South Garden

About South Garden

South Garden is the cheapest way into Wasl Gate and one of the cheapest new-build freehold addresses left on Sheikh Zayed Road. It is a cluster of mid-rise apartment buildings in the Jebel Ali masterplan, offering studios and one to three-bedroom apartments, built around a private Zen garden with the community’s Central Park next door.

The developer has released it in waves, and the newest is Buildings D & E, marketed from August 2025 as a quieter, greener phase within the same plot. That matters: the older buildings are further through construction, and the new release is the one with the longest wait.

What to weigh. First, the location is the whole investment case, and it is unglamorous in a way that works. Wasl states one minute to the Energy Metro Station, five minutes to Festival Plaza and its IKEA and ACE, ten to Expo City, fifteen to Al Maktoum International and twenty to Dubai Marina. A studio a minute from a Red Line station, inside a gated masterplan, at this price, is a rental proposition rather than a lifestyle one.

Second, the price band. At AED 550,000 for the entry studio, South Garden undercuts almost every other freehold launch within a Metro walk. That is the draw and the caution: it is priced against Jebel Ali’s rents, not Dubai Marina’s, and the yield only looks strong if the service charge stays modest. Ask for the estimate per square foot before you model anything.

Third, the product. Studios to three-bedrooms in a low- to mid-rise block is a family-capable mix, and the community amenities are genuinely community-scale rather than a single podium: indoor and outdoor pools, a gym, children’s play, football and padel courts, jogging tracks, a dog park and 24-hour security with on-site facility management. In a district where most buildings offer a pool and a gym, the padel court and the park are the differentiators.

Fourth, timing and counterparty. Wasl is Dubai’s largest landlord — a government-backed group that manages tens of thousands of rental units and owns the city’s three golf clubs. It is not a developer that needs your deposit to fund a tower, which is reassuring for delivery and slightly limiting for negotiation: there is rarely a discount on the table.

Compiled November 2026 from Wasl’s South Garden project page and Wasl Gate community page (unit types, buildings D & E release, amenities, drive times, freehold status) and the listing portal’s project record for the portal-listed price, handover and payment plan. Wasl publishes no price list or payment schedule for this project.

Homes, sizes and price

Wasl publishes the unit types but not the sizes or the prices. What follows is therefore the portal’s entry price and the developer’s configuration, with the size question left open — and it is the first thing to close.

A studio at AED 550,000 is only a good number if the size is sensible. In Wasl Gate the studios sit in the 400–500 sq ft range across the phases, which would put the entry at AED 1,100–1,375 per square foot — competitive for a metro-connected freehold community, and roughly half the rate of a new tower in Business Bay.

Ask three questions of any quote: the registered area including balcony, the floor, and which building — A, B, C, D or E. In a phased release those three answers move the price more than the headline does, and the D&E release is the one with the longest wait and often the keenest launch pricing.

Because Wasl does not publish a price list, the only way to benchmark your quote is against recent registered transfers in the same building and against the other Wasl Gate releases — Hillside Residences and Boulevard Park — which are priced at different levels for different products.

Price and payment plan

The plan recorded for South Garden is 10% on booking, 50% during construction and 40% on handover. Wasl does not publish it, and the group’s plans vary by release, so treat the portal figure as indicative and confirm it in the sale and purchase agreement.

A 50% construction split is on the heavier side for a build completing in 2027–2028, and it is worth asking whether Wasl will accept a milestone-linked schedule rather than calendar dates. With a developer of this size the answer is usually yes on the structure and no on the discount.

At AED 550,000 the cash requirement before handover is roughly AED 330,000 plus the 4% DLD fee of about AED 22,000. Model the mortgage for the 40% balance on a completed unit rather than on the off-plan price: banks lend against valuation, not against what you paid.

Amenities

South Garden’s own amenity list is short and specific: a private Zen garden, a gym, a swimming pool, a pet park, 24-hour security and the community’s Central Park alongside. The wider Wasl Gate offer is where the depth is — indoor and outdoor pools, children’s play areas, football and padel courts, jogging tracks, a dedicated dog park, pet-friendly landscaping and on-site facility management.

The Zen garden is the marketing hook and it is a real design choice for a mid-market building: a shaded, quiet courtyard rather than another pool deck. Whether it stays quiet depends on how the buildings are arranged around it, so ask to see the masterplan layout rather than the render.

Ask for the service charge estimate per square foot, with the Central Park contribution separated out. In masterplan communities the park is often maintained through a community-level charge on top of the building charge, and buyers are frequently surprised by the second number.

Where it is

South Garden sits inside Wasl Gate, the freehold masterplan on Sheikh Zayed Road in Jebel Ali First, between the Ibn Battuta and Energy Metro Stations. Wasl’s own drive times are the most useful thing on its page: one minute to the Energy Metro Station, five to Festival Plaza with its IKEA and ACE, ten to Expo City, fifteen to Al Maktoum International Airport, twenty to Dubai Marina and twenty-five to the Mall of the Emirates.

That is a genuinely convenient position for a district that most buyers overlook. The Red Line connection is the reason: it puts a Jebel Ali studio within one train ride of the Marina, JLT and the Expo site, and it gives a tenant an alternative to a car in a part of Dubai where almost everyone drives.

The trade-off is the surroundings. Wasl Gate is still filling in, the immediate neighbours are construction plots and the E11, and the amenity you see in the render will arrive in phases. Ask which parts of the masterplan are already open — the Central Park in particular — and which are still drawings.

At a glance

• Studios to three-bedroom apartments inside Wasl Gate, Jebel Ali.
• From AED 550,000 (portal-listed) — the cheapest entry in the Wasl portfolio.
• Buildings D & E are the current release; earlier phases are further advanced.
• Portal records completion in December 2027, Wasl’s community page says 2028.
• Plan recorded as 10/50/40; Wasl does not publish it.
• One minute to the Energy Metro Station, five to Festival Plaza and IKEA.
• Private Zen garden, pools, gym, padel, dog park, Central Park alongside.

What we verify before you reserve

• Which building and phase you are being quoted, and its completion date.
• The registered area of the unit including balcony.
• The payment plan as written in the SPA, and whether it is milestone-linked.
• The service charge estimate, with any Central Park contribution separated.
• Which amenities are open now and which are still under construction.
• Escrow account and DLD project registration.
• Recent registered transfers in the same building.
• Whether the unit may be short-let, and under what licence.