Seven houses, counted across four communities
Three bedroom townhouses in Abu Dhabi, four communities apart
Seven three bedroom townhouses are listed with us and they stand in four communities. Between the first and the last there is AED 2,000,000, so the dearest house costs almost twice the entry price. Between the four houses inside the one community that offers a real choice there is AED 700,000. That is the whole page in two numbers: you are choosing a place, and the house comes with it.
Seven houses, measured
These are named houses rather than a market average, read off our own book, so every line below moves as they sell.
House or postcode
Three bedrooms is the size families come to a townhouse for, so the search usually begins with the house: how many square feet, which position in the row, is there a garden. On this list the price does not follow the house. The biggest house on the page is not the dearest one, and two houses of identical floor area are priced AED 150,001 apart. What the price follows is where the house stands.
Put the four communities in order by what they start at and you cross AED 2,000,000, from AED 2,200,000 in Al Ghadeer to AED 4,200,000 at Reem Hills 2 on Al Reem Island. Now stand in Bloom Living, the one community with more than one house, and walk from the first to the last: AED 700,000. Where you buy is worth nearly three times what you buy.
AED 2,000,000 across four communities, AED 700,000 inside one
The AED 4,200,000 house at Reem Hills 2 measures 2,153 square feet. The AED 3,450,000 house at Bloom Living measures 3,315. That is 1,162 square feet more for AED 750,000 less, and it is not a mistake in the pricing. The island is the product.
1,162 sq ft more floor area for AED 750,000 less
It swings as hard inside one community as across the city. At Bloom Living the four houses run from AED 995 to AED 1,560 a square foot, because the two largest are priced on a gentler rate than the two smallest. Judge the community on the price of the whole house, then use the rate to compare two houses standing in the same place.
AED 995 to AED 1,560 inside one development
Four of the seven houses are at Bloom Living in Zayed City, so every price from AED 2,750,000 to AED 3,450,000 on this page is the same community. Al Ghadeer, Yas Island and Al Reem Island offer one house each. In three communities out of four the choice is the house that is listed, or nothing.
4 of the 7 houses in a single development
The map, priced
Ordered by how many houses each one holds. Read the from price as the community's admission fee rather than as the price of a house, because in three of these four there is only one house to admit you.
FromAED 2,750,0004 houses
All four are at Bloom Living and they are the only real choice on this page: AED 2,750,000 and AED 2,900,000 for houses of about 1,850 sq ft, then AED 3,299,999 and AED 3,450,000 for two of 3,315 sq ft. Two of the four say they are near handover or nearly ready.
FromAED 2,200,0001 house
The entry to the whole page, in Al Ghadeer 2: 1,695 sq ft at AED 1,298 a square foot, three bedrooms plus maid, four bathrooms. Its own headline says vacant soon, which means a tenant is still living in it. Nothing else here starts below AED 2,750,000.
FromAED 3,900,0001 house
One house at Yas Park Gate, 2,353 sq ft at AED 1,657 a square foot, single row, near handover. It is AED 450,000 more than the AED 3,450,000 house at Bloom Living and 962 sq ft smaller, which is the price of the island stated plainly.
FromAED 4,200,0001 house
The ceiling of the page, at Reem Hills 2: 2,153 sq ft with a private garden, three bedrooms plus maid, AED 1,951 a square foot. That rate is the highest here by a distance and it is what a city island address costs at this size.
Four communities and seven houses is a thin market, and one sale changes it. If the community you want is not on this list, that is usually timing rather than absence, so ask us what is coming before you widen the search.
Find your home
The answer to this search is a place. Say what you are optimising for and it will tell you which of the four to look at first, or send you off plan if that is the honest answer.
Which of the four is yours
Three questions. It answers with a community, not with a house, because on this list the community is the part you actually choose.
Look here first
Four of the seven houses and the only place you can compare one against another without changing community. The two at 3,315 sq ft are the largest on the page, at AED 3,299,999 and AED 3,450,000, and the smaller pair starts at AED 2,750,000.
See Zayed CityA starting point from our own stock, not advice. Anything that names a house is checked against the listing before we send it to you.
It weighs your answers against the seven houses listed and the projects in our catalogue. It cannot know your commute, your school run or your building preference, and those decide more than any of the three questions below.
The seven, listed
The list runs seven houses long, from AED 2,200,000 to AED 4,200,000, and four of them stand at Bloom Living. If two of these look alike, it is because they are neighbours.
Forty five, read carefully
Our catalogue holds 45 of them and they price from AED 407,000, and both numbers need reading. The 45 count a three bedroom of any type, houses and apartments together, and the price is the smallest home in the project rather than the three bedroom you came for. Of the fourteen we carry prices for, twelve open at a studio or a one bedroom, which describes an apartment building rather than a row of houses. Only two begin above a one bedroom: Al Ghadeer Gardens at two to four bedrooms from AED 1,700,000, and Sunset Valley on Al Reem Island at three to four from AED 2,200,000. Ask which of them is selling houses before you plan a visit.
How the islands open up
On a finished house the community sets the price. Off plan, the same communities open at figures the resale list never shows, and what you give up is the thing a townhouse buyer most wants to inspect.
Buy ready if the house has to be one you have walked through, and accept that the community you can afford is largely settled by the seven that exist. Buy off plan if the address is the point and your date can move, because Sunset Valley is the one project here whose own entry price is a three bedroom on Al Reem Island, and it starts at AED 2,200,000 rather than AED 4,200,000.
The fees follow the map
Everything here is a percentage of the price, which means the AED 2,000,000 you crossed to change community follows you into every other line. None of it is negotiable with us and all of it is worth knowing before you fall for a house.
| Cost | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer fee and agency fee | 4 percent of the price | Half of it is the municipality transfer fee and half is the agency fee. AED 88,000 on the Al Ghadeer house, AED 168,000 at Reem Hills 2, so the community adds AED 80,000 in fees on its own. |
| Down Payment | A fifth of the house price. A UAE national buying a first home puts down 15 percent. | AED 440,000 at the entry price and AED 840,000 at the top of the page, a gap of AED 400,000 that opens purely because of where the house stands. |
| The service charge on a large plot | Billed on floor area, and this page spans 1,695 to 3,315 sq ft | We will not publish a rate we have not read. The largest houses here carry nearly twice the floor area of the smallest, so ask for last year's invoice for that exact house, not a figure for the community. |
Take the two ends of the page. On the Al Ghadeer house at AED 2,200,000 you need AED 440,000 as a Down Payment and about AED 88,000 in fees, so AED 528,000 on the day. At Reem Hills 2, at AED 4,200,000, it is AED 840,000 and about AED 168,000, so AED 1,008,000. The same three bedrooms, the same number of bathrooms, and AED 480,000 more to reach the keys.
None of these percentages is ours to set. They are the standard Abu Dhabi rates, lending charges included, and they are written out once on the apartments under AED 5 million page. Ahead of a signature you get them again, run against the house you have chosen, on paper.
The community, per month
Type in AED 2,200,000. Then type in AED 4,200,000. Borrowing four fifths of each at an illustrative 4.25 percent over 25 years, the payment moves from roughly AED 9,500 a month to roughly AED 18,200, and those two houses are within 460 square feet of one another. What you are watching get priced, month after month for 25 years, is the address.
Monthly repaymentAED 13,543
Nothing here has been near a bank. The sum uses only the four figures in the boxes, a lender will read your income and your commitments instead, and rates move week to week. Treat it as a way of putting two communities side by side, not as a prediction of what you will repay.
Read your own row
Bloom Living, and it is not a close contest. The two houses of 3,315 square feet are the largest on the page and one of them is priced at AED 995 a square foot, the lowest rate here. The same floor area at the rate the Al Reem house is priced on would come to AED 6,467,565.
3,315 sq ft at AED 3,299,999
Yas Island and Al Reem Island, at AED 3,900,000 and AED 4,200,000, with exactly one house each. There is no shortlist to build and no second option to hold in reserve. If either is where you want to live, the question is whether that house is right, because there is no other.
One house each, AED 3,900,000 and AED 4,200,000
One house, in Al Ghadeer 2, at AED 2,200,000 for 1,695 square feet. It is the only one under AED 2,750,000 and it comes with a tenant until it is vacant. If it does not suit, the next step is not a different house, it is a different community and AED 550,000.
The only house below AED 2,750,000
Seven houses cannot cover a city, and three of the four communities on this page hold one apiece. Off plan is where the choice widens, with 45 projects carrying a three bedroom, although that count includes apartments as well as houses. Tell us the community and we will say honestly whether a house is coming or whether you are waiting on a resale.
45 projects with a three bedroom, houses and apartments
Settle the place first
The order matters more than usual here. On a list of seven houses, deciding the community first removes most of the work and all of the wishful shortlisting.
It is worth AED 2,000,000 on this page and it decides the fees, the Down Payment and the monthly payment with it. Al Ghadeer opens at AED 2,200,000, Bloom Living at AED 2,750,000, Yas Island at AED 3,900,000 and Al Reem Island at AED 4,200,000. Nothing else you decide is worth as much.
Six of the seven headlines name it. The two houses at Bloom Living that share the same 3,315 square feet are AED 150,001 apart, corner against end. Walk both if you can, because on a terrace the plot shape, the garden and the neighbour on the party wall are the difference.
A three bedroom townhouse here can be 1,695 square feet or 3,315, and the running cost follows the floor area rather than the bedroom count. Ask for last year's service charge invoice for that specific house, and while you are asking, confirm how many bathrooms it has and which one belongs to the staff room. Four of the seven are listed with four bathrooms and three with three.
Four of these seven are not available on completion day. Three describe themselves as near handover or nearly ready, and the Al Ghadeer house has a tenant until it is vacant. Get the handover date or the tenancy end date in writing before you give notice on where you live now.
Related
Townhouses in the communities this page does not reach, the four it does, and the calculators behind the numbers above.
Questions
Seven are listed with us, from AED 2,200,000 in Al Ghadeer to AED 4,200,000 at Reem Hills 2 on Al Reem Island, with a middle price of AED 3,299,999. Four of the seven stand at Bloom Living in Zayed City between AED 2,750,000 and AED 3,450,000, so most of what you can walk into this week is in one development.
Zayed City, and not narrowly. Four of the seven are at Bloom Living, starting at AED 2,750,000. Al Ghadeer, Yas Island and Al Reem Island hold a single house each, at AED 2,200,000, AED 3,900,000 and AED 4,200,000. Bloom Living is the only place on this list where you can put two houses side by side without changing community.
Because the rate per square foot almost doubles across these four communities. Reem Hills 2 is priced at AED 1,951 a square foot and the lowest rate here, at Bloom Living, is AED 995. Measured against the entry house in Al Ghadeer, the Al Reem house gives you 458 more square feet and asks AED 2,000,000 more for them. That difference is the island.
On floor area, comfortably. The end unit at Bloom Living is 3,315 square feet at AED 3,450,000 and the Yas Park Gate house is 2,353 square feet at AED 3,900,000, so that is 962 square feet more for AED 450,000 less. What Yas gives back is Yas, and no quantity of floor area in Zayed City substitutes for it if the address is your reason for buying.
There are two and they tie, both 3,315 square feet, both at Bloom Living. One is a corner plot at AED 3,299,999 and the other an end unit at AED 3,450,000, so identical floor area carries a difference of AED 150,001, corner against end, with the dearer one also describing itself as nearly ready. Per square foot the corner plot comes out at AED 995, and nothing else on this page is priced under a thousand.
Four of the seven are listed with four, including both of the ones described as three bedrooms plus maid, in Al Ghadeer and at Reem Hills 2. A staff room with its own bathroom is ordinary at this size in Abu Dhabi. Count the bathrooms rather than assume them, and ask which one is attached to the staff room before you plan the layout.
Between 1,695 and 3,315 square feet on this list, so one three bedroom house here can be nearly twice the size of another. Both of the largest are at Bloom Living. The smallest is the entry house in Al Ghadeer 2, and the AED 4,200,000 house at Reem Hills 2 is only 458 square feet bigger than it, which is this whole page in one line. Ask for the measured area of the specific house before you compare two prices.
In three of the seven cases, no, and in a fourth it depends on a tenant. Three headlines say near handover or nearly ready, and the AED 2,200,000 house in Al Ghadeer describes itself as vacant soon, which means someone is living in it. Ask for the handover date or the tenancy end date in writing before you arrange a move.
One, at AED 2,200,000 in Al Ghadeer 2, measuring 1,695 square feet at AED 1,298 a square foot with four bathrooms. Nothing else on the list begins below AED 2,750,000. If that house does not suit you, the next move is not to another house, it is to another community.
Our catalogue holds 45 projects carrying a three bedroom, priced from AED 407,000, and both numbers need reading. The 45 include apartment projects as well as houses, and the price is the project's smallest home rather than the three bedroom. Of the fourteen we carry prices for, twelve open at a studio or a one bedroom. Two start above that: Al Ghadeer Gardens by Aldar Properties from AED 1,700,000 across two to four bedrooms, and Sunset Valley by Q Properties on Al Reem Island from AED 2,200,000, whose smallest home is a three bedroom. Ask us which of them is selling houses before you plan a visit.
On the Al Ghadeer house at AED 2,200,000, with a fifth of the price down, you would borrow AED 1,760,000, which at an illustrative 4.25 percent over 25 years is about AED 9,500 a month. On the Reem Hills house at AED 4,200,000 the same terms come to about AED 18,200. The community, not the house, is what nearly doubles it. No bank has seen this sum, so put a rate you have actually been quoted into the calculator above and compare the two communities again.
Roughly 4 percent of the price, split evenly between the municipality transfer fee and the agency fee. That is AED 88,000 on the Al Ghadeer house and AED 168,000 at Reem Hills 2, so changing community adds AED 80,000 in fees by itself. With a fifth of the price down, the cash you need on the day runs from AED 528,000 at one end of this page to AED 1,008,000 at the other.
The percentage does not change with the type of home: a fifth of the price for expatriate buyers, and 15 percent for a UAE national buying their first. Only the amount moves, because it is taken from a bigger number. A fifth of AED 2,200,000 is AED 440,000, and a fifth of AED 4,200,000 is AED 840,000.
Tell us the community
Seven houses is a short list and it changes with every sale. Say which of the four you are weighing and we will send what is live, each one with its floor area, its position in the row, the rate per square foot it works out at, and the date you could actually move in. If your community has nothing in it this month, that is the first line of the reply rather than the last.
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