The Nasser Rashid Lootah Building on Sheikh Zayed Road, widely known as the Toyota building, is scheduled for Toyota building demolition in Dubai in 2027, with remaining tenants required to vacate by December 2026.
An agent from Nasser Rashid Lootah Real Estate, which manages the property, confirmed the demolition timeline. Tenants on existing rental contracts are permitted to stay until the end of December 2026; no new tenancies are being issued.
Toyota building demolition in Dubai: who is leaving and when
The clearance has been carried out in stages. Residents occupying illegally partitioned rooms were asked to leave first. Those in company-allocated accommodation followed.
Ahmed, a grocery store employee who lived in the building for five years, moved out last Friday. ‘We were one of the last ones to shift,’ he said. ‘Several of my colleagues and I were living there as it was our company accommodation. It is very close to our workplace, and the rents were very affordable as well.’
He said the phased approach initially confused residents. ‘First the people who were staying in partitioned rooms were asked to move out,’ he said. ‘So we first thought it was a crackdown on the partitioned rooms. But soon the company accommodation lodgers like us were also asked to shift.’
According to a Hindustan Times report on the demolition, authorities had raised concerns about overcrowding linked to the illegally partitioned apartments, which contributed to the decision to empty the building ahead of its planned demolition.
The building contains one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and has long served as affordable housing for workers employed nearby.
A building that pre-dates the Sheikh Zayed Road corridor
The Nasser Rashid Lootah Building was constructed in 1974, three years after the UAE’s founding. Standing at roughly 65 metres across 15 storeys, it was among the first residential towers in what would become the Sheikh Zayed Road corridor, and one of only three buildings near the area’s first interchange at the time.
Its popular nickname came later. In 1981, a large red neon Toyota sign was installed on the roof. The sign remained in place for nearly 40 years before being taken down in 2018 when the advertising contract expired. It was reinstated in June 2022, restoring a reference point familiar to long-term Dubai residents.
Many former residents used social media in recent weeks to share memories of the building, reflecting its status as a lived-in landmark rather than simply a commercial one.
Under Dubai’s building demolition rules, an owner must obtain a demolition permit from Dubai Municipality before any physical work can begin. No permit application date has been disclosed publicly. The building’s profile places it in the Al Wasl area, directly on Sheikh Zayed Road.
With the December 2026 tenant deadline approaching, the 2027 demolition date marks the end of a structure that has stood on Sheikh Zayed Road for more than five decades.
