Living in Dubai Design District

History

Dubai Design District, known as d3, sits on the waterfront between Downtown Dubai and Dubai Creek, next to Business Bay, Za’abeel and the Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary. TECOM launched it in 2013 as a free-zone business district for design, fashion and art. Bayut says the first phase, 11 buildings of offices, co-working space, showrooms and shops, was finished in 2015. Wikipedia, drawing on the original plans, puts that phase at 1.2 million sq ft of offices and studios and more than 200,000 sq ft of retail.

d3 was built as an office district. Its first homes came in March 2023, when Meraas launched Design Quarter, 558 apartments in three towers of ground plus 10 to ground plus 43 storeys, which Gulf News called the first freehold homes in d3. Meraas followed with Atélis at d3, a 45-storey tower of 280 homes designed by SOM (May 2025), and The Edit at d3, 557 homes in three towers on the canal promenade (November 2025). Select Group’s Artistry One Residences is also under way. In January 2026 Meraas unveiled an 18 million sq ft residential masterplan for d3, with canal-front homes, a cultural quarter, parks and a shaded walking route called the Design Line (Dubai Media Office). d3 is also adding six Grade-A office buildings, more than 500,000 sq ft, due in the first half of 2028 (Meraas, May 2025).

What it’s like to live here

For now d3 is a place to work, eat and visit rather than live. We found no finished residential building when we checked in October 2026, and Property Finder listed no homes for rent. The homes for sale are off-plan apartments, duplexes and penthouses. Property Finder lists Design Quarter for delivery in Q1 2027, Artistry One Residences in February 2029 and The Edit at d3 in January 2030. We could not find a confirmed handover date for Atélis.

The finished part of d3 is a group of office buildings with street art, a waterfront promenade and cafés and restaurants such as Mohalla, Chez Charles and The Espresso Lab. The Block has sports courts, climbing walls and a skate park, and there is a gym in Building 8 (Bayut). d3 hosts Dubai Design Week, Dubai Fashion Week and Sole DXB. The new towers are planned with pools and gyms, and some with co-working space, according to Property Finder’s project pages.

Who it suits

Today it suits buyers more than residents. It suits off-plan buyers who can wait for handover, people who work in d3’s creative businesses, and professionals in Downtown, Business Bay or DIFC who want a new waterfront flat close to work. We could not find a renter or buyer nationality breakdown for d3.

For investors it is an early, untested market. Property Finder recorded 562 sales in its ‘last year’ view, up 93.1%, all of them off-plan: 313 in The Edit at d3, 154 in Artistry One, 62 in Artistry Two, 19 in Design Quarter and 14 in Atélis (checked October 2026). There is no rental record yet, so there is no measured yield.

Getting around

There is no Metro station in d3. Bayut puts Business Bay, Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall, Financial Centre and Emirates Towers stations 6 to 10 minutes away by car, and Creek and Al Jadaf stations within 11 minutes. RTA buses D03 and D03A run from the d3 bus stop to The Dubai Mall, according to Bayut. The main roads are Al Khail Road, Ras Al Khor Road (E44), Financial Centre Road and the Al Ain–Dubai Road (E66). OpenStreetMap also marks a marine transport station on the d3 waterfront, but we could not confirm a current RTA route from it.

Bayut puts The Dubai Mall about 7 minutes away by car, Dubai Festival City Mall about 13 minutes, Jumeirah Public Beach about 15 minutes, and Dubai International Airport and Palm Jumeirah about 20 minutes each.

Schools, healthcare and shopping

Inside d3 there is a nursery, Blossom Nursery in Building 2, and the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation, a design university in Building 4 (Bayut). Bayut lists no school in d3. Hartland International School in MBR City is about 1.3 km south of the middle of d3, with North London Collegiate School beside it (OpenStreetMap); Bayut puts Hartland about 9 minutes away by car. Bayut also lists JSS Private School in Al Wasl, about 9 minutes away, and Swiss International Scientific School in Al Jaddaf, about 14 minutes. Check the latest KHDA inspection rating and fees for any school you consider.

Bayut lists Emirates Hospital’s Business Bay clinic and Latifa Hospital for Women and Children, 9 to 12 minutes away by car. For groceries, Bayut lists All Day Gourmet in Building 1, and Spinneys and other supermarkets in Business Bay and Downtown. The Dubai Mall is about 7 minutes away, Wafi Mall about 11 minutes and Dubai Festival City Mall about 13 minutes.

Things to check before you rent or buy

• Check the handover date and progress. Gulf News reported May 2027 for Design Quarter at launch and Property Finder now lists Q1 2027, but Property Finder also showed construction at 16.91% in November 2025. Ask the developer for the latest progress report.
• Confirm the title. Developers sell the homes as freehold, but d3 is not on Bayut’s freehold list (updated October 2026) and Bayut’s area guide still calls it rental only. Ask the developer and the Dubai Land Department to confirm your unit can be registered in your name.
• Compare payment plans. Property Finder lists 20% down, 55% during construction and 25% on handover for The Edit at d3, and 20/30/50 for Artistry One, plus a 4% government fee.
• Compare towers. The ten latest recorded sales, all in October 2026, ranged from AED 2,430 per sq ft for a one-bedroom in Design Quarter to AED 4,041 per sq ft for a four-bedroom in The Edit at d3 (Property Finder).
• Treat yields as projections. With no finished homes and no rental contracts, any rental yield in a brochure is an estimate.
• Expect building work nearby for years. Meraas’s masterplan and its office expansion, due in the first half of 2028, will change views, noise and access.
• Ask the developer for the expected service charge, as no building has a track record yet.