Downtown Dubai

Downtown Dubai is the central district Emaar built around the Burj Khalifa and The Dubai Mall. It is dense and vertical, organised along Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Boulevard, which loops past the base of the tower and carries most of the district retail, cafes and restaurants at street level.

Burj Khalifa Lake sits at the centre, with the Dubai Fountain in the water and Burj Park on the far side. The Opera District runs along the lake around Dubai Opera, and behind the mall the low-rise Arabesque buildings of The Old Town form a quieter, walkable pocket. Souk Al Bahar sits across the water from the mall on its own bridge.

Getting out of the district is straightforward. Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall station on the Red Line metro connects to the airport and the coast and links into the mall by a covered walkway, Sheikh Zayed Road runs along one flank and Al Khail Road along the other, and DIFC, Business Bay and the Jumeirah beaches are all short drives.

Living here means most daily needs sit inside the district: supermarkets, clinics, gyms, nurseries and the whole of The Dubai Mall are on foot from most towers. Stock is almost entirely apartments, from studios in the boulevard towers to large lake-facing penthouses, alongside branded residences run by hotel operators. Boulevard traffic is heavy at weekends and around the evening fountain shows, which is the trade-off for sitting at the centre of the city.