In a post dated 14 August 2026 on our Instagram account, Lucretia tells the story of a Jumeirah Bay Island plot sold for 9 million euros in 2021, then 31 million in 2023 without a single building going up.
On this page
In a post published on 14 August 2026 on our Instagram account @lucretia_immobilier, we revisit a single figure that captures the entire trajectory of Dubai's ultra-prime real estate. On Jumeirah Bay Island — the seahorse-shaped man-made island connected to the Jumeirah district by a 300-metre bridge — a vacant 2,300-square-metre plot sold for 9 million euros in 2021, then changed hands again for 31 million euros in 2023, without a single building having gone up in between. It wasn't the bricks and mortar that gained value: it was the address itself that moved into a whole new category.
@lucretia_immobilier · 14 August 2026
9 million euros in 2021. 31 million in 2023. And in between, absolutely nothing was built on this plot. That's exactly what happened on Jumeirah Bay Island, the seahorse-shaped man-made island connected to Jumeirah by a 300-metre bridge. What changed in the meantime was the status of the island itself. The Bvlgari Resort moved in, with its villas, its signature residences and the brand's first ever yacht club. Within a few years, the address became one of the most sought-after in Dubai among the ultra-wealthy. The result: land there is now almost impossible to find, and every property that comes onto the market sells at levels you won't see anywhere else in the city. That's exactly how scarcity works. When an address moves up a category, everything on it follows. Want to learn how to spot these addresses before they take off? We're in the comments 👇 #JumeirahBayIsland #DubaiRealEstate #ImmobilierDubai #Investissement #LuxuryRealEstate
Key takeaways
- A vacant 2,300-square-metre plot on Jumeirah Bay Island sold for 9 million euros in 2021, then resold for 31 million euros in 2023 with no construction in between, according to Lucretia's post of 14 August 2026.
- Jumeirah Bay Island is a seahorse-shaped man-made island connected to Jumeirah by a 300-metre bridge.
- The Bulgari Resort Dubai is located there, with its villas, its signature residences and the brand's first ever yacht club.
- The island has only a very limited number of residential plots, making it one of the rarest addresses in Dubai.
- Jumeirah Bay Island sits offshore, between the World Islands and Downtown Dubai.
A project in mind?
Talk to a Lucretia adviser
Tailored guidance, no obligation.
What pushed Jumeirah Bay Island into another category
Between the 2021 sale and the 2023 one, the plot didn't change at all: what transformed was its surroundings. The arrival of the Bulgari Resort Dubai, with its villas, its signature residences and the brand's first ever yacht club, turned the island into one of the addresses most coveted by Dubai's ultra-wealthy. A global luxury brand, a resort, a private yacht club: the island went from prime land to an ultra-exclusive address.
Geography does the rest. Jumeirah Bay Island is a finite space, with a very small number of residential plots, whereas developments like Palm Jumeirah count them in the thousands. Once the land is absorbed, no more is created. It's this combination — a luxury signature plus a capped supply — that explains the price trajectory, and one we explore more broadly in our overview of the Dubai real estate market.
How scarcity works, and where it stops
The lesson is clear: when an address moves up a category, everything on it follows. Land becomes almost impossible to find, and every property that comes onto the market sells at levels you won't find anywhere else in the city. That's how scarcity works, and it's what made Jumeirah Bay Island a textbook case.
Yet such a chain of events can't be called in advance. Spotting an address before it takes off means reading the signals — a brand moving in, a supply ceiling, infrastructure projects — rather than chasing a figure that's already been achieved. At these price levels, choosing the right property, its future liquidity and the ownership structure matter just as much as the address itself. That's the heart of our work on investing in Dubai.
What it means for the investor
For an investor, the story of Jumeirah Bay Island illustrates a principle we often stress: in Dubai's ultra-prime segments, a decisive share of the value comes from the scarcity of the address, not just the quality of the build. A gated island, a luxury signature and a capped plot supply create a scarcity effect that few markets offer with this kind of clarity.
On top of this comes a tax framework that amplifies the appeal of these deals. In Dubai, individuals pay no tax on rental income or on real estate capital gains — a point we detail in our guide to property taxation in Dubai. On a resale like the one mentioned in our post, that radically changes the equation compared with most European markets.
We remain clear, however: a past capital gain doesn't repeat itself mechanically, and this kind of address doesn't suit every profile. An ultra-prime ticket on a gated island has neither the same liquidity nor the same horizon as a diversified rental portfolio. Depending on your goal — yield, wealth preservation, residence — other markets may make more sense, as we explain in our comparison of Dubai versus Bali. That's precisely what we frame with each investor before any acquisition.
Source: Original post on Instagram (@lucretia_immobilier) — 14 August 2026
Free guide, delivered on WhatsApp
Get the guide "Investing in Dubai"
Taxation, visas, financing, buying steps: 14 pages written by our advisers, sent to your WhatsApp within minutes.
This article is part of our guide
Dubai Property Investment Guide for Foreign Buyers
About the author
Sofiane OULD
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
A visionary entrepreneur and recognized expert in Dubai's prestige real estate market, Sofiane began his career in Paris before joining major players in online real estate (SeLoger, MeilleursAgents, Airbnb). Based in Dubai since 2019, he quickly established himself as one of the city's top-performing brokers. Founder of Lucretia Immobilier, he now supports his clients with an approach combining integrity, innovation and excellence, thereby redefining the standards of luxury.
