Deira

Deira is the old city on the creek's northern bank, the gold souk, the spice souk and the dhow wharves, and behind them the dense working districts where much of the city's population lives in rented flats. Most of it is not for sale to most buyers. A waterfront redevelopment along the creek and the new islands off its coast have begun to open it, and this page covers the district's freehold buildings; the islands have their own guide. The name is generally taken from the Gulf's dira, one's home ground, the territory a family or tribe calls its own, though other readings circulate.

The place

The district lies along the creek's northern bank between the port and the airport, with Bur Dubai across the water, the old airport and Festival City a short run and the islands off its coast. Its souks and wharves sit on the creek; its residential districts of mid-rise buildings run inland from them; its freehold buildings sit along the redeveloped waterfront and near the Metro's stations.

What you get

Apartments in a small number of freehold buildings, most of them recent, from studios to family layouts, with the creek in the windows of the better ones. The rest of the district's flats are let, not sold.

Who it suits

Buyers who want to own at the centre of the old city, on the creek, near the Metro and the airport, at prices below Downtown. People who work in the old city's businesses. Tenants who want a central flat at an old-city rent.

It suits people less well who want a neighbourhood built for cars, a beach, or new-build polish.

Buying and renting here

The freehold buildings are few enough that each trades on its own record, and the tables on this page should be read building by building; every building has its own page with what its layouts actually fetched. Off-plan resales in the waterfront's newer buildings are kept apart from finished sales. For tenants, the official index caps a renewal while a new lease follows the market.