Dubai’s retail scene just doesn’t sit still. There’s always something being announced, something under construction, something getting a facelift, and 2026 looks like it’ll be one of the busiest years yet. You’ve got forest-themed shopping going up in the middle of a brand-new residential community, boutique Spanish-style plazas tucked into growing neighborhoods, and a couple of genuinely massive projects that will take years to fully  materialise. The new malls coming to Dubai this year tell you a lot about where the city is headed. 

What’s interesting is that developers aren’t just chasing size anymore. Alongside a few enormous flagship projects, there’s a real push toward smaller, community-first malls, the kind with a supermarket, a gym, and a decent coffee spot rather than three hundred stores.  

So, if you’re trying to figure out which malls are expected to open in 2026, here are ten projects worth knowing about. For each one, we have pulled together who’s building it, when it’s expected to open, how big it is, exactly where it sits, how much money is going into it, and what you’ll find once the doors open.  

Every fact below comes from public developer announcements or established Dubai news outlets, and exploring these will require a ticket to Dubai. A trusted travel agency in Dubai is always available to help you with the best deals and offers.

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Quick Summary 

Project Name	Tentative Date/Month	Speciality	Nearby Tourist Attractions
Ghaf Woods Mall	Date not confirmed yet	Built inside a forest community with over 30,000 trees	Global Village, IMG Worlds of Adventure
Sobha Mall	Late 2026	Community mall with supermarket, gym and play zones	Downtown Dubai, Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary
Liwan Mall	Second half of 2026	Spanish-inspired design with courtyards and a pool	Dubai Miracle Garden, Global Village
Villa Square	Third quarter of 2026	Spanish-inspired mall with rooftop pool and wellness spaces	Dubai Miracle Garden, Al Barari
NAS Gardens Community Mall	August 2026	Two-storey mall with Waitrose as anchor store	Meydan Racecourse, Downtown Dubai
South Bay Mall	Date not confirmed yet	Waterfront mall with lagoon views	Expo City Dubai, Al Maktoum International Airport
HAYAT Community Mall	Construction from Q2 2026, phases from 202	Retail inside a wellness-focused district	Expo City Dubai, Al Maktoum International Airport
Dubai Square	Around 2028	Large indoor city style retail and entertainment hub	Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary, Downtown Dubai
Mall of the Emirates Expansion	Rolling out through 2026	Major expansion with new stores, theatre and cultural hub	Ski Dubai, Al Barsha Pond Park
The Dubai Mall Expansion	Phased rollout through 2026	240 new shops and bigger exhibition space	Burj Khalifa, Dubai Fountain

1. Ghaf Woods Mall 

Majid Al Futtaim is calling this one a world-class shopping and leisure destination, and honestly, the pitch makes sense once you know the concept. Instead of building a mall and planting some trees around it afterward, they’re building the mall into an actual forest. 

• Project by: Majid Al Futtaim
• Launch date: Announced in October 2025, opening date not yet confirmed
• Area of project: Located at the heart of the wider Ghaf Woods community
• Location: Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road (E311), near Global Village
• Project amount: Part of the AED 15.4 billion Ghaf Woods residential development
• What is included: Will be Majid Al Futtaim’s 30th mall overall and 19th in the UAE, set within a community planted with more than 30,000 trees

Source: Majid Al Futtaim press release, The National 

2. Sobha Mall 

This is Sobha Realty’s first real move into retail, and they’ve kept the scope deliberately modest. It’s not trying to pull people in from across the city, it’s built to give Sobha Hartland residents somewhere to actually go. 

• Project by: Sobha Realty
• Launch date: Late 2026
• Area of project: 339,000 square feet
• Location: Sobha Hartland, Mohammed Bin Rashid City
• Project amount: AED 210 million
• What is included: A supermarket, a gym, play courts, a soft play and entertainment zone, around 35 retail and F&B units, and over 10 new restaurants and cafés 

Source: Gulf News 

3. Liwan Mall 

Set to open in the second half of 2026, Liwan Mall will be a new luxury destination in Wadi Al Safa 2, and the Spanish-inspired design is doing a lot of the talking here, think arches, warm tones, and courtyards you’d actually want to sit in. 

• Project by: KeyMavens Group 
• Launch date: Second half of 2026
• Area of project: 113,674 square feet
• Location: Wadi Al Safa 2, near the Liwan residential area
• Project amount: Not publicly disclosed
• What is included: Luxury retail shops, restaurants, cafés, green spaces, and a pool, with a Spanish-inspired design built around natural light and open-air layouts 

4. Villa Square (Le Meryeme – The Villa) 

Think of this as Liwan Mall’s sibling. Same developer, same architectural DNA, but built for a completely different pocket of the city. 

• Project by: KeyMavens Group 
• Launch date: Third quarter of 2026 
• Area of project: 124,000 square feet built-up area
• Location: Wadi Al Safa 5, near The Villa community
• What is included: Retail stores, family-friendly dining, landscaped zones, a rooftop swimming pool, and wellness spaces, built with natural stone facades and heat-reflective glass 
  
  

5. NAS Gardens Community Mall

Out of everything on this list, this one feels the most locked in. There’s a real opening month attached to it, and the anchor tenant is already confirmed, which isn’t something you can say for most projects still in the pipeline. 

• Project by: Meraas
• Launch date: August 2026
• Area of project: Two-storey neighbourhood mall
• Location: Inside Nad Al Sheba Gardens, about 10 minutes from Downtown Dubai
• Project amount: Not publicly disclosed
• What is included: Waitrose as the anchor supermarket, Kokoro Handroll Bar and Bake My Day as confirmed dining brands, plus a nursery, health and fitness facilities, cafés, and restaurants. It’s open to everyone, not just residents of the community 

Source: Arabian Business

6. South Bay Mall 

Dubai South Properties’ first retail project, and it clearly leans on the setting. Lagoon views tend to sell themselves. 

• Project by: Dubai South Properties 
• Launch date: Opening timeline to be confirmed, construction starting soon 
• Area of project: Approximately 200,000 square feet across three levels 
• Location: South Bay, Dubai South Residential District 
• Project amount: Not publicly disclosed 
• What is included: 60 retail units, two anchor stores, a premium food hall, a gym, spa, clinic, clubhouse, outdoor leisure areas, and parking for more than 400 vehicles 

Source: Dubai Media Office 

7. HAYAT Community Mall

This one moves at a slower pace than the rest, and it’s fair to treat it as more of a long-term watch than a 2026 opening. 

• Project by: Dubai South
• Launch date: Construction begins second quarter of 2026, with first phases expected around 2028
• Area of project: Part of a wider wellness-focused master development
• Location: Near Al Maktoum International Airport, Dubai South
• Project amount: AED 2 billion for the wider wellness development
• What is included: Community retail woven into a wellness-led district, with more specifics expected as the project moves forward
  
  

8. Dubai Square 

This is the big one, and I mean that literally. It’s also the project on this list with the most uncertain timeline. 

• Project by: Emaar 
• Launch date: Originally floated for 2026, now expected around 2028 
• Area of project: 2.6 million square metres, described as three times the size of Downtown Dubai’s retail core 
• Location: Dubai Creek Harbour 
• Project amount: Not publicly disclosed as a standalone figure 
• What is included: An “indoor city” concept with EV-friendly interior roads, tech-driven retail, entertainment districts, and mixed-use components, linked to the upcoming Dubai Creek Tower

9. Mall of the Emirates Expansion 

Not technically a new mall, but the scale of this upgrade earns it a spot here anyway. It’s basically a new destination stitched onto an existing one. 

• Project by: Majid Al Futtaim 
• Launch date: Rolling out through 2026, with an outdoor food and drinks courtyard arriving in early 2027 
• Area of project: 20,000 square metres of added retail space 
• Location: Al Barsha, Dubai 
• Project amount: AED 5 billion overall, with AED 1.1 billion already spent on wellness, cultural facilities, and infrastructure, plus a AED 165 million flyover linking Umm Suqeim Street and Sheikh Zayed Road 
• What is included: Around 100 new stores including Primark, Skims, and Ulta Beauty, a 600-seat theatre, a new cultural hub built with the Dubai Performing Arts Academy, and a new IMAX at VOX Cinemas 

10. The Dubai Mall Expansion 

Even the world’s most visited shopping and entertainment destination isn’t standing still while all this is happening around it. 

• Project by: Emaar
• Launch date: Phased rollout through 2026 and beyond
• Area of project: Expansion across existing retail zones
• Location: Downtown Dubai
• Project amount: AED 1.5 billion
• What is included: 240 new luxury shops and dining concepts, an enlarged exhibition space, and additional visitor attractions 

Source: Royal Oasis 

What This Means for Shoppers and Residents 

• Community malls like Sobha Mall, Liwan Mall, Villa Square and NAS Gardens Community Mall are built mainly for people who already live nearby. Supermarket, gym, decent dining, that is the main goal. 
• Emaar and Majid Al Futtaim are putting billions into both new mega projects and upgrades of their existing flagship malls, so Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates stay strong even as new options open around them. 
• Design is shifting toward open space and architecture instead of just closed floors under air conditioning. Ghaf Woods Mall is built around an actual forest. Liwan Mall and Villa Square use a Spanish-inspired look with courtyards and natural light. 
• South Bay Mall is planned with open-air walkways and rooftop terraces looking out over a lagoon. 
• Even the big expansions follow this idea. Mall of the Emirates is adding an outdoor food and drinks courtyard instead of just more closed retail floor. 
• This shows what people want from a mall today, not just a place to shop, but a place worth spending time in. 
• The spread of these projects across Wadi Al Safa, Sobha Hartland, Nad Al Sheba, Dubai South and Dubai Creek Harbour is a good snapshot of Dubai’s most up-and-coming neighbourhoods right now. 
• Big development timelines shift often. Dubai Square has already moved from a 2026 target to around 2028. Treat the dates in this guide as the best current estimate, not a fixed promise, and check the source links again closer to each launch. 
  
  

Plan Your Dubai Shopping Trip with Next Holidays 

Keeping track of ten different mall openings, each with its own date, location, and travel time, is not always simple, especially if you are visiting Dubai and want to fit in shopping around the rest of your trip. This is where Next Holidays can help. 

Our team can build a full Dubai shopping and leisure itinerary around the malls that interest you most, whether that is a day trip to explore Sobha Hartland and Downtown Dubai or a longer stay that covers Dubai South, Dubai Creek Harbor, and the classic spots like The Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates. We handle the details that are easy to miss, such as travel time between areas, the best time of day to visit each location, and pairing your mall visits with nearby attractions like Global Village, Ski Dubai, or the Dubai Fountain show. 

If you are planning a family shopping trip, a weekend getaway, or simply want to see Dubai’s newest developments in one organized trip, get in touch with Next Holidays. We will map out a plan based on your dates, your interests, and which of these upcoming malls you most want to see first. 

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Conclusion 

Dubai’s retail map is changing fast, and 2026 is a strong example of that. From forest-built malls and Spanish-inspired plazas to billion-dirham expansions of the city’s biggest names, these ten projects show a clear shift toward community-focused, design-led shopping alongside a few genuinely massive flagship projects.  

Some of these malls, like NAS Gardens Community Mall, already have confirmed dates and tenants. Others, like Dubai Square, are still years away and may shift further. Either way, this list gives you a genuine, sourced starting point to plan around, whether you are a resident deciding where to shop next, an investor watching new neighborhoods grow, or a visitor mapping out a Dubai shopping trip. Bookmark this guide and check back, since more details on dates, venues, and lineups will be confirmed as 2026 moves forward.