Community · Dubai
Properties for rent in International City
International City is the cheapest place to own a flat in Dubai, and it has been for most of two decades.
Nothing for rent in International City with McCone right now.
The area
Living in International City
International City is the cheapest place to own a flat in Dubai, and it has been for most of two decades. Nakheel laid it out on the far side of the city beyond the creek, a vast grid of low-rise blocks in clusters named after countries, with Dragon Mart, the largest Chinese trading centre outside China, at its gate. It houses an enormous number of people at rents the rest of the city cannot approach, it trades more flats than almost anywhere else, and it is far less uniform than its reputation.
The place
The district lies along the Al Awir road on the eastern edge of the city, beyond Ras Al Khor and the wildlife sanctuary, with Warsan and Silicon Oasis as neighbours and Dragon Mart's two halls on its main road. The original clusters, each named for a country and each with a loose architectural nod to it, are low-rise blocks of a few floors around internal courtyards and car parks. The central district holds the taller buildings, and later phases have added newer and slightly larger blocks on the district's edges.
What you get
Studios and one-bedroom flats above all, with two-bedrooms in the minority and little larger. The original clusters' flats are small and plainly built; the newer phases' are somewhat larger and better finished. There are no villas and no towers of note. What the district offers is a flat of your own at a price that competes with a year's rent elsewhere, and a tenant pool that never runs dry.
Getting around
By car, bus or taxi; there is no Metro, though a line has long been promised. The Al Awir road and the ring roads reach the airport and the older city in short runs, and Downtown and Business Bay in longer ones; the Marina is far. Buses serve the district heavily. Inside it, parking is the daily struggle: the original clusters were built with too little of it, and the streets fill.
Day to day
Dragon Mart is the district's high street, supermarket and department store at once, and its food halls feed a good part of it. The clusters carry small supermarkets, pharmacies, laundries and a great many restaurants serving the communities who live here. The district's own retail centres and the malls of Silicon Oasis and Mirdif are a short drive. Schools sit in the neighbouring districts, with several within a few minutes, and nurseries operate in the clusters.
Who it suits
Investors, above all: the district's yields have been among the highest in the city for years, its tenant demand is constant, and its flats change hands constantly. Owner-occupiers on tight budgets who would rather own than rent. Tenants who need a flat near the airport, the free zones of the east or the trading halls at a rent nothing else matches.
By building
