11 of the 25 are on Al Reem Island
Abu Dhabi apartments, where the one bedroom begins
Below a million, every island apartment on our list is a studio and the largest of them is 491 sq ft. Above it six one bedrooms open across five parts of Al Reem Island, running from 493 to 860 sq ft, and each square foot in them costs less than the same square foot in the studios beneath. What this half million buys is not more homes. It is a different kind of home.
At a glance
Every number below is read off the same twenty five homes, on the day this page was written. What it is worth reading for is the shape of that list rather than its size.
Reading the step
Ten more homes is the least interesting part of it. Look instead at what those ten are, and at the one area that does not appear until the ceiling is lifted.
BudgetAED 500,000
Nothing finished. Three projects will take a booking and hand over later.
BudgetAED 750,000
Three studios and one mainland one bedroom, in Al Ghadeer, Masdar City and Zayed City.
BudgetAED 1,000,000
Nine areas, islands included. Every island home below the line is a studio, and the first island one bedroom lands exactly on it.
BudgetAED 1,500,000
Six island one bedrooms, a second two bedroom, and Saadiyat as the tenth area.
Our studio there is 424 sq ft at AED 825,000, which works out at AED 1,946 for every square foot. The one bedroom in the same part of Al Reem is 642 sq ft at AED 1,000,000. So the extra AED 175,000 buys 218 square feet, roughly AED 800 each, while the square feet you already had cost more than twice that. The same pattern repeats across the island, which is why the rate matters more here than the ceiling does.
Move the budget, watch the choice
Every step is counted from our own stock, so the slider can never claim a home we do not hold.
Six island one bedrooms, a second two bedroom, and Saadiyat as the tenth area.
Counts come from our own listings and catalogue, so they move as homes sell.
What the money changes
Each one is read off the list further down this page, and each one stops being true if you drop the ceiling by five hundred thousand.
Four island apartments are priced below AED 1,000,000, three on Al Reem and one on Al Maryah, and every one of them is a studio. The largest is 491 sq ft. A separate bedroom on an island does not exist anywhere below that line, at any price under it.
4 island homes below AED 1m, every one a studio
Six one bedrooms open from AED 1,000,000, in City of Lights, Shams Abu Dhabi, Vista 3, Marina Square and Tamouh. They run 493 to 860 sq ft, so even the smallest of them has more floor area than any island studio below the line.
6 one bedrooms, 493 to 860 sq ft
The tenth area, and the only one a million cannot reach. What it opens is a studio at Nouran Living for AED 1,150,000, which is about AED 3,594 for every square foot and the steepest rate anywhere on this page. The address is the purchase.
Saadiyat entry AED 1,150,000, about AED 3,594 per sq ft
Thirteen of the 25 apartments are contracts being resold before handover and one is sold direct by a developer. Only eleven are finished homes you can walk through, which is why the paperwork on this page matters as much as the price.
11 finished, 13 contracts, 1 direct
By home size
The entry prices sit in the questions at the foot of the page. What belongs here is the rate, because at this ceiling the studio is the expensive way to buy floor area and the one bedroom is the efficient one.
10 homesAvailable
FromAED 544 per sq ft
WhereSix of the ten areas, Al Maryah and Saadiyat among them
The widest rate range on the page by a distance. The gentlest is a 1,011 sq ft home in Al Ghadeer's Waterfall District at AED 550,000. The steepest is 320 sq ft on Saadiyat at about AED 3,594, nearly seven times as much for a third of the space.
13 homesAvailable
FromAED 1,074 per sq ft
WhereSeven of the ten areas. The three without one are Al Maryah Island, Saadiyat Island and Al Ghadeer 1
The largest group and the steadiest rate, averaging about AED 1,540 against the studio average of about AED 2,020. Five sit below a million and every one of those is mainland. The island ones begin exactly at AED 1,000,000.
2 homesAvailable
FromAED 912 per sq ft
WhereAl Ghadeer and Al Reef Downtown only, no island
The lowest rate on the page and the honest limit of it. Al Ghadeer gives 1,042 sq ft for AED 950,000 and Al Reef Downtown 1,140 sq ft for AED 1,200,000, about AED 1,053 each. Neither is on an island, and nothing with two bedrooms is.
Inside Al Reem Island
Al Reem carries almost half this list, so at this ceiling the question is rarely which area. It is which part of Al Reem, and the parts are not interchangeable: the rate, the size and even whether a bedroom exists change from one to the next.
FromAED 825,0004 homes
The island's entry price and its first one bedroom, in one place. A 424 sq ft studio at AED 825,000, the 642 sq ft one bedroom at AED 1,000,000, and a sea view studio with private beach access at AED 1,300,000.
FromAED 840,0001 home
A single studio with a balcony, second lowest price on the island and the only home we hold in that building.
FromAED 860,0002 homes
The widest span held in one address: a studio at AED 860,000 and the dearest apartment on the whole page, an 821 sq ft one bedroom with a large balcony at AED 1,316,000.
FromAED 1,051,0001 home
One of the six island one bedrooms and the only home we hold in that part of the island. It sits in the middle of the Al Reem range rather than at either end.
FromAED 1,200,0001 home
A 493 sq ft one bedroom, the smallest of the six and the steepest of them at about AED 2,434 for every square foot. Proof that on Al Reem a bedroom and floor area are two separate purchases.
FromAED 1,250,0002 homes
The one part of the island where nothing starts lower. Both homes are one bedrooms, one waterfront and ready to move into, the other a high floor sea view at AED 1,300,000.
The other fourteen homes sit in nine areas off the island. Al Ghadeer opens the whole list at AED 550,000, Al Maryah Island appears exactly once at AED 780,000 for a 341 sq ft studio beside The Galleria, and Saadiyat once at AED 1,150,000. The community links at the foot of the page open each of them.
On the market now
Read the size on each card as carefully as you read the price. On this list the two do not move together, and that gap is the whole argument of the page.
Still selling
Al Reem runs deeper off plan than it does on the resale list. Nine projects on that island alone sit inside this ceiling: Radisson Residences from AED 500,000, Radiant Bridges Towers from AED 603,000, Radiant Terrace from AED 700,000, Radiant Elite Tower from AED 717,000, Horizon Towers by Tamouh from AED 750,000, Rotana Residences and Marina Heights Towers from AED 800,000, Reflection from AED 900,000 and Vista 3 from AED 915,000. Each takes a Down Payment and then instalments to handover.
The real choice
Thirteen of the 25 are contracts being resold before handover and eleven are finished homes, so the usual ready against off plan question is not quite the one to ask here. Ask instead who you are paying and what they still owe.
If you want to stand in the room before you commit, only eleven of the 25 will let you. Take on a contract instead and the choice more than doubles and the payments stay spread, but you are agreeing a premium as well as a price, and the developer has to approve you before either of them means anything.
The fee this page adds
The transfer fee, the agency fee, the Down Payment and the mortgage arrangement are the same in Abu Dhabi whatever you spend, and our apartments under AED 5 million page sets all of them out in full. One cost belongs to this list in particular, because more than half of it is contracts rather than homes.
| Cost | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Developer transfer fee on a resold contract | Set by the developer, not by the price | Charged alongside the No Objection Certificate, at the moment the contract moves from the seller to you. No developer publishes it as a percentage and the amount varies a great deal between them, so get the figure in writing before you agree a price rather than after. Thirteen of the 25 apartments on this page carry it. |
The dearest apartment here is AED 1,316,000. Two percent to the municipality and two percent in agency fee add AED 52,640, so AED 1,368,640 leaves the account and AED 131,360 of a one and a half million ceiling is still sitting there untouched. On a contract being resold, the developer's own fee comes out of that remainder as well, which is the argument for asking what it is early.
Standard Abu Dhabi rates at the time of writing, and the developer fee is whatever that developer charges on the day. Every cost on your own purchase is put to you in writing before you commit to anything.
Run your own number
Put in AED 825,000 for the City of Lights studio, then AED 1,000,000 for the one bedroom a few hundred metres away. The difference between the two monthly figures is what a separate bedroom on Al Reem Island actually costs you.
Repayment each monthAED 4,767
This is arithmetic on what you type, nothing more. Your own rate will depend on your income, your age, your residency and the building the bank is lending against, and it will not be the rate sitting in the box. Brokers we work with quote on your file.
Who buys here
You have spent months viewing studios under a million and coming away flat. The thing that fixes it sits between AED 1,000,000 and AED 1,316,000, and on an island it exists only on Al Reem.
6 one bedrooms on Al Reem, plus 639 sq ft in Khalifa City
If floor area is the point and the address can move, the mainland wins outright. Al Reef Downtown gives 1,140 sq ft for AED 1,200,000 and Al Ghadeer 1,042 sq ft for AED 950,000, both of them with two bedrooms.
About AED 912 a square foot in Al Ghadeer, about AED 3,594 on Saadiyat
Thirteen of the 25 are exactly that. You agree a premium with the seller, take on the instalments still to run, and wait for the developer to approve you before any of it is yours.
13 contracts being resold on the list today
One home on this page carries it, a 320 sq ft studio at Nouran Living for AED 1,150,000. Nobody should pretend that is a lot of room. It is an address, bought at the only price it is currently available for.
Saadiyat entry AED 1,150,000, the tenth area on the list
How it works
Agreeing an offer, signing the memorandum of understanding, the bank valuation and the transfer itself run the same way at every price, and our apartments under AED 5 million page walks through all of them. Two steps are particular to a list where more than half the homes are contracts.
A finished resale, a contract being resold, or a home sold direct by a developer. The price, the paperwork and the waiting time all differ, the listing rarely says which it is, and it is the first thing worth asking about any home on this page.
The developer has to approve you and issue that certificate before the contract can move into your name, and charges their own fee to do it. Ask what the fee is at the moment you sign the memorandum of understanding, not when the paperwork reaches the developer's desk.
Keep looking
The island pages carry the detail this page summarises. The two ceilings next door are counted the same way, off the same list, on the same day.
Questions buyers ask at this level
Twenty five as this page is written, and the useful split is by size rather than by price: ten studios, thirteen one bedrooms and two two bedrooms, across ten areas. Eleven of the twenty five are on Al Reem Island. A further 37 projects reach the same ceiling off plan.
On the arithmetic, yes. Studios on this list average about AED 2,020 for every square foot and one bedrooms about AED 1,540. In City of Lights our studio is 424 sq ft at AED 825,000 while the one bedroom in the same part of Al Reem is 642 sq ft at AED 1,000,000, so the 218 square feet you add cost roughly AED 800 each.
Yes, six of them, spread across five parts of the island: City of Lights, Shams Abu Dhabi, Vista 3, Marina Square and Tamouh. They start at AED 1,000,000 for 642 sq ft and run to AED 1,316,000 for 821 sq ft with a large balcony. Below a million, every Al Reem home we hold is a studio.
They cost about the same and they are not the same purchase. The three Al Reem studios at the foot of the island are AED 825,000, AED 840,000 and AED 860,000, and the first of them is 424 sq ft, which is about AED 1,946 for every square foot. For AED 900,000 Al Reef Downtown gives an 836 sq ft one bedroom at about AED 1,077, and Al Ghadeer gives 652 sq ft for AED 700,000. One buys the address and the walk into the city. The other buys a door you can close.
Yes, and it is worth being exact about what for: a 320 sq ft studio at Nouran Living for AED 1,150,000. That is about AED 3,594 for every square foot, the steepest rate anywhere on this page and more than six times the rate of our largest Al Ghadeer studio. Saadiyat does not appear at a one million ceiling at all, so this is the step that puts it within reach.
Because the arithmetic does not reach. Both two bedrooms on this list are large, 1,042 sq ft in Al Ghadeer at AED 950,000 and 1,140 sq ft in Al Reef Downtown at AED 1,200,000, which is about AED 912 and AED 1,053 for every square foot. The most efficient island home we hold works out near AED 1,550 a square foot, and at that rate a 1,042 sq ft home passes AED 1.6 million before anyone has negotiated. Both two bedrooms here are mainland, and that is the honest limit of the ceiling.
Our list runs out at AED 1,316,000, a one bedroom with a large balcony in Tamouh on Al Reem Island. Above that the apartment market thins until the island two bedrooms start again nearer two million. For a buyer with a one and a half million ceiling that is good news rather than bad: you can take the top home on the page, pay both fees and still have AED 131,360 in hand.
Two very different homes at exactly that price. On Al Reem Island it buys a 493 sq ft one bedroom in Vista 3. In Al Reef Downtown it buys a 1,140 sq ft two bedroom, the largest home on this page. Same money, one more bedroom, more than double the floor area, and the only thing standing between them is the island.
Not the property route to the Golden Visa. The UAE government portal lists a minimum of AED 2 million in property for real estate investors, and this list stops at AED 1,316,000. A property investor residence of two years, renewable, is published at AED 750,000, and twenty one of these twenty five homes clear that on price. Two cautions before anyone counts on it: the route is built on a registered title deed, and thirteen of the homes here are contracts with no deed until handover. The authorities set these rules and change them, so have your own case confirmed in writing rather than taken from a property page.
It is a contract on a home that has not been handed over, sold on by the person who signed it first. You agree a figure with them, the developer approves you and issues a No Objection Certificate, and you carry the instalments still to run. Thirteen of the 25 apartments here are exactly that, more than the eleven finished homes on the list.
About AED 300,000 if you are an expatriate borrowing: AED 240,000 for the Down Payment, AED 24,000 to the municipality, AED 24,000 in agency fee, roughly AED 9,600 to arrange the loan and around AED 3,000 for the valuation. Paying outright it is AED 1,248,000. If the home is a contract being resold rather than a finished one, add the developer's transfer fee, which they set themselves and do not publish as a percentage.
It depends what you are short of. City of Lights carries four of the eleven and holds both ends, the AED 825,000 studio and a sea view studio at AED 1,300,000. Tamouh holds the widest span in one address, a studio at AED 860,000 and the dearest home on the page at AED 1,316,000. Marina Square starts at AED 1,250,000 and never goes lower, so it is a part you choose rather than one you settle for. Julphar Residence and Shams Abu Dhabi carry a single home each, and the one bedroom in Vista 3 is the smallest of the six at 493 sq ft.
One list, sent by a person
Name the size you need and the parts of Al Reem or the mainland you would consider. You get today's list in your range with the square footage, the rate it works out at, whether it is a finished home or a contract being resold, and a note on the ones we would skip.
MASTERPIECE PROPERTY
Leave your number and a property consultant will reach out to you personally
Average response time: under 2 minutes
