Meydan

Meydan is the district around the racecourse, and for most of its life it was the racecourse: the grandstand, the hotel inside it, the polo fields and a handful of villa neighbourhoods behind them. Then the largest single residential project in the city was built on its edge, a district of dozens of mid-rise buildings along a canal, and Meydan became one of the busiest apartment markets in Dubai almost overnight. The name is the Arabic for an open ground, a square or a field, the word used for a parade ground or a racecourse across the region.

The place

The district lies between Al Khail Road and Nad Al Sheba, minutes from Downtown and Business Bay, with the racecourse and its grandstand at its centre. The villa neighbourhoods sit behind the track: gated streets of large houses, some by the developer and some built by their owners on plots. The apartment district sits along the canal at the district's edge, a grid of mid-rise buildings by one developer, with retail at ground level, parks between the blocks and a promenade along the water. Nad Al Sheba's cycle park and Mohammed Bin Rashid City's lagoon district are neighbours.

What you get

Apartments in the canal district, from studios to family layouts, in buildings that are alike in plan and finish and differ mainly by position and phase; villas in the gated neighbourhoods, from the developer's layouts to owner-built houses on large plots; and townhouses in the newer quarters. The apartment district's uniformity gives the register a deep and consistent record.

Who it suits

Buyers and tenants of apartments who want a new flat minutes from Downtown at a modest price, with a canal to walk along. Families who want a villa near the centre and the district's schools. Investors, who have made the canal district one of the highest-volume markets in the city. Racing people, for whom the winter season is the point.

It suits people less well who want an established high street or public transport.

Buying and renting here

The canal district trades constantly and its buildings are alike, so the register's tables here are unusually reliable; every building has its own page with what its layouts actually fetched. Off-plan is a large part of the market and is kept apart from resales. The villa neighbourhoods trade on their own record, and the register files a house sold with its plot against the plot; this page reads those sales correctly. For tenants, the official index caps a renewal while a new lease follows the market.