Dubai’s future metro: Blue Line and Gold Line — what is official and what DLD sales show

As at October 2026, the Blue Line is an official 30 km, 14-station project scheduled for commercial operation on 9 September 2029; the Gold Line has been announced for 9 September 2032, with its tender expected in 2026. The DLD figures show that prices and transaction patterns have changed both along the Blue Line and in areas without it, so they do not prove that a future station caused a price change. Paying extra solely for “near a future station” is hard to verify today because RTA has publicly named only part of the Blue Line stations. All monetary figures below are in AED; no exchange-rate conversion is used.

What is officially known about the Blue Line

The Blue Line is under construction. Its planned length is 30 km, with 14 stations: 15.5 km underground and 14.5 km elevated. RTA describes nine elevated stations and five underground stations. Commercial operation is scheduled for 9 September 2029.

Construction began formally in June 2025. The planned completion level was 30% by the end of 2026. Reported construction progress reached 10% in November 2025 and 20% in May 2026, when major tunnelling works began from International City 1. These figures describe construction progress, not a guarantee that a particular property will be within walking distance of a station.

The line has two routes. Route 1 is planned to run for 21 km from Creek, connecting with the Green Line, through Dubai Festival City, Dubai Creek Harbour, Ras Al Khor, International City 1, 2 and 3, Dubai Silicon Oasis and Dubai Academic City. Route 2 is planned to run for 9 km from Centrepoint on the Red Line through Mirdif and Al Warqa to International City 1.

You can compare the published network with the Dubai Metro map. The three stated interchange points are Creek, Centrepoint and International City 1. RTA also describes a Dubai Creek Harbour station, named Emaar Properties Station under a naming-rights arrangement, and a 1,300 m metro bridge across Dubai Creek.

There is a practical limitation for a buyer: RTA has not published the full confirmed list of individual station names and exact station locations for all 14 stations. Ten station names are not publicly confirmed in the available official descriptions. A line may serve an area without a station being close to a specific building. For that reason, an advertisement saying “near Blue Line station” usually cannot yet be checked by measuring a real route from a building entrance to a confirmed station entrance.

RTA has said that land and property values around Blue Line stations may increase by up to 25%. This is a forecast stated in December 2024, not an observed result, and it did not set out a calculation method or a time horizon. It should not be read as a promise about the value of any apartment, building or district.

Gold Line: announced route, 2032 target and current limits

The Gold Line was announced on 22 April 2026. It is described as a 42 km fully underground line, with tunnels reaching depths of up to 40 m, a planned cost of AED 34 billion and a target date of 9 September 2032. The tender was expected in 2026 and contract awards were expected in 2027.

The announced route runs from Al Ghubaiba through Mina Rashid, City Walk, Business Bay, Mohammed Bin Rashid City, Nad Al Sheba, MBR Gardens, Meydan, Al Barsha South, Jumeirah Village Circle and Jumeirah Golf Estates. It is described as connecting with the Green Line at Al Ghubaiba, the Red Line at Business Bay and Jumeirah Golf Estates, and Etihad Rail at Meydan and Jumeirah Golf Estates.

The published description does not say that the Gold Line intersects the Blue Line. It also does not provide a settled public list of Gold Line station names. Different reports have used different station counts, so this page does not treat any number of Gold Line stations as confirmed.

JVC should therefore be described as an area without the Blue Line, not as an area without a future metro line. The Gold Line route is stated to pass through JVC, but station-level distance still cannot be verified from the presently published route description.

In September 2026, the head of RTA was reported as saying land values around future metro stations could rise by 15–30%. That statement concerned future stations whose locations were still being studied, and it gave no method or time period. It is a forecast statement, not DLD transaction evidence and not a valuation of a particular unit.

DLD apartment sales: Blue Line areas and comparison areas

The table covers residential apartment sales only: units, not villas, land or whole buildings. It uses median AED per sq ft, not averages, and shows the share of sales registered as off-plan. Sorting is by the areas selected for comparison, not by quality or investment ranking. The 2026 column is incomplete: it covers 1 January to 29 October 2026, the latest registry date used here.

For buyers choosing between locations, the area pages with DLD prices and transactions can be used to inspect the underlying local market context before narrowing the search to individual buildings.

Dubai Creek Harbour is named on the Blue Line route. Its median moved from AED 2,062 per sq ft in 2023 to AED 2,559 per sq ft in the incomplete 2026 period, while off-plan represented 62.0% to 72.6% of annual sales in 2023–2025 and 70.1% in 2026 to date. For a building-by-building view, see the Dubai Creek Harbour DLD data review.

International City recorded a median of AED 497 per sq ft in full-year 2023 and AED 1,000 per sq ft in 2026 to 29 October. That does not mean the same apartments doubled in value. The off-plan share changed from 5.6% in 2023 and 3.1% in 2024 to 49.0% in 2026. New launches and older ready apartments are not the same transaction mix.

Dubai Silicon Oasis recorded 3,869 apartment sales in 2025, with 67.4% off-plan and a median of AED 1,549 per sq ft. In the incomplete 2026 period, it recorded 1,262 sales, 37.0% off-plan and a lower median of AED 1,149 per sq ft. This is a change in the recorded mix as well as a change in the median; it is not proof that the Blue Line changed prices.

Ras Al Khor requires particular care. All recorded apartment sales in this selection were off-plan, concentrated in three projects: Sobha One, Amaal 8 and The Element at Sobha One. There were no qualifying sales in 2023. This is a limited project-led sample rather than a long-running apartment market series for the area.

Al Warqa and Dubai Academic City are named on the Blue Line route, but this apartment-sales selection contains no residential apartment market for them. Al Warqa records concern villas, land or whole buildings rather than the apartment units used in the table. No comparable apartment median should be inferred for either area from this data.

Areas without the Blue Line: why the comparison matters

Medians also rose in areas without the Blue Line. JVC’s median was AED 1,153 per sq ft in full-year 2023 and AED 1,460 in 2026 to 29 October, even though JVC is not on the Blue Line. It is on the announced Gold Line route, so it should not be treated as a no-future-line control area.

Arjan is not named in the Gold Line route description. Its median changed from AED 1,235 per sq ft in full-year 2023 to AED 1,582 in 2026 to 29 October. Dubai South changed from AED 978 (full-year 2023) to AED 1,671 (2026 to 29 October), while off-plan rose from 32.7% to 95.2%. Those changes show why a headline median cannot isolate the effect of a railway line.

For some locations, the incomplete 2026 period has fewer apartment transactions than the comparable 2025 period to 29 October: International City had 2,465 versus 2,838; Dubai Silicon Oasis 1,262 versus 3,275; Mirdif 110 versus 166; Ras Al Khor 387 versus 667; and Al Jaddaf 1,829 versus 2,182 (comparable 1 January–29 October 2025 figures from the same DLD registry). Some medians also fell, including Silicon Oasis. Rental figures are not part of this apartment-sales dataset, so this page does not quantify rents.

What Route 2020 shows, and what it does not show

Route 2020 began service to Al Furjan on 1 January 2021. Dubai Investment Park and Expo 2020 stations opened on 1 June 2021. Al Furjan gives a useful historical example because the recorded apartment median did not immediately rise after the opening.

In 2021, the first calendar year after the January opening, the median fell to AED 816 per sq ft from AED 846 in 2020. Higher activity and higher medians appeared from 2022, alongside a growing off-plan share. The three-year window around 1 January 2021 recorded 571 sales before the opening, with a median of AED 895 per sq ft, and 2,896 afterwards, with a median of AED 996 per sq ft.

This overlap in time does not establish cause. The later period also coincided with wider Dubai market changes and different off-plan supply. There is no comparison in these figures that separates a station effect from the general market or the changing composition of sales.

How to check a future-metro property before paying

Start with the official route diagram, then identify whether the specific station has actually been named and located. A district label is not a station address. If the station is unnamed, the distance from a building cannot be confirmed as a real walking distance.

• Ask for the exact building name, unit type, floor area, registration status and whether the sale is ready or off-plan.
• Compare sales of the same building where enough transactions exist, rather than comparing an advertised asking price with an area median.
• Separate ready-property transactions from off-plan transactions if new launches materially change the local mix.
• For an off-plan unit, ask for the applicable project registration and payment route, including oqood where it applies. Oqood is commonly used to refer to the off-plan registration record; the required documentation depends on the transaction.
• Review practical issues such as traffic, construction activity, parking and noise for the exact building and time of visit, for the exact building and time of visit rather than assuming a future line resolves them.

Off-plan payments should go through the developer’s escrow arrangements or a trustee office as applicable. The broker does not receive client money, exchange money, open accounts, issue loans or provide tax and legal conclusions. The buyer should obtain legal advice where ownership terms or contract obligations require interpretation, speak to a tax adviser about their home-country tax position, and use a bank for financing decisions. For the construction-payment framework and delay considerations, see off-plan risks: escrow and delays.

Purchase expenses should be calculated for the individual transaction, including applicable DLD and trustee-office charges. Before committing funds, use the Dubai property purchase cost calculator and confirm the current amounts and payment instructions with the relevant trustee office or developer.

Agency checks and the broker’s role

Before sending documents or arranging any payment, ask the agency for its licence details and independently check that its licensing status is current through the relevant Dubai register. A licence check is separate from checking the property: confirm the seller’s authority, the project registration where relevant, and the payment destination for the specific transaction.

Who pays the agent depends on the written terms of the particular transaction. Ask before viewing or reserving a unit who pays, what service is included and whether any fee is due. The broker can explain the process, compare DLD transaction data, help collect transaction documents and accompany the purchase process. It does not hold client funds. Money should be directed only to the developer’s escrow account or the relevant trustee office, as the transaction requires.

Gross rental yield, if discussed for a particular property, is a pre-fee calculation and should be based on independent sale and rental samples. It is not a prediction, and it does not include all ownership, service, vacancy, financing or tax costs.

Frequently asked questions

When will the Dubai Metro Blue Line open?

Commercial operation is scheduled for 9 September 2029. The project is planned as 30 km with 14 stations.

Which areas are on the Blue Line?

The published route covers Al Jaddaf, Dubai Festival City, Dubai Creek Harbour, Ras Al Khor, International City, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai Academic City, Mirdif, Al Warqa and Al Rashidiya.

Can I verify that an apartment is close to a future Blue Line station?

Usually not with precision yet. Only part of the station list and station locations has been publicly identified, so a district-level claim is not proof of walking distance.

Does the Blue Line prove that property prices will rise?

No. RTA stated a forecast of up to 25% around stations, but the DLD transaction figures cannot isolate a Blue Line effect from changing off-plan supply and wider market movements.

What happened near Al Furjan after Route 2020 opened?

The apartment median was AED 846 per sq ft in 2020 and AED 816 in 2021, then AED 1,019 in 2022. The station opening did not coincide with an immediate median increase.

Is JVC on the Blue Line or Gold Line?

JVC is not on the Blue Line. It is included in the announced Gold Line route, which has a target date of 9 September 2032 and an expected 2026 tender.

How do I check an agency before sending money?

Request its licence details, independently verify its current licensing status, obtain written fee terms, and do not send funds to the broker. Transaction payments should go to the developer’s escrow arrangement or the relevant trustee office.

Discuss a purchase in Dubai

If you are considering a purchase, arrange a free consultation to go through the property, the transaction steps and the documents.