Hayat by Dubai South

About Hayat by Dubai South

Hayat is Dubai South Properties’ largest residential launch: a 10 million square foot community in the Golf District of Dubai South, announced on 30 June 2025, planned for approximately 2,500 homes across one to five bedrooms — townhouses, semi-detached and standalone villas, mansions, apartments and hotel apartments — built in minimalist architecture around lagoons, a community lake, parks and a retail boulevard. If South Living is the master developer’s entry-level apartment product, this is its family product, and it is priced accordingly.

The sales record is the reason it is worth reading about. The first two phases sold out within hours of launch, a little over a week after the announcement, for more than AED 1.2 billion. In its annual review the developer named Hayat alongside Beachfront Gates and South Square as its three 2025 launches that completely sold out. Whatever else is true, demand at the release price was real, and it is why later phases are released in tranches rather than sold from a standing list.

The build is now contracted. On 30 March 2026 the developer awarded Mohammed Abdulmohsin Al Kharafi & Sons a AED 2 billion contract covering several phases — the largest residential construction contract the master developer has announced, ahead of the AED 1.5 billion South Bay award of 2024 — with construction beginning in Q2 2026 and the initial phases due in 2028. For a buyer in an early phase, that is the timeline that matters: a 2028 first handover, then the rest of the community arriving around it.

What you are actually buying. Three-bedroom townhouses of about 3,217 sq ft at AED 3.4 million work out at roughly AED 1,057 per square foot; four-bedrooms of 3,801 sq ft at AED 4.0 million at about AED 1,052; five-bedrooms of 3,851 sq ft at AED 4.4 million at about AED 1,143. Per square foot that is a different product from a Dubai South apartment, and the total ticket is what will decide the resale market, not the rate. Note the oddity in the middle of the table: the five-bedroom is only 50 sq ft larger than the four-bedroom but AED 400,000 dearer. That may be a better plot, a different type, or simply pricing; ask which, because a 50 sq ft difference does not explain it.

The honest state of play. You cannot browse Hayat from a price list: phases release, sell, and are replaced. That means the price discovery available to you is the developer’s rate for the current phase plus whatever has traded in the earlier ones — and the launch terms, including the five-year plan with 5% down, may or may not still apply to the phase you are offered. It also means the community you are buying into is largely unbuilt: the mall, the boulevard, the lake and the lagoons are part of the masterplan, delivered alongside the homes rather than standing around them today.

What to weigh. Position. A buyer in the first phase gets a 2028 handover and years of construction next door; a buyer in a later phase waits longer but arrives closer to a finished community. Both are legitimate; the price should reflect which one you are.

Total cost. On AED 3.4 million the 4% transfer fee alone is AED 136,000, before agency commission and trustee fees — and the five-year plan spreads the price, not the transaction costs.

Service charge and plot responsibility. Pools, a clubhouse, lagoons, a lake and landscaped streets are a master-community cost base. Ask for the estimate per square foot and, for a townhouse, who maintains the garden and the façade.

Liquidity. At AED 3.4–4.4 million this is the thinnest price band in Dubai South’s own product range. If you may need to sell before 2030, ask what has resold in the earlier phases and how long it took.

Compiled November 2026 from Dubai South’s own newsroom — the Hayat launch of 30 June 2025, the sell-out announcement of 9 July 2025, the AED 2 billion construction award of 30 March 2026 and the 2025 review of 5 January 2026 — together with the listing portal’s record for prices, sizes, floor plans, amenities and handover. Unit counts, product mix and dates are quoted from the source that states them, and disagreements are flagged rather than smoothed.

Homes, sizes and price

The portal prices three townhouse types. Everything else in the masterplan — villas, mansions, apartments and hotel apartments — is unpriced and, on the evidence of the releases so far, released in phases rather than listed.

The rate per square foot is flat across the three and four-bedroom homes and then jumps by nearly a tenth for the five-bedroom, which buys 50 sq ft more house and AED 400,000 more price. Either the five-bedroom carries a better position, a larger plot or a different specification, or it is the type with the least price discipline. Ask for the plot sizes, not just the built-up areas — in a townhouse community the garden is part of what you are buying, and the portal does not publish it.

One caution on the size figures: they are described as townhouses with three, four and five bedrooms, and at 3,800 sq ft these are large homes by any Dubai standard. Ask whether the figure includes the garage, the terrace and any roof space, because the difference between 3,217 sq ft of built area and 3,217 sq ft of built area plus outdoor space is a real difference in value.

What has happened at Hayat, in order

Because so much of this project exists as announcements, the sequence is the most useful part of the story.

What that sequence does not tell you is how many phases there are, what is in the current one, or what it costs today. All three are questions for the developer’s sales office, and the answers change between releases. Ask for the phase number, the plot, the schedule and the price in writing, and compare the rate per square foot with the table above before you decide whether the current release is better or worse value than the launch.

Price and payment plan

The developer’s launch release quotes its chief executive on a flexible five-year payment plan starting with a 5% down payment and quarterly instalments. The listing portal records no payment plan at all. Both can be true — the portal simply never captured it — but neither publishes the actual schedule, and on a phased project the schedule is set per phase.

Read the middle row as arithmetic, not as an offer: 95% of AED 3.4 million spread across twenty quarterly payments is about AED 161,500 each. Whether the plan runs past handover, whether the instalments are construction-linked, and what happens if completion moves are all in the schedule you will be asked to sign — so ask for it before you reserve. A five-year plan on a 2028 handover means payments continuing after you get the keys, which is attractive if you are renting it out and less so if you are moving in and paying a mortgage at the same time.

Also ask whether the plan carries a price premium. Long payment plans in Dubai are usually priced into the unit rather than given away, and the way to test it is to ask what the same home costs on a shorter schedule.

Amenities

The developer’s list is a community programme rather than a building one: lush parks and shaded walking trails, family play zones, outdoor recreation areas, fitness and wellness facilities, community pools, landscaped gardens, and dedicated relaxation and gathering spaces. The masterplan adds a community mall and retail boulevard with shops, cafés and essential services, plus lagoons and a scenic community lake.

The portal’s list is more granular and mostly consistent: a community clubhouse and centre, common gardens, running and cycling tracks, gymnasium, parks, sports court, adult and kids’ pools, spa and sauna, yoga and meditation areas, restaurants and retail. Two entries are worth a question. It lists an amusement park, which appears in no description of Hayat that the developer has published, and it lists an infinity pool, which is not the same thing as a community pool. Ask where each is; a family buying on the strength of an amusement park should know whether it is inside the community, in the wider district, or a portal error.

The honest reading is that this is a walkable, green, family-oriented masterplan in a part of Dubai South that is being built from scratch — so the amenities arrive with the phases, not before them. The lake and lagoons are the differentiator in a market full of townhouse grids; they are also the part most likely to move in the render.

Where it is

Hayat sits in the Golf District of Dubai South, near the existing terminal at Al Maktoum International Airport. The developer’s own connectivity list is Al Maktoum International Airport, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road (E311), Emirates Road (E611), Jebel Ali Free Zone and Dubai South Free Zone — which is the practical description of the location: a car-dependent community on the southern corridor, positioned for the airport rather than for the city centre.

Unlike South Living, this is not inside the established Residential District. The Golf District is a newer part of the masterplan, so schools, supermarkets and the retail boulevard in the marketing are part of what gets delivered with the community rather than what you can drive to today. The nearest existing amenities are those of The Residential District and the wider Dubai South area — a 50,000 sq ft hypermarket, parks, sports courts, a mosque, a petrol station, a bus route to the Expo Metro and GEMS Founders School Dubai South, which opened in August 2024 subject to KHDA approval.

Two things to do before you commit. Drive from the plot to your office at the time you would actually travel: Emirates Road and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road are close, but the distance to the marina, Downtown and the northern city is real. And ask about schools specifically — for a family buying a four or five-bedroom townhouse, the school run decides more than the lagoon.

For the district as a whole, see our Dubai South community guide; for the neighbouring masterplans, the Emaar South guide and the Expo City guide.

At a glance

• A 10 million sq ft townhouse and villa community in the Golf District, Dubai South.
• Approximately 2,500 homes, one to five bedrooms, including villas, mansions, apartments and hotel apartments.
• Announced 30 June 2025; first two phases sold out within hours for more than AED 1.2 billion.
• AED 2 billion construction contract awarded to Mohammed Abdulmohsin Al Kharafi & Sons in March 2026.
• Three-bedroom townhouses of 3,217 sq ft from AED 3,400,000 (portal-listed) — about AED 1,057 per square foot.
• Four-bedrooms of 3,801 sq ft at AED 4.0 million; five-bedrooms of 3,851 sq ft at AED 4.4 million.
• Five-year payment plan from 5% down with quarterly instalments, per the developer’s launch release.
• Parks, walking trails, community pools, clubhouse, gym, sports court, plus a mall, retail boulevard, lagoons and a community lake.
• First phase due in 2028; construction began in Q2 2026.

What we verify before you reserve

• Which phase is on offer, how many phases remain, and what is in each.
• The payment schedule in writing — and whether the launch terms still apply to this phase.
• The plot size, garden, garage and any roof or terrace space, against the built-up area quoted.
• The service-charge estimate per square foot, plus master community and district charges.
• Who maintains the garden, façade and boundary wall in a townhouse.
• The handover date in the sale and purchase agreement, and the delay provisions.
• The escrow account and project registration for the specific phase.
• What is being built next to the plot, and in what order.
• Whether the early phases’ amenities are delivered before or after your phase.
• Registered resale prices in the earlier phases, and how long those homes took to sell.