Ramhan Island

Mohamed Alabbar unveiled Ramhan Island on 16 February 2023 as a US$3.5 billion 'nature island' developed by Eagle Hills, the privately held Abu Dhabi company he fronts — a separate vehicle from Emaar, though the association is part of the sales pitch. Eagle Hills' other Abu Dhabi project is the Bvlgari Resort & Mansions private island, listed for a 2030 opening, which frames the segment the developer is targeting.

The island spans over 4 million sq m — about 400 hectares — of which roughly 2.2 million sq m is developable. The launch masterplan called for approximately 1,800 stand-alone beach villas plus 900–1,000 marina and branded residences (launch sources differed on the second figure), four residential communities, a 120-berth marina, a 1.7km retail parade, a 120-key hotel, a school, a nursery and a mosque.

Treat those unit counts as provisional. The current Bayut area guide describes around 1,350 independent villas, 170 marina berths and a 120-room hotel with 120 serviced apartments — materially different from the launch numbers, with no public reconciliation. Masterplans at this stage get re-cut; you are buying a plot in a phase, not a fixed share of a finished settlement.

The headline addition since launch is the agreement Marriott and Eagle Hills signed in July 2024 for the UAE's first Ritz-Carlton Reserve: 50 one-to-four-bedroom villas, including what the developer describes as the region's first floating villas, with an announced 2029 opening. Reserve is Marriott's rarest flag — a collection of only around seven properties worldwide — and it is the strongest external validation the island has received.

Ramhan Island sits east of Jubail Island on Abu Dhabi's north-eastern coast — an area sometimes referred to as Khor Laffan, though the name is not used consistently in official material. Access today is by boat: roughly 10 minutes from a jetty off Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Road (E12). Viewings, including of the three display villas, are done by water.

A road link is coming, on paper. A Ramhan–Jubail design-build bridge contract was reported as due for award in January 2024, and The National reported a bridge under construction in June 2024. We have found no source confirming the bridge has opened as of September 2026, and buyers should assume boat access until Eagle Hills confirms otherwise in writing.

The marketed drive times — 10 minutes to Yas Island, 15 to Abu Dhabi International Airport, 18 to Saadiyat — are developer estimates that apply only once the bridge is open. They are plausible from the island's position, but they describe a future road network, not the current commute.

The launch masterplan named four residential communities — Marine, Breeze, Cove and Views — alongside a marina district and, since July 2024, the Ritz-Carlton Reserve enclave. Eagle Hills has published little verified detail on the four communities since the 2023 launch, and current sales are marketed by phase number (Phase 4, Phase 5, Phases 6–7, Infinity Villas) rather than by community name.

Practically, the phase you buy into — its position, handover date and payment plan — matters more today than the community branding. We break down each precinct below, and we advise every buyer to map their plot against the current masterplan drawing at EOI stage, before signing an SPA.

Sales opened in March 2023 with villas from about US$1.75M — roughly AED 6.4M — and the project record shows an AED 6M starting price on a 50/50 payment plan. By June 2024, the three display villa models were priced between AED 17M and AED 30M depending on model.

As of September 2026, Property Finder shows 51 Ramhan Island villa listings between AED 11.5M and AED 40M. The developer's release schedule prices as follows:

• Phase 4: AED 16M–22M, stated handover Q3 2028
• Phase 5: from AED 11M, Q2 2027 — the lowest published entry point
• Phases 6–7: marked 'coming soon' against Q2 2027 dates
• Infinity Villas: from AED 13.5M, Q4 2029

Read plainly: the entry price has roughly doubled since launch in three and a half years — on paper. No completed villa has changed hands in a finished community, so these are asking prices and developer releases, not evidenced resale values. Early Phase 1 buyers at AED 6M show strong mark-to-market gains, but the events that will test those gains — handover, snagging, first occupancy, first genuine resales — have not happened yet.

At these prices, every purchase clears the AED 2M Golden Visa threshold several times over.

Impala's off-plan catalogue records two Ramhan Island launches: Ramhan Island Villas Phase 1 and Ramhan Island Villas Phases 2–3. Both are currently sold out or off-market in our live feed — consistent with a project that moved its early inventory quickly and now releases later phases in bursts.

For a buyer in September 2026 that leaves three routes. First, new developer releases: Phase 5 (from AED 11M, Q2 2027), Phase 4 (AED 16M–22M, Q3 2028), the Infinity Villas (from AED 13.5M, Q4 2029), and Phases 6–7 flagged for release. Second, resales and assignments from Phase 1–3 buyers, which is where most of the 51 live listings sit. Third, waiting for re-released or returned units, which surface irregularly.

Our catalogue updates when Eagle Hills re-opens inventory. If you want a specific phase or plot type, register the requirement with us rather than watching portals — developer releases here have moved faster than listing sites refresh.

There is no daily reality on Ramhan Island yet — it is an active construction site. No school, shop, restaurant, hotel or mosque is open; every amenity is at the announced or under-construction stage. Anyone selling you a lifestyle today is selling you a rendering.

What is planned is specific: a marina (120 berths at launch, 170 in current material), a 1.7km retail parade, a 120-key hotel — with 120 serviced apartments in the current area guide — a school, a nursery and a mosque. The positioning is deliberately low-density: Alabbar's launch framing was 'natural, raw and untouched', a beach-villa island rather than an urban district, the opposite of the Reem or Yas apartment model.

Early residents should expect what early residents on every phased island get: construction traffic and hoarding, partial amenities, and — until the bridge is confirmed open — boat logistics for school runs, groceries and staff. If your plan is to occupy in 2027, price that in. If your horizon is 2029–2030, the Ritz-Carlton Reserve and marina district are scheduled, on announced dates, to be operating by then.

The construction record is the strongest part of the Ramhan story, and it is worth stating precisely.

Verified activity: three display villas stood and were viewable by boat by June 2024. MEED reported Hassan Allam winning a Ramhan Island villas construction deal in December 2024. As of May 2026, Arabian Construction Company is delivering 500 villas — full substructure and superstructure works, architectural finishes, MEP, landscaping and supporting infrastructure — across phased villa clusters. In early September 2026, Rowad Modern Engineering's UAE branch was awarded the main works contract for the Marina Apartments, reported by five independent outlets. That is a real pipeline of major contractors, not a paper project.

Not verified: any completed handover. The National wrote in June 2024 that first handovers were expected 'sometime in 2026'; a press sweep through 5 September 2026 finds no completion announcement, and the Bayut project record now shows Q2 2027 against the Q4 2026 date recorded for Phase 1 in our own catalogue. We read that spread as a slippage signal rather than proof of delay — a quiet handover without coverage cannot be ruled out, but a developer of this profile would normally publicise one.

Also not verified: the bridge opening, and the actual award (as opposed to the reported intent to award) of the Ramhan–Jubail road contract. The Ritz-Carlton Reserve and its 2029 opening remain announced, not built.

The macro backdrop is supportive. Abu Dhabi property transactions jumped 42% year on year to US$14.7 billion — over AED 51.7 billion — in the first half of 2025, and new beachfront villa land inside the emirate is scarce. Saadiyat and Jubail villa product has repriced sharply; Ramhan is the next island out on that axis.

The bull case: large-plot beachfront at AED 11M–22M in a masterplan anchored by Marriott's rarest hotel flag, from a developer simultaneously delivering a Bvlgari island nearby, with major contractors mobilised on villas and marina alike. If the bridge opens and the Reserve trades in 2029, today's pricing may look reasonable — and the paper history supports it, with the entry price roughly doubled since 2023.

Who it suits: patient capital comfortable with a 2028–2030 realisation horizon; end-users who want a large beach villa and can wait for it; buyers using the AED 2M Golden Visa route, which every current listing clears many times over. Staged payment plans (50/50 at launch) keep capital partly deferred.

Who it does not suit: yield investors — there is no rental market and no completed stock, so any quoted yield is invented; buyers needing exit liquidity inside two to three years, whose only route out is the assignment market; and anyone who cannot absorb a 12–24 month slippage without distress. This is a land-bank-with-a-brand play, and it should be sized in a portfolio accordingly.

Timeline risk is the headline. The first-handover expectation has moved from 'sometime in 2026' (The National, June 2024) to Q2 2027 on the current project record, and no handover has been announced as of September 2026. Later phases run to Q4 2029; on a project of this scale, further movement would not be unusual.

Access risk is second. Every drive-time figure in the marketing assumes a bridge that is reported under construction but not confirmed open. Until it opens, the island is a boat commute, which caps both owner use and any interim rental logic.

Masterplan fluidity is third. Villa counts (1,800 at launch versus roughly 1,350 now), marina residence numbers (900 versus 1,000) and berth counts (120 versus 170) all differ between launch coverage and current material, without public reconciliation. The plan you buy against may not be the plan that gets built.

Then the structural points: concentration in a single private developer; exit before handover only via assignment, in a market with 51 listings and zero completed comparables; and no service-charge schedule we can verify, which makes total holding costs unquantifiable today.

None of this is disqualifying — it is the normal risk profile of buying into an island four-plus years before it functions. Our advice is procedural: verify the escrow and title structure on the SPA, obtain phase completion percentages and bridge milestones from Eagle Hills in writing, and price your offer against the AED 6M launch base, not against other sellers' asking prices.