Yes — Palm Jumeirah is one of the more expensive places to live in Dubai, whether you're renting an apartment, buying a home, or budgeting for the extras that come with beachfront living. There's no single index that ranks every Dubai neighbourhood by cost, but in a 2023 comparison of four popular areas, one YouTuber found Palm Jumeirah and Downtown Dubai to be consistently the two priciest to stay in. Its location and address name push both sale prices and running costs above what you'd pay in most of the city. How much more expensive it is compared with somewhere like Dubai Marina or Business Bay depends on exactly what you're buying or renting, which is what this guide breaks down.
What it costs to buy an apartment on Palm Jumeirah
Apartment prices on the Palm move a lot depending on the building, the view, and whether you're on the Trunk, a Frond, or the Crescent. Based on Dubai Land Department transactions completed in the year to September 2026, here's where the market for ready apartments sits:
| Apartment size | Median sale price | Median AED per sq ft | Transactions (12 months to Sept 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | AED 1,452,500 | AED 3,872 | 62 |
| 1 bedroom | AED 2,900,000 | AED 2,693 | 86 |
| 2 bedroom | AED 4,550,000 | AED 2,507 | 173 |
| 3 bedroom | AED 6,550,444 | AED 2,528 | 74 |
| 4 bedroom | AED 17,375,000 | AED 3,366 | 18 |
Two-bedroom units are the most liquid segment of the island, with 173 sales in the period. Four-bedroom units are much rarer, at only 18 sales, which makes their median price more sensitive to a handful of high-end deals.
Villas: a smaller, pricier market
Villa sales on Palm Jumeirah aren't broken out with the same level of detail, and pricing swings even more than for apartments: plot size, beach frontage and which Frond you're on all move the number substantially. To give a sense of scale, the YouTube channel Pierre Luxe featured a five-bedroom, 8,000-square-foot villa that came to market in December 2025 for AED 69,000,000 — useful as an example of what a large beachfront villa can ask, not as a market average. If a villa is what you're after, see what's currently listed for sale on Palm Jumeirah rather than relying on any single number.
Is Palm Jumeirah more expensive than Dubai Marina, Business Bay or Downtown?
Usually, yes, though there's no single published figure that settles it. Chris Elliott, a YouTuber who in 2023 compared staying on Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Marina, Downtown Dubai and Al Barsha, found that Palm Jumeirah and Downtown were consistently the pricier two of the four, with Al Barsha the cheapest — his own experience, not an official statistic, but it lines up with how the market is generally understood. If you want current prices for a specific building or block, the Dubai Marina area guide and the Business Bay area guide are the places to check numbers side by side with what's on the Palm.
Rent, service charges and the numbers nobody gives you
Asking rents move constantly with the building, the Frond, the floor and whether the unit is furnished, so there isn't one number that fairly represents every home on the island. Treat any "average rent" figure you see quoted elsewhere with some caution, and check current listings for the specific building and layout you want.
What you can plan for ahead of time is the running cost on top of rent or a mortgage. Service charges on Palm Jumeirah buildings are approved individually by the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) through Mollak, RERA's online service-charge lookup, so the correct maintenance-fee number is whatever is approved for your specific building — look it up through Mollak before you sign anything. On top of that, expect a monthly DEWA bill for electricity and water that scales with the size of the unit and how it's used. There's no single figure that applies to every home, so ask the seller, landlord or developer for recent bills before committing.
Is buying here a good investment?
Palm Jumeirah's sale prices, from a median AED 1.45 million studio to a median AED 17.4 million four-bedroom, give you one half of what any rental yield calculation needs. The other half is the rent you can actually achieve on a specific unit, which varies enough between buildings and Fronds that no headline yield percentage is reliable at the level of an individual purchase. Yields move with the unit, the building and the market, so nothing here should be read as investment advice. What we'd rather do is walk you through a specific building's numbers than quote a percentage that doesn't apply to your unit.
Life on the Palm, day to day
Palm Jumeirah reads differently depending on where you live on it. The Fronds are quieter, mostly villas and low-rise buildings, closer to a suburban feel than the rest of Dubai. The Trunk and the Crescent are busier, with hotels, beach clubs and a steady flow of visitors, especially on weekends. If quiet matters to you more than being close to the action, that's a building-by-building decision, not just an island-wide one.
Getting around without a car
Palm Jumeirah isn't isolated in the sense of being cut off from Dubai — the Trunk connects straight to Sheikh Zayed Road — but getting around without a car is genuinely limiting once you actually live there, not just visit for a weekend. There's no direct Dubai Metro station on the island; the nearest link is the Palm Monorail, which connects to the tram network. Chris Elliott, the same YouTuber who compared neighbourhoods, found that getting from one end of the island to the other by car or taxi takes 10 to 15 minutes, and that without a car, you're largely limited to your own building or resort. If you're used to walking everywhere, budget for taxis or your own car here.
What's included in the price, and what isn't
Malls, restaurants and beach clubs are part of what you're paying for on Palm Jumeirah, and most of them are billed separately from your rent or mortgage. The island's restaurant scene punches above its weight for its size: Trèsind Studio, at St. Regis Gardens, is the only Indian restaurant in the world with three Michelin stars, a distinction the Michelin Guide confirmed in May 2025, and Smoked Room, also at St Regis Gardens, earned its own Michelin star roughly six months after opening in 2024.
Before you commit
Two things are worth weighing before you sign anything. Parts of the island are still under active construction, so ask specifically about any building sites near the block you're considering. And in buildings with a high concentration of short-term rental units, you may end up living alongside a rotating set of holiday guests rather than long-term neighbours; if that matters to you, ask the building management or your agent about the mix of owners, long-term tenants and short-term rentals before you buy or rent.
Frequently asked questions
Is Palm Jumeirah good for families?
Palm Jumeirah has family-oriented buildings, parks and beach access, but it isn't built around schools the way some villa communities are. If a particular school's daily commute matters to your decision, check the drive time from the building you're considering directly with the school.
Do apartment buildings on Palm Jumeirah feel like a hotel because of short-term rental neighbours?
It depends heavily on the building. Before you commit, ask your agent what share of units in that specific tower are listed for short-term rental — some buildings have very few, others are dominated by them.
Is there ongoing construction on Palm Jumeirah?
Parts of the island still have active building sites, so some noise and disruption near certain blocks is possible. Ask about any nearby construction before renting or buying a specific unit.
What's the buying process for a foreigner on Palm Jumeirah?
When you register a property sale in Dubai, the Dubai Land Department charges a 2% transfer fee to the buyer and 2% to the seller, plus a AED 250 title deed issuance fee, on top of whatever commission your agent charges.
If you're weighing Palm Jumeirah against other communities, the Palm Jumeirah area guide has more detail on the island itself. If you want the buying process itself step by step, our guide to buying property in Dubai as a foreign investor walks through it. Palm Jumeirah is one of the areas our team knows best, and because most of the people we work with come through referrals rather than volume, we'd rather talk you through the real numbers for a specific building than a headline average.
