A Single Island Carrying More Than a Quarter of the Market Al Hudayriyat Island has topped Abu Dhabi's real estate sales in the first half of 2026, in a clear sign of the property market's continued resilience through a genuinely difficult regional period. Sales on the island in the six months to the end of June hit Dh19 billion, equating to roughly 27% of total residential units sold across the entire...

A Planning Rule That Doubles as an Investment Signal The Department of Municipalities and Transport has introduced the Livability by Design Framework, a master planning assessment framework that places livability at the centre of every major urban development in Abu Dhabi. Overseen by the Urban Planning and Permits Centre, the framework applies to new and updated master plans accommodating more than...

A Debate About Off-Plan Sales, With Abu Dhabi Sitting Apart From It AGBI's editor James Drummond recently posed a genuinely uncomfortable question for the region's developers: is the days of the off-plan sale, as currently configured in the Gulf, coming to an end? The argument rests on a straightforward observation. Off-plan buyers in the Gulf are tied into a fixed payment schedule, while elsewhere in...

Al Ghadeer is continuing to develop as one of Abu Dhabi’s most strategically located residential communities, positioned directly along the Abu Dhabi–Dubai border. The upcoming Al Ghadeer Parks opportunity adds further attention to this established Aldar community, with the focus expected to remain on family-oriented living, green surroundings and convenient connectivity between the two...

A Warning From Inside the Industry The Gulf's model of off-plan property sales faces a fundamental shake-up, and developers will no longer be able to rely on buyers' money to finance projects, according to Dar Global chief executive Ziad El Chaar, speaking to AGBI. He expects the Gulf to move closer to mature European markets, where developers shoulder more of the construction cost before collecting...

Reading the Market Beyond the Headline Numbers The Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre has released its Real Estate Market Report for the first half of 2026, and this edition goes considerably deeper than the transaction totals that have already made headlines throughout the year. As an affiliate of the Department of Municipalities and Transport and custodian and regulator of Abu Dhabi's real estate sector,...

More Time to Plan, Build, and Get It Right The Abu Dhabi Housing Authority has announced an extension to the activation period for housing construction, demolition and reconstruction, and maintenance loans, giving citizens meaningfully more breathing room to plan and execute their home projects properly. Two additional years have been added to the activation period across all three loan categories, a...

A Full Year's Worth of Sales, With a Third of the Year Remaining Abu Dhabi's property market has already outperformed the whole of last year, and it has done so with more than four months of 2026 still ahead. Residential sales values reached AED 86.3 billion by mid-August, according to figures from the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre. That figure already beats 2025's full-year total of AED 83.2 billion,...

A Shift From Tourists to Residents Demand for monthly rental units across the UAE is rising as more residents decide against committing to twelve-month contracts amid a genuinely uncertain regional period, according to reporting by The National. The short-term rental and hospitality sector experienced a noticeable slowdown when regional tensions escalated earlier this year, with flight disruptions and...

A Quiet Initiative With a Direct Line to Property Value Not every announcement that moves Abu Dhabi's property market comes from a developer's press release or ADREC's transaction data. On August 7, 2026, the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi and the Department of Municipalities and Transport announced a new phase of collaboration under the Abu Dhabi Waste Management Strategy, focused on delivering...