Dubai Project Location Intelligence · Site finder
Dubai site finder: rate your priorities and see your match
Every project has its own priorities. A school operator looks at residents and existing schools, a developer at the homes already due nearby, a clinic at the metro and the services around it. The site finder lets you rate those priorities yourself and shows how every block of Dubai matches them, with the figures behind each match.
- Rate your priority for each factor from 0, not important, to 10, essential; every factor starts at 0.
- Each factor’s name says what counts as better, such as “Close to a metro station”.
- A full breakdown for any block: each figure, its percentile among all blocks and your priority.
The tool
Dubai site finder BETA
Rate your priorities under “Your priorities”. The map shades every 0.75 km² block by your match, “Highest matches” lists the ten best, and “Your match” breaks any block down figure by figure. Click a block on the map to see its breakdown.
Map layers
Map layers
Every factor is a dated figure from an official source. The finder compares blocks, so each figure is measured in a straight line from the centre of its 0.75 km² block, not from a pin. A figure marked community-level is the same for every block in that Dubai Municipality community; a figure marked nearest station is the station’s own.
Email my results
We’ll send this summary — your figures and the results — to your inbox.
Rate at least one factor above 0 first.
Method
How your match is worked out
Percentiles
Figures come in different units, metres, counts and residents, so each is first turned into a percentile: where a block sits among all 1,144 blocks on that figure. Blocks with the same figure share the same percentile. For a factor named “close to” or “few”, a lower figure scores higher; for a factor named “many”, a higher figure does.
Your priorities
Your match is the average of the percentiles, each counted in proportion to the priority you gave it. A factor rated 10 counts ten times as much as one rated 1, and one left at 0 does not count at all. The result runs from 0 to 100.
The breakdown
Select any block to see each factor you rated, the block’s own figure with its source and date, its percentile and your priority. Nothing is hidden inside the score: the breakdown is the whole calculation.
No presets
The finder does not suggest priorities for any kind of project, and it does not rank the city by any view of its own. Two readers with different priorities will see different matches, which is the point.
Limits
How far to rely on a match
A match is relative
A percentile says how a block compares with the rest of the city, so a match of 80 means the block sits high among Dubai’s blocks on your priorities. It says nothing about rents, prices or what is available there today.
Shared figures
Community-level figures are the same for every block in a community, so they separate communities from one another and leave blocks within one community level. Straight-line distances are measured from the centre of each block.
Method
Sources and dates
- Station locations: Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), via Dubai Data (data.dubai), Dubai Open Data Licence.
- Population estimates: Dubai Statistics Center, via Dubai Data, Dubai Open Data Licence.
- Ridership: RTA / Dubai Statistics Center, via Dubai Data.
- Schools: Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), via Dubai Data, Dubai Open Data Licence.
- Community boundaries: Dubai Municipality, via Dubai Data (data.dubai), Dubai Open Data Licence.
- Food and drink licences and building register: Dubai Municipality, via Dubai Data, Dubai Open Data Licence.
- Health facilities: Dubai Health Authority (Sheryan), via Dubai Data, Dubai Open Data Licence.
- Parking spaces, parking tariff and bus coverage: Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), via Dubai Data, Dubai Open Data Licence.
- School enrolment: Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), via Dubai Data, Dubai Open Data Licence.
- Project register and registered sales: Dubai Land Department.
- New units due and completed: Dubai Land Department, Mashrooi project register, read 18 Oct 2026.
Open data is published on Dubai Data under the Dubai Open Data Licence. The figures are counted, rounded and presented by Mitchell's Commercial Real Estate. The Dubai Government and the publishing entities named above do not endorse Mitchell's Commercial Real Estate and are not associated with it or with this tool. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, served as OpenMapTiles by OpenFreeMap.
Questions
Site finder questions
How does the Dubai site finder work?
You rate your priority for each factor from 0, not important, to 10, essential. Each factor's name says what counts as better, such as "Close to a metro station" or "Many residents in the community". For every factor you rate, each of the city's 1,144 blocks gets a percentile: where it sits among all the blocks, from 0 to 100, with 100 the best as the factor is named. Your match is the average of those percentiles, each counted in proportion to your priority, so a block that does well on what matters most to you comes out highest. Each figure is measured in a straight line from the centre of its block.
Why is nothing shown until I move a slider?
Every priority starts at 0, which means not important, and the factor is ignored. The finder has no presets and no ranking of its own: it only ranks by the priorities you rate, so until you rate one there is nothing to rank.
What happens when a block has no figure for a factor?
A figure can be blank where it would rest on too few projects or businesses to publish. A blank is never treated as zero. The block's match is worked out from the factors it does have, the breakdown shows which ones counted, and the map shading and the list of highest matches include only blocks with a figure for every factor you rated, so they compare like with like.
What does community-level mean in the factors?
Some figures, such as residents and residents per km², are published for a whole Dubai Municipality community. Every block in that community shares the figure, and the finder labels it community-level. A figure labelled nearest station belongs to the nearest metro station, and every block closest to that station shares it.
Which factors can I rate?
Being close to a metro station or a tram stop, bus stops within 500 m, journeys at the nearest metro station, schools within 2 km and those rated Good or better, units due within 2 km, units completed, residents and residents per km², food and drink outlets, clinics and pharmacies, pupils enrolled, public parking, residents served by buses, buildings and homes sold in 2025. Each comes from an official source with its date beside it.
Why do some factors appear twice, as "many" and "few"?
Because readers want different things from the same figure. A landlord of shop units may want many food and drink outlets nearby, while a restaurant looking for a site may want few competitors. The same applies to units due nearby and to residents per km². Rate whichever one matches your plan; each counts on its own.
Next step
Talk to us about a location
The finder narrows the city to the blocks that match your priorities. Tell us which of them you would like to pursue and what you need there, and we will come back with what is available and the terms we would look at first.
