Al Maryah Island

Mubadala, Abu Dhabi's sovereign investor, has driven Al Maryah's development from the start: it co-developed The Galleria with Gulf Related, is building the Al Maryah Waterfront, and is Aldar's partner on both One Maryah Place and the island's expansion. That matters for buyers — the island's pipeline is backed by the emirate's two most capitalised developers rather than a patchwork of private players.

The headline plan is North Maryah. Announced on 8 December 2025, it covers around 500,000 sqm on the island's north side, structured 60% Aldar and 40% Mubadala, with a gross development value above AED 60 billion. The programme totals 1.5 million sqm of floor area: more than 450,000 sqm of additional Grade A offices, over 3,000 luxury residences, 40,000 sqm of luxury retail and dining, and new hotels.

The public-realm commitments are specific: 2.5 km of air-conditioned pedestrian corridors, more than 12,000 parking spaces, 20% open space, and three new bridges to Reem Island and the mainland, adding to the four that exist today. Enabling works are scheduled to commence in 2026.

Our reading: treat North Maryah as a direction of travel, not an inventory list. Nothing announced in December 2025 carries a delivery date, and the three bridges are proposed rather than under construction. What the announcement does confirm is intent — Abu Dhabi wants its financial district to be a place people live, and it has assigned its largest developers to make that happen.

Abu Dhabi Global Market is the island's economic base and the reason its rental demand is not speculative. ADGM ended 2025 with 12,671 active licences, up 30%, after 3,769 new registrations in the year. Assets under management rose 36%, with 171 asset and fund managers running 244 funds. The workforce reached 44,339, from 29,338 a year earlier — a 51% increase. Arrivals in 2025 included Cantor Fitzgerald, BBVA and Arab Bank (Switzerland) Gulf.

The jurisdiction no longer stops at the bridge. UAE Cabinet Resolution No. 41 of 2023 extended ADGM's remit to neighbouring Al Reem Island, creating a combined district of 14.38 million sqm. The integration has added more than 1,100 entities — over 600 new set-ups and more than 500 companies migrated from Reem.

For a landlord, the arithmetic is simple: roughly 15,000 additional workers joined the district in one year, against a completed residential stock on Al Maryah itself that remains a small fraction of that number. The gap is currently absorbed by Al Reem, the Corniche and Saadiyat — which is precisely the imbalance the island's residential pipeline is designed to capture.

Al Maryah is compact — a district you can walk end to end — and it reads in four parts. The financial core around ADGM Square holds the regulator, the courts and the Grade A towers where the district's financial firms are based. The Galleria and its flanking hotels — Rosewood and Four Seasons — form the retail and hospitality spine on the waterfront. The residential build-out threads between and around these: Reportage's completed Al Maryah Vista, the towers under construction, and the branded plots signed with Marriott and Jumeirah. The north side is reserved for the expansion.

Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi anchors the island's healthcare offer — a full hospital on the doorstep is rare for a CBD address anywhere.

The sub-district notes below cover each zone in detail; the short version is that everything currently purchasable sits within a few minutes' walk of the mall, the offices and the promenade. There are no gated compounds and no villas — this is a vertical, urban market.

Start with the verified market context. Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre's H1 2026 release put emirate-wide residential sales at AED 70.4 billion, against AED 25.3 billion in H1 2025 — up 178%. Off-plan accounted for 89% of sales value and 82% of deals. Expatriate and foreign buyers took 70% of sales value, with Emirati buyers at AED 21 billion. Reem and Maryah islands together transacted AED 10.5 billion in the half.

On the island itself, pricing spans a wide band:

• Al Maryah Vista (Reportage, completed September 2024; 772 units, studios to three-bedrooms including penthouses) is the attainable end of the island. Impala's catalogue entry across its four active projects starts at AED 1.495 million.
• W Residences Abu Dhabi (Taraf, in construction since December 2024 with contractor NSCC International; the first W-branded residences in Abu Dhabi) is listed from about AED 2.2 million, with 37 storeys, 177 residences and Q4 2027 handover — figures from listings data rather than official announcements.
• Jumeirah Residences (253 apartments in a 186 m Killa Design tower beside The Galleria, by Emirates Developments with Jumeirah) is listed from about AED 4.7 million for one-bedrooms, AED 7.9 million for two-bedrooms and from AED 13 million for three-bedrooms, with delivery listed for December 2030.
• The ceiling: a Four Seasons Private Residences penthouse reportedly sold in October 2025 for about US$55 million (AED 200 million), covered as a UAE record at a reported AED 14,000 per sq ft.

The spread — AED 1.495 million to a reported AED 200 million on one small island — tells you this is really two markets: volume apartments at Reem-adjacent pricing, and branded trophy stock priced against global capitals.

Impala currently has four active projects from three developers on the island, with entry from AED 1.495 million:

• Al Maryah Vista — Reportage's 772-unit development, completed September 2024, with studios to three-bedroom units including penthouses. Ready stock: what you view is what you get, and Golden Visa valuation is straightforward on a completed title.
• Jumeirah Residences Al Maryah Island — 253 branded apartments in the 186 m Killa Design tower adjacent to The Galleria, by Emirates Developments with Jumeirah. Listings indicate December 2030 delivery; this is the island's flagship long-dated play.
• Leaf Tower — an active release in our catalogue; contact us for the current availability sheet and payment terms.
• Vista 3 — the next release in the Vista series; unit mix and pricing on request.

We have previously placed buyers in St. Regis The Residences, W Residences by Taraf, Reportage Tower and Four Seasons Private Residences on the island; several of these now trade only by assignment or resale, which we also broker.

Two pipeline notes for buyers comparing options: Al Maryah Vista 2 carries a developer-stated Q4 2026 handover that we have not been able to verify independently, and The Ritz-Carlton Residences by SAAS Properties with Marriott, unveiled at Abu Dhabi Finance Week on 10 December 2025, remains at expressions-of-interest stage.

Daily life centres on The Galleria. Opened in August 2013 as a 33,000 sqm luxury mall by Gulf Related and Mubadala, it grew through a 2019 expansion into roughly 2.3 million sq ft of leasable space with around 400 stores and more than 145 food and drink outlets. For residents it is less a mall than the island's main street: groceries, dining and daily errands in one climate-controlled loop.

Rosewood Abu Dhabi and the Four Seasons flank the district, and Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi puts a major hospital within walking distance of every address on the island.

Be honest with yourself about the rhythm. This is a financial district first: weekdays are busy, weekends are quieter, and the street life is promenade-and-mall rather than beach-and-park. There is no beach on the island — the waterfront is a promenade, and the Al Maryah Waterfront attraction, a 30 m luminous sphere with more than 1,000 fountain jets reaching above 75 m, scored by Ramin Djawadi and designed by WET, broke ground in July 2025 with no announced opening date. There are no schools on the island itself; families use Al Reem, Saadiyat and the mainland. And with multiple towers rising and the north expansion ahead, construction will be part of the view for years.

Built. Four bridges connect the island to downtown Abu Dhabi and Al Reem. The ADGM campus, The Galleria, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, the Rosewood and Four Seasons hotels and the completed Al Maryah Vista are operating today.

Under construction. One Maryah Place — an Aldar-Mubadala office scheme of around 98,000 sqm of Grade A space, with nearly 2,200 parking bays over five basement levels and a LEED Gold target — broke ground on 15 October 2024 and will connect indoors to Al Maryah Tower, The Galleria and ADGM Square. The Al Maryah Waterfront broke ground on 20 July 2025 and was visibly under construction through 2026, with no opening date announced. W Residences has been in construction since December 2024, and St. Regis The Residences is under construction with completion expected in Q4 2028 per portal listings.

Announced. The North Maryah expansion — 1.5 million sqm of floor area, three additional bridges, 2.5 km of air-conditioned pedestrian corridors and 12,000+ parking spaces — has enabling works scheduled for 2026 and no published completion dates.

The distinction matters for pricing: buy against what is built or funded, and treat the announced layer as optionality.

Since Cabinet Resolution No. 41 of 2023, Al Maryah and Al Reem operate as a single ADGM jurisdiction of 14.38 million sqm. They function as complements, not competitors.

Al Reem carries the volume: a far larger residential stock, more schools and supermarkets, and typically lower entry pricing. Al Maryah carries the premium: the offices, the mall, the hospital, the five-star hotels and the branded-residence pipeline. Many ADGM employees will live on Reem and work on Maryah for years to come — the three planned bridges in the expansion masterplan are designed around exactly that flow.

For investors the pairing is useful. ADREC recorded AED 10.5 billion of H1 2026 sales across the two islands combined. A budget below roughly AED 1.5 million points you to Reem; Al Maryah's catalogue entry starts at AED 1.495 million and its branded stock runs several times higher. If your thesis is ADGM's growth, both islands express it — Maryah at a higher price point with a thinner, newer market, Reem with liquidity and track record.

Al Maryah suits four buyer profiles.

First, ADGM professionals buying to occupy: walk to work, hospital and mall on the doorstep, and full freehold title in a designated investment zone regardless of nationality.

Second, branded-residence buyers. With the Four Seasons residences already trading — and setting a reported national record in October 2025 — and Jumeirah, W, St. Regis and Ritz-Carlton in the pipeline, this is Abu Dhabi's densest cluster of operator-branded homes.

Third, Golden Visa buyers: any purchase at AED 2 million or above supports a 10-year visa application under current practice, and most of the island's stock clears that threshold.

Fourth, long-horizon investors underwriting the CBD residentialisation thesis: a 51% one-year workforce increase against minimal completed housing, with supply arriving in stages to 2030 and beyond.

On yields we will be straight: there is no reliable published yield series for Al Maryah, because the completed stock is too small and too new. Anyone quoting a precise island-wide yield is estimating. We advise underwriting from actual rent comparables on the specific building, which we can provide on request.

Announced is not delivered. The AED 60 billion+ expansion, the three new bridges and the air-conditioned corridors are masterplan commitments with enabling works scheduled for 2026 — no completion dates exist. Price in the possibility that timelines stretch.

Handover dates are largely developer- or portal-sourced. W Residences' Q4 2027, St. Regis' Q4 2028, Vista 2's Q4 2026 and Jumeirah Residences' December 2030 all come from listings or marketing material rather than audited construction schedules. Off-plan buyers in Abu Dhabi have meaningful protections, but a 2030 delivery bought in 2026 is a four-year commitment — match it to your liquidity.

Future supply is the structural risk. The expansion alone plans more than 3,000 luxury residences. Today's scarcity premium on completed island stock will face competition as phases deliver; investors underwriting resale gains should model that.

Construction is a lived reality. Between One Maryah Place, the Waterfront, several residential towers and, from 2026, north-side enabling works, parts of the island will be an active site for years.

Cost of ownership. Branded residences typically carry service charges at the top of the market. Charges for the island's pipeline projects are not yet published; get the estimated schedule in writing before you commit, and stress-test your net yield against it.

None of these are reasons to avoid the island. They are reasons to buy the right unit, at the right stage, with eyes open.