Dubai South Awards AED 2 Billion Contract for Hayat, a 2,500-Home Community Beside Al Maktoum Airport

Dubai's southern flank is about to get a good deal busier. Dubai South, the government-backed district built around Al Maktoum International Airport, has appointed a main contractor for Hayat, a master-planned residential community of roughly 2,500 homes, and attached a firm figure to the job: an AED 2 billion construction contract.

The work went to Mohammed Abdulmohsin Al Kharafi and Sons, one of the region's long-established builders. Construction is set to begin in the second quarter of 2026, with the first phases due for completion by 2028. For a district that has spent years being described as the future of Dubai, Hayat is one of the clearest signs yet that the future is now being poured in concrete.

What is actually being built

Hayat is aimed squarely at families, and the mix of homes reflects that. Instead of a wall of towers, the plan spreads across a range of formats and sizes, from one-bedroom apartments up to five-bedroom houses. The published unit types include:

• Townhouses and semi-detached villas
• Standalone villas and larger mansions
• Apartments and hotel apartments

Around the homes, Dubai South is planning the everyday infrastructure that turns a cluster of villas into a real neighbourhood: parks, shaded walking trails, play areas, community pools, landscaped gardens and a central lake, along with a community mall and a retail boulevard. A 50,000 square foot hypermarket, a mosque, a petrol station and a GEMS Founders School sit within the wider masterplan, and a separate 200,000 square foot mall is already under way close by.

Why the location matters

Hayat sits next to Al Maktoum International Airport, the hub Dubai intends to grow into the largest in the world, and it plugs directly into the road network that has been pulling developers south. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road, Emirates Road, the Jebel Ali Free Zone and the Dubai South Free Zone are all within easy reach, and a public bus link to the Expo metro station is part of the plan, which counts for tenants and owner-occupiers who would rather not depend entirely on a car.

That combination of aviation and logistics jobs on the doorstep, motorway access in several directions and a price point that undercuts the established central districts is much of what has made Dubai South one of the more talked-about corners of the market for buyers comparing new off-plan projects in Dubai South against pricier addresses nearer the coast.

Nabil Al Kindi, Group CEO of Dubai South, framed the appointment as a delivery milestone and described the goal as a well-balanced community built around the quality of daily life rather than a single headline tower. For off-plan buyers the more practical signal is simpler: a named contractor and a start date move a project from a brochure to a building site, and that is usually the moment a masterplan begins to feel real.

The bigger picture

Hayat is one of several projects reshaping Dubai's southern corridor, and it arrives while the wider market keeps setting records for transaction volumes. For anyone weighing a home near the new airport, the questions are the familiar ones: which phase to target, how the payment plan is put together, and how early prices here stack up against villas and apartments in Dubai's more mature communities.