City Walk

City Walk is the closest thing Dubai has to a European quarter, and it was built on purpose to be one. Meraas laid it out on the Jumeirah side of Sheikh Zayed Road, a few minutes from the Burj Khalifa, as low-rise streets of shops and cafes with apartments above them, and it filled with the people who wanted exactly that: a home you can walk out of into a street, in the middle of the city, without a tower or a car in the picture.

The place

The district sits between Al Wasl and Al Safa, with Sheikh Zayed Road on one side and the villa streets of Jumeirah on the other. Its core is a grid of pedestrian streets lined with shops, restaurants and cafes, with a square at the centre and the apartment buildings rising a few floors above the retail. Around the core sit the district's larger pieces: the arena that hosts the city's concerts, an indoor rainforest, a cinema, a hotel and, in the later phases, a set of taller residential buildings around a park.

It was built in two phases and they read differently. The first is the retail streets and the low buildings above them, the district's signature and its liveliest part. The second, behind it, is the park and the taller residential buildings around it, quieter, larger in its flats and more like an ordinary luxury development than the streets in front. A buyer who wants the street lives in the first; a family who wants the park and the space lives in the second.

It is small, walkable and expensive, and it feels unlike anywhere else in the city.

What you get

Apartments in low and mid-rise buildings, from one-bedroom flats to large family layouts and a small number of townhouses and penthouses, all by one developer and all recent. The original buildings above the retail streets are the district's signature; the newer towers around the park are larger and quieter. There are no villas. Finish is high throughout, and service charges reflect it.

The trade is space for position: a flat here is dearer per square foot than the same layout in the towers across the road, and the buyer is paying for the street outside.

Getting around

On foot, inside the district, which is the point of it. Beyond it, Sheikh Zayed Road is at the door, Downtown, DIFC and the Burj Khalifa are minutes away, the beach at Jumeirah is a short drive and the airport a reasonable one. The nearest Metro stations are on Sheikh Zayed Road within walking distance for the determined and a short taxi for everyone else. Parking is the district's practical difficulty: residents have allocated spaces, visitors pay, and the streets around fill on concert nights.

Day to day

The district is its own high street. Supermarkets, pharmacies, gyms, a cinema, dozens of restaurants and cafes, boutiques and the arena are all within the walk, and the surrounding streets of Jumeirah and Al Wasl add the neighbourhood services. Schools are close: Jumeirah and Al Safa hold several of the city's established schools within a few minutes' drive, and nurseries operate in and around the district. The beach is a short drive and the parks of Al Safa are next door.

Evenings are busy, especially on the retail streets and on concert nights, and a flat above the core is a flat above a crowd. The park-side buildings are the quieter choice.

Who it suits

People who would live in a city centre anywhere in the world and want to do so here: professionals who walk to dinner, couples, families who prefer a large flat in the middle of things to a villa on the edge. Buyers who value design and finish and will pay for them. Owners who intend to let to the same people, because the district's tenants are loyal and its rents are high.

The tenants here are the same people as the buyers, which makes the district unusual: a landlord lets to a professional couple or a family who chose the district for what it is, stays for years, and pays a rent that reflects it. Furnished and short-stay lets exist in the district but are a smaller part of it than in the towers across the road.

It suits people less well who want a garden, a pool of their own, quiet, or the most space for the money.

Buying and renting here

One developer, a small number of buildings and a short history make this an easy district to read on the register: the tables on this page show what its layouts have actually fetched and every building has its own page. The gap to watch is between the original retail-street buildings and the newer park-side towers, which trade differently, and between a flat over the square and a flat on a quiet corner. Service charges are among the higher in the city and should be checked building by building.

Off-plan has been a small part of the district and is kept apart from resales here. For tenants, the official index caps a renewal while a new lease follows the market, and the district's rents have moved with its popularity.

Buildings to know

The original numbered buildings above the retail streets are the district's signature stock; the towers around the central park are its larger and quieter end. The table below shows where the district's sales are actually happening, and every building has its own page with every recorded price.