Partially established
Dubai Hills Estate
More central and fully established, with a mall and a hospital, at a higher price per square foot.
Render — not a photograph
Community · Family Villa
First phases handed overTilal Al Ghaf
The newer family community that has done the one thing new communities rarely do: hold its launch prices.
- StageStage
- First phases handed over
- TypesProperty types
- VillasTownhousesMansionsPlots
- Drive timesDrive times
- Dubai Hills Mall — 12 minMall of the Emirates — 18 minDowntown Dubai — 25 min
What it is
A lagoon, a developer that runs malls, and a plan that has held.
Tilal Al Ghaf is Majid Al Futtaim's first master-planned residential district, south of Dubai Hills along Hessa Street. It launched in 2019 around a swimmable lagoon and a central park, and the first villa and townhouse phases handed over from 2021.
- Completion
- Planned · 2029Through 2029 (developer targets)
The only lagoon-side row where resale has held above launch.
Phases and delivery
Handed over · 2021–2024
Harmony, Serenity, Elan and Aura
The first villa and townhouse rows around the lagoon and the central park; occupied, with resale history.
Under construction · 2025–2027 (developer targets)
Alaya, Amara, Aura Gardens and Lanai Islands
Larger villas and the lagoon-island plots, handing over in stages.
Under construction · 2027–2029 (developer targets)
Elysian Mansions, Plagette and later launches
The most recent launches, including the mansion district and the northern edge of the plan.
What exists today
What is physically there in Tilal Al Ghaf.
The first four villa and townhouse phases are handed over and lived in. The swimmable lagoon, its beach and the central park are open, and the landscaping in the delivered phases is finished rather than promised.
Royal Grammar School Guildford Dubai operates inside the community. Retail is a small community centre with a supermarket and a few cafes; there is no mall inside the boundary, and residents drive to Dubai Hills Mall, about twelve minutes.
Road access via Hessa Street and Sheikh Zayed bin Hamdan Al Nahyan Street is complete. There is no metro and none is planned.
Roughly half the master plan is still under construction, so construction traffic and hoardings are part of daily life on the northern and western edges.
Last verified
Handed over · 2021–2024
Harmony, Serenity, Elan and Aura
The first villa and townhouse rows around the lagoon and the central park; occupied, with resale history.
Under construction · 2025–2027 (developer targets)
Alaya, Amara, Aura Gardens and Lanai Islands
Larger villas and the lagoon-island plots, handing over in stages.
Under construction · 2027–2029 (developer targets)
Elysian Mansions, Plagette and later launches
The most recent launches, including the mansion district and the northern edge of the plan.
- Relocating families
- New-build townhouses and villas, a lagoon beach, and a school inside the community.
- Second-home buyers
- A quieter, greener alternative to Dubai Hills at a lower price per square foot.
- Less suited to
- Daily DIFC commuters, and anyone who wants urban density or an established resale record.
Planned — not built
Nothing in this list exists yet. Dates are the developer's own where any have been published — treat them as intent, not as a move-in plan.
- Town centre retail and dining (master plan)Planned · No date published
- Second school sitePlanned · No operator or date announced
- Dubai Hills Mall12 min
- Mall of the Emirates18 min
- Downtown Dubai25 min
- DXB airport35 min
Hessa Street and Sheikh Zayed bin Hamdan Al Nahyan Street; Downtown in twenty-five minutes off-peak. No metro.
Twenty-five minutes to Downtown on a good day, forty on a bad one. This is a community you choose for the house, not the commute.
Existing — built and open
- Lagoon Al Ghaf and its beachBeach
- Central park and cycling loopPark
- Community centre retailRetail
- Hessa Street and Sheikh Zayed bin Hamdan Al Nahyan Street accessRoad
Schools — operating
- Royal Grammar School Guildford Dubai
Healthcare — operating
- A clinic in the community centre; Mediclinic Parkview in Al Barsha South is about fifteen minutes.
Planned — not open
A site on a masterplan is not a school. Nothing below has an operator or an opening date we would plan a move around.
- A second school site is shown in the master plan; no operator or date has been announced.Planned · date TBC
Who it suits, and who it doesn't
- Relocating families
- New-build townhouses and villas, a lagoon beach, and a school inside the community.
- Second-home buyers
- A quieter, greener alternative to Dubai Hills at a lower price per square foot.
- Less suited to
- Daily DIFC commuters, and anyone who wants urban density or an established resale record.
Planned lifestyle & amenities
Planned — not built
Nothing in this list exists yet. Dates are the developer's own where any have been published — treat them as intent, not as a move-in plan.
- Town centre retail and dining (master plan)Planned · No date published
- Second school sitePlanned · No operator or date announced
Connectivity & infrastructure
- Dubai Hills Mall12 min
- Mall of the Emirates18 min
- Downtown Dubai25 min
- DXB airport35 min
Hessa Street and Sheikh Zayed bin Hamdan Al Nahyan Street; Downtown in twenty-five minutes off-peak. No metro.
Twenty-five minutes to Downtown on a good day, forty on a bad one. This is a community you choose for the house, not the commute.
Existing — built and open
- Lagoon Al Ghaf and its beachBeach
- Central park and cycling loopPark
- Community centre retailRetail
- Hessa Street and Sheikh Zayed bin Hamdan Al Nahyan Street accessRoad
Schools & healthcare
Schools — operating
- Royal Grammar School Guildford Dubai
Healthcare — operating
- A clinic in the community centre; Mediclinic Parkview in Al Barsha South is about fifteen minutes.
Planned — not open
A site on a masterplan is not a school. Nothing below has an operator or an opening date we would plan a move around.
- A second school site is shown in the master plan; no operator or date has been announced.Planned · date TBC
Next step
Availability in Tilal Al Ghaf comes from a person.
Most of Tilal Al Ghaf is still a plan, so what is genuinely open to buy is a short list that changes launch by launch. Tell us the budget and the handover year you can live with and we will send what is open now, at today's prices, with the phases we would avoid.
An advisor checks it before sending and replies within one business day.Use Availability in the bar below — an advisor checks it before sending and replies within one business day.
OAC18 Perspective
Buy Tilal Al Ghaf for the house and the lagoon. Accept the commute and the shorter resale record.
- Where it is strong
- Landscaping and management have been delivered to an unusual standard, the lagoon-side rows have resold above launch, and the developer has a long record of running places well.
- Where it falls short
- It is a single developer's first residential district, retail inside the boundary is thin, later phases are still under construction, and the drive to Downtown is real.
- Supply and handover
Supply is villa-heavy and arrives in rows of a few hundred homes at a time, so each handover puts a cluster of similar houses on the rental and resale market together. So far the lagoon-side rows have resold above launch and absorbed those clusters within a year; the later, larger phases are a bigger test and have no resale record yet.
Because Majid Al Futtaim has one residential track record rather than twenty, we weigh the delivered phases more heavily than the brochure for anything launched from here.
Against Dubai Hills, you get more house for the money and a beach; you give up centrality and a deeper buyer pool on resale. For families who will live in it for five years or more, that is usually a fair trade.
Compare with nearby communities
Where else the same money goes.
EstablishedArabian Ranches
Established and cheaper, with mature trees and older houses that need work.
First phases handed overThe Valley
Emaar's newer villa community further out on the Al Ain Road, cheaper again and much less built.
Ask what we would avoid in Tilal Al Ghaf.
Twenty minutes on Tilal Al Ghaf specifically — which phases, which developers, and where the handover and resale risk actually sits.