the canal and the Sheikh Zayed edge carry a large share of the city's restaurants and bars, the promenade is busy after dark, and the Burj Khalifa fountains are a short walk from the northern towers. It is not a quiet place, and buyers who want one should look at the inland streets or elsewhere.

There are no schools inside the district. Families here do the school run out to Jumeirah, Al Safa or Al Quoz, all close by, and nurseries exist in several of the towers.

Who it suits

People who work in Downtown, DIFC or along Sheikh Zayed Road and want to be minutes from the desk. Couples and single professionals who would rather have a view and a gym than a garden. Owners who intend to let, because the furnished and short-stay market here is deep and the studios and one-beds let quickly. Investors comparing yields across the city, who tend to find the smaller flats here competitive.

It suits families less well. There is little green space beyond the promenade, the schools are a drive away, and the larger flats are dearer per square foot than the same space in the newer districts further out.

Buying and renting here

In Business Bay the building matters more than the district. Towers a street apart differ in age, build quality, service charges, cooling arrangements and management, and the recorded prices per square foot reflect that spread. The tables on this page show what completed homes actually sold for, building by building, and every building has its own page with its full record; read those before an asking price.

Off-plan launches continue, and the register separates them from resales for good reason: a developer's launch price for a tower that hands over in several years says little about what a finished flat next door is worth today. The two markets are shown apart on this page, and should be judged apart.

Tenants should know that a renewal is capped by the official rent index, while a new lease is whatever the market will bear, and that the gap between the two is wide here. Landlords weighing a furnished short-stay let against a plain annual lease should look at the building's rules first: not every tower permits holiday homes, and the ones that do are where the operators cluster.

Buildings to know

The Executive Towers were the first homes here and still anchor the northern end, with Bay Avenue underneath them. The Opus, with its hollowed cube, is the district's landmark and carries a hotel alongside its residences. The Paramount towers, the Peninsula cluster on the canal and Marasi along the promenade are the newer waterfront addresses, and a wave of towers by the city's volume developers has filled the inland plots. The league table below ranks them by what their homes have actually fetched.