Real Estate

Dubai’s DXB site to become prime real estate opportunity

May 1, 2025, 10:15 AM

Runway maintenance at DXB. The vast site will be up for redevelopment once Dubai's new airport opens

DXB in final decade of use
Development could reshape emirate
Timeline yet to be announced

Dubai International Airport will become one of the emirate’s most valuable real estate assets once operations shift to the new Dubai World Central airport within the next decade.

The DXB site, located in the densely developed Al Garhoud district and spanning 2,900 hectares (7,200 acres), will eventually cease operations as Dubai consolidates air traffic at the growing Al Maktoum International Airport, also known as DWC, to the south of the city.

“As far as the masterplan for DXB is concerned, we’re talking quite a long time in the future,” Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said on Wednesday at the Arabian Travel Market event taking place in Dubai.

“I’m sure there are a number of real estate developers in Dubai that would love to get their hands on that site and redevelop it.”

DXB welcomed 23.4 million travellers in the first quarter of 2025, up 1.5 percent from 2024, with a view to surpassing 90 million by the end of the year and 100 million by the end of 2026.

Griffiths confirmed that DXB will become obsolete operationally once the transition to DWC is complete, though a timeline has yet to be announced.

The relocation opens a significant development opportunity in one of the most land-constrained parts of Dubai, and comes at a time when the city’s real estate sector is defying global economic headwinds.

Residential sales by value exceeded $31 billion in the first quarter of 2025, with average transaction values reaching $735,000, according to data from Provident Estate.

Griffiths suggested the DXB site could help reshape urban development in the emirate. “That’s where the growth of Dubai will be because we’re right up at the end of the Sharjah border in the north,” he said.

“It will spread the city out and actually make it perhaps a little easier with the traffic problems that we’ve got today.”

The city’s pivot to DWC is being driven by a $35 billion investment plan, making it one of the largest aviation infrastructure projects in the world.

DWC is 37 kilometres southwest of Dubai and is being built in phases. It will ultimately include five parallel runways and capacity for 260 million passengers – more than double DXB’s current ceiling of 120 million.

“There’s little sense in operating two major airport hubs in such close proximity within 70 kilometres of each other,” Griffiths said. “By then, if we’ve done our sums and calculations right, every single asset at DXB will be close to the end of its useful operating life.”