Recently we had the opportunity to visit the island project The Heart of Europe, which is part of The World project, on site. The World are artificially created islands in the form of a world map off the coast of Dubai. Construction of the 300 islands began back in 2003 by Dubai's developer Nakheel.
The Heart of Europe is being developed by Austrian developer The Kleindienst Group. The entire project includes palaces with private beaches, hundreds of smaller villas, floating villas, apartments as well as hotels. All this spread over 6 islands: Germany, Monaco, Sweden, Switzerland, St. Petersburg and Europe. The goal is to bring the best of Europe to Dubai. It offers a variety of cultural as well as culinary experiences in European luxury resorts and a variety of investment opportunities in villas and apartments. According to Mr. Kleindienst, The Heart of Europe is aimed at those seeking a second home for short stays, weekend getaways and longer vacations.
The Heart of Europe is located 3 kilometers from the Dubai coast. The journey takes about 25 minutes and is currently only possible by boat. After completion, the islands will be connected by bridges. The means of transportation between the mainland of Dubai and The Heart of Europe will be speedboats, seaplanes, helicopters and cable cars.
Arriving at TheHeart of Europe, we were surprised to see how far the project has already progressed. The first phase of construction includes ten beachfront palaces on Sweden Island, about 50 floating villas, and 32 houses on Germany Island - all of which will be completed this year. The entire project is then scheduled for completion in 2026.
The 10 four-story beachfront palaces on Sweden Island are waterfront homes with 7 bedrooms each. Each first floor has a gym, sauna and snow room. The design of the AED 120 million beach palaces was inspired by Swedish Viking ships.
The floating villas, called seahorses, are 3-story floating villas with underwater rooms and glass-bottomed whirlpools. The villas are sold for AED 19 million.
Germany Island features beachfront villas, each with four- or five-bedrooms. The horseshoe-shaped German Island sits in front of an azure lagoon with lush gardens, white sand beaches and curved palm trees. There will be traditional German carnivals, Christmas markets, festivals and the famous Oktoberfest.
The first hotel, the Cote D'Azur Monaco Hotel, opened to the public in December 2022. It is fully operational and overnight stays can be booked. Monaco is the first hotel of the Cote d'Azur Hotel Group. Four more five-star hotels will follow, all named after hotspots on the French Riviera. Nice, Cannes and St. Tropez will thus follow. There is an opportunity to purchase one of the fully furnished hotel apartments. The price is AED 1.4 million with a guaranteed net return of 8.3% over 12 years.
We are surprised at how far the project has progressed. It remains to be seen whether it will be successful in the long run and whether the island concept will work out. In any case, it was impressive to see what has been built so far. We are looking forward to further developments and, as always, will be happy to keep you up to date.