Abu Dhabi
38M sqft master plan, tickets from AED 1.31M, 60/40 plan, handover Q4 2029
WAH Score
7,7/ 10
Sobha City is Sobha Realty's first master plan in Abu Dhabi: 38 million sqft in Al Bahiya, one minute from Yas Island, with apartments, townhouses and villas delivered in phases from the fourth quarter of 2029. Here is our investor read on the whole project: the numbers, the layouts, the limits and our decision.
Sobha City is Sobha Realty's first community in Abu Dhabi: 38 million sqft in Al Bahiya, an announced AED 40 billion investment, around 6,500 homes at completion, a 2 km promenade along internal canals, a marina, a par 3 golf course designed by Greg Norman, three international schools, a healthcare hub, 300,000 sqft of retail and 60% open space. Yas Island is one minute away by car, Zayed International Airport fourteen.
The project is delivered in phases. Phase 1, around 400 units, gathers three products: River Cove Residences, two eleven storey buildings on the promenade with 1 to 3 bedroom apartments from AED 1.31M; The Terraces townhouses from AED 4.01M; The Orchard, with garden villas from AED 4.96M and estate villas from AED 9.05M. Same land, same address, same schedule, three very different investor profiles.
The payment plan is the same across layouts: 60/40, meaning 20% on booking, 40% spread over 36 months of construction and 40% on handover in the fourth quarter of 2029. Ownership is freehold, open to all nationalities, under the ADREC regulatory framework. The final 40% is the line to finance in advance, whatever the layout.
WAH! Note
A deliberately low launch price on Sobha's first master plan in Abu Dhabi, in an emirate where new supply stays well below demand.
WAH Score
7,7 / 10
The WAH Score is the weighted average of six investment criteria. It drives the decision.
Abu Dhabi posted its strongest year in 2025: AED 142 billion of transactions, up 44% year on year, for only 7,000 homes delivered according to Colliers. New supply stays well below demand, and the Yas corridor concentrates employment, tourism and the airport.
Around AED 2,200 per sqft on phase 1 apartments in a canal front master community, with an entry ticket at AED 1.31M and villas up to AED 9.05M. The developer openly frames the launch pricing as attractive because this is its first operation in the emirate: the phase 1 buyer captures that gap.
Around 6.5% gross targeted at handover on apartments, closer to 5.5% on townhouses and villas, based on comparable delivered products in the Yas corridor, which sit between 6 and 7% on the ADREC rental index. The project has no rental history of its own: these figures are projections, not a record.
Apartments under AED 1.5M open the widest buyer base in Abu Dhabi and will stay the most traded units of the project; villas target a narrower but less crowded market. Phase 1 holds about 400 units out of the 6,500 planned overall: early buyers exit before the bulk of the supply lands.
Two points we own. Sobha builds in house and has been delivering for over fifty years, but this is its first site under ADREC regulation. And Al Bahiya is still an emerging district: retail, schools and services arrive in phases, with a construction environment until 2029 and beyond for later phases.
By Ahmed : WAH advisor
Al Bahiya runs along the E10 and E12 highways, in the western residential belt of Abu Dhabi. Yas Island is one minute away, Yas Mall thirteen, Ferrari World fifteen, the Louvre Abu Dhabi twenty five. The district does not yet have the maturity of Saadiyat or Al Reem: today, groceries and restaurants mean a drive to neighbouring areas.
The 2 km promenade, the marina, the par 3 golf course, the three schools, the healthcare hub and the 300,000 sqft of retail belong to the full master plan, not to the first handover. Ask Sobha for the phased amenity schedule before signing, and underwrite on what will be operational at the end of 2029.
Sobha City sits in a freehold zone: a non resident holds the property outright in their own name and can resell freely. No local tax on rent or capital gains. From AED 2M invested, the file opens the Golden Visa route: a single entry level apartment is not enough, two units or a villa are.
Phase 1 gathers 1 to 3 bedroom apartments in River Cove Residences from AED 1.31M, The Terraces townhouses from AED 4.01M, garden villas from AED 4.96M and The Orchard estate villas from AED 9.05M. The master plan holds around 6,500 homes at completion.
20% on booking, 40% spread across the 36 months of construction every three to six months, then 40% on handover in the fourth quarter of 2029. The plan applies to every layout in the project.
We use around 6.5% gross on apartments and 5.5% on houses. The project has no rental history: the benchmark comes from comparable delivered products in the Yas corridor, between 6 and 7% on the ADREC index.
The threshold is AED 2M of property investment. An entry level apartment at AED 1.31M does not reach it alone; two units, a garden villa or an estate villa do, subject to the ADREC conditions in force at the time of purchase.
Because the launch price is low in an emirate where only 7,000 homes were delivered in 2025 against much higher demand, with a developer that builds in house and a phase 1 capped at 400 units. The yield is still a projection and the district immature: this is a four to six year capital gain case, not an income case.
A WAH advisor answers your questions and shares the detailed assumptions behind the file.
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