August's biggest Dubai deal was a Palm Jumeirah flat at Dh79 million

In a month of nearly twelve thousand sales across Dubai, the largest single one was not a villa, not a plot and not a tower. It was a flat on a man-made island that was finished twenty years ago.

The two at the top

A property at Orla Infinity by Omniyat on Palm Jumeirah sold for Dh79 million. Behind it, a 725.25 sq m home at Jumeirah Residences Asora Bay went for Dh65 million.

The month around them

Dubai recorded Dh46.22 billion in total property transactions in August, of which Dh27.89 billion was sales across 11,600 transactions — 10,124 units, 684 buildings and 793 plots.

Why the older island keeps winning these

Palm Jumeirah is finished. A buyer at this level is not buying a plan, a handover date or a construction update; they are buying a beach that exists, neighbours who already live there and a road that already works. Very little else in the emirate can offer that, and none of it is on water.

What it says for Palm Jebel Ali

Not much yet, and that is the honest answer. The second island is selling a version of the same proposition with the completed part removed, which is why its prices sit where they do and why the comparison worth making is with Palm Jumeirah in 2007 rather than with Palm Jumeirah today.