The Dubai 2040 plan is being revised: housing may replace DXB airport

Dubai's master plan to 2040 is a living document and its provisions are refined as it goes. One refinement concerns the fate of DXB international airport.

What changed

The plan's original edition assumed a civil airport would remain on the current DXB site. A different scenario has since been voiced: once the main passenger flow moves to Al Maktoum International, the territory is given over to residential development.

Who it affects directly

First of all Dubai Islands and the coastal part of Deira. Take-off and landing paths currently run over the archipelago and aircraft noise there is noticeable. Moving the airport removes that factor, and for a district positioned as resort and residential premium that is a material improvement to the environment.

The second circle is the neighbourhoods around the airport itself: Al Garhoud, the zones adjacent to Al Quoz, Umm Ramool. A territory the size of a small town, half an hour from Downtown, released for development, would change the supply map of eastern Dubai.

How to treat this when buying

Carefully. Relocating an airport of this scale is a project of a decade and more, phased in a way that is still being refined. The entire history of any megaproject fits between "under discussion" and "done".

The practical rule: buying property for a future infrastructure change only makes sense when the property is good without it. If the single argument for an apartment is "planes will stop flying here", that is a hope, not an investment thesis.