This guide is built on ADREC registered transactions, the public record of what has actually changed hands, rather than on asking prices. We have deliberately kept specific figures out of it. Prices move, and a number published today is wrong within months. What does not go out of date is how this market is structured and what to ask before you commit. For current pricing on anything mentioned here, speak to us.
Start with the size of it
Al Reem is the largest residential market in Abu Dhabi and it is not close. 25,793 registered residential sales, more than Yas, and more than twice Saadiyat.
That matters more than any price. A market this size has something the glamorous islands do not: enough transactions that when you come to sell, there are real comparables, real buyers, and a price that can be evidenced rather than argued.
The thing that makes Al Reem different
Every other waterfront district in Abu Dhabi is dominated by one side of the market. Saadiyat and Yas are overwhelmingly off plan. Al Raha Beach is overwhelmingly resale.
Al Reem is the only one that is genuinely both. Half of all registered sales are off plan and half are resales of completed homes.
That balance is the single most useful fact about this island. It means you can buy a finished apartment and see exactly what you are getting, or buy into a new launch, and either way you are operating in a market with real depth on both sides.
One caveat worth reading. Over the last twelve months the balance has tilted, with 72% of sales going to off plan. The island is in a heavy building phase. That is worth knowing if you are buying to hold, because you will eventually be selling alongside whatever completes.
What Al Reem actually is
91% of everything sold here is an apartment. Al Reem is a tower island, and any honest guide says so before it says anything else.
That is why the exception matters so much, and we will come to it.
Off plan: read it by volume, not by price
A word of warning about the price data you will find attached to off plan projects, and then we will leave prices alone.
On an off plan unit, the registry records the price at the moment that unit was first registered, and it never updates. A figure you see against a project may be what somebody paid three or four years ago on the day it was released. It is not a resale value and it is not today’s price. This is true of every off plan project without exception, because developers raise their pricing as a project sells through. For what something costs now, ask the developer, or ask us.
What the data does tell you, reliably, is where people are actually buying.
Reem Hills takes roughly 15% of every off plan sale on the island across its phases, which makes it the most heavily bought development on Al Reem.
Radiant Square takes 8.7%, and is unusual in that it is already reselling as well as selling, at 3.6% of completed transactions.
Then Tara at 4.4%, Pixel at 4.0%, Muheira at 6.6% across its two phases, Radiant Marina Towers at 3.5%, Vista 3 at 3.1%, Seamont Residences by Marriott at 3.0%, Rivage at 2.9% and Riviera Residences at 2.4%.
The completed market, which is where Al Reem is unusual
This is the half of the island nobody writes about, and it is the half we would send most people to first.
Marina Square alone accounts for 31.5% of every completed sale on Al Reem. Close to a third. There is nothing else like that anywhere in Abu Dhabi. If liquidity matters to you, and it should, that number is worth more than any view.
Behind it, Hydra Avenue at 7.6%, The Gate and Arc Towers at 7.3%, Sun and Sky at 7.0%, Shams Meera at 4.3%, Marina Bay at City of Lights at 3.7%, Mangrove Place at 3.4% and Canal Residence at 2.8%.
These are finished buildings, occupied, with service charges you can ask about and neighbours you can meet before you buy. The price record on completed stock means exactly what it says, because somebody actually paid it.
Where we would put a client
Reem Hills.
On an island where 91% of everything sold is an apartment, Reem Hills is effectively the only gated villa and townhouse community. That makes it scarce by definition, and scarcity is not a marketing word here, it is arithmetic.
Four reasons we point people there.
It is the only house market on the island. If you want a family home on Al Reem rather than an apartment, the list of options is very short.
It attracts a different buyer, which means a different exit. A gated family house is not competing with thousands of tower units when it comes time to sell. Its resale does not rise and fall with the apartment market, and on an island with this much apartment supply in the pipeline, that separation is genuinely valuable.
You get city access without living in a tower. A house ten to fifteen minutes from the corniche. Most buyers in Abu Dhabi are forced to choose between space and location. Here they are not.
The market has already voted. Roughly 15% of all off plan sales on Al Reem, across its phases, in a market of nearly 26,000 transactions. That is not a quiet launch hoping to find an audience.
We hold current pricing and availability.
The ADGM change, explained properly
This is the single most misunderstood thing about buying on Al Reem, so here it is plainly.
Al Reem Island came under the jurisdiction of Abu Dhabi Global Market. The jurisdiction was expanded on 24 April 2023, and the part that matters to a buyer happened on 1 January 2025, when the island’s real estate register transferred from Abu Dhabi Municipality to the ADGM Registration Authority.
What that changes in practice:
Registration. Purchases, transfers and mortgages on Al Reem are now registered through ADGM rather than the municipality, on its own platform.
The law that governs your title. Al Reem property now sits under ADGM’s Real Property Regulations, which operate on English common law principles rather than the civil law framework used elsewhere in Abu Dhabi. Existing ownership carried across with its original registration priority.
Where a dispute goes. Property and mortgage disputes on Al Reem fall to the ADGM Courts.
Your mortgage paperwork. Lenders use ADGM compliant mortgage documentation rather than the previous forms.
None of this makes Al Reem harder to buy in. For many international buyers a common law framework is more familiar, not less. But it does mean that anyone advising you on an Al Reem purchase needs to understand which register they are dealing with, and an agent who does not know the answer to that question is telling you something about themselves.
Four things to check before you commit to any off plan unit
What the handover date is tied to. A date in a brochure and a date in the contract are two different things. Ask what happens, contractually, if it moves.
How the payment plan is actually weighted. A plan loaded onto construction milestones behaves very differently from one loaded onto handover, particularly if you are financing.
What the service charge is estimated at. On a large apartment the gap between a modest service charge and a heavy one runs to tens of thousands of dirhams every year, for as long as you own it. It can move your yield by more than a full percentage point and most buyers never ask.
How deep the resale market will be. Ask how many units the project holds, how many have sold, and how many are already listed for resale ahead of completion. You are not only buying a home, you are buying the market you will one day sell into.
Our view on the next three to five years
Everything above this line is a record of what has already happened. This part is a judgment, and you should read it as one.
Of the four islands we cover, we think Al Reem has the most room to move. It is the cheapest of the four, it now has genuinely better road access, and the ADGM framework has resolved a question that hung over the island for years.
In March 2026 the Department of Municipalities and Transport opened two new marine bridges, 1.5 kilometres between them, built for around 7,200 vehicles an hour and connecting the island directly to the Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Highway. The department’s own figure is a reduction in peak travel times of up to 60%, or around fifteen minutes. Access was the standing argument against Al Reem. That argument is considerably weaker than it was two years ago.
That is our view and not a promise. Property never moves in a straight line, and anyone who tells you precisely what a unit will be worth in 2031 is speaking with more confidence than the facts support. What we can tell you is that if we were placing our own money on the island with the most catching up to do, this is the one.
What it is actually like to live there
Schools
Three schools operate on the island itself.
Repton School Abu Dhabi runs two campuses in Shams Abu Dhabi, an early years campus and a main campus taking pupils through to Year 13, on the British curriculum.
Nord Anglia International School Abu Dhabi has a purpose built campus on the island, taking children from age three through to Year 12.
GEMS World Academy Abu Dhabi sits in Najmat and is an authorised IB World School, offering the IB programmes alongside the English National Curriculum from early years to Year 13.
For nurseries, the island has Mosaic, Hummingbird, Playhouse and Redwood.
Families here also use Cranleigh and the other Saadiyat schools, and Al Bateen Academy in the city.
Getting off the island
The island connects to the mainland by the Umm Yifeenah Bridge, which opened in 2023, and since March 2026 by two new marine bridges running directly onto the Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Highway.
Al Reem is the closest of the four islands to the centre of Abu Dhabi. The corniche is a short drive, and Saadiyat is roughly fifteen to twenty minutes. The airport and Yas sit around twenty to twenty five minutes out, though those figures come from route planners rather than an official source, so treat them as indicative.
On public transport, be clear eyed. Bus service 73 links the island to Al Hudayriyat with stops across the city. There is no metro or light rail serving Al Reem, and the light rail line Abu Dhabi has actually committed to runs between the airport, Al Raha Beach and Yas, which does not include this island. Driverless pods have been piloted on Al Reem, but a pilot is a pilot and should not be counted on when you are choosing where to live.
The amenities
Al Reem is genuinely self sufficient, which is not true of every waterfront address in this city. You can live here without routinely driving off the island, and that is the practical case for it.
Shopping. Reem Mall opened in May 2024 with around 400 shops and 85 restaurants, which makes it one of the largest malls in the emirate and it is on your doorstep rather than a drive away. Shams Boutik and Paragon Bay serve the Shams and Marina Square ends of the island with everyday retail and dining.
Groceries. Waitrose at Boutik, Spinneys at Radiant Square, Carrefour at several locations including Reem Mall and Paragon Bay, and Al Maya in the Gate district.
Healthcare. Reem Hospital is a full multi specialty hospital physically on the island, covering more than forty specialties, alongside a Burjeel day surgery centre and a Mediclinic at Reem Mall. Very few residential districts in Abu Dhabi can say there is a hospital on the island, and if you have children or elderly parents it is worth more than a view.
Parks and outdoors. Reem Central Park is complete and operating, with retail, sports courts and a skate park. A 2.4 kilometre illuminated promenade runs along the marina, which is the island’s running and cycling route.
Water. Cove Beach in Makers District is a paid beach club rather than a free public beach, and several buildings hold their own private beach and pool facilities. Check what any specific building actually includes rather than assuming.
Schools. Three full schools and four nurseries on the island itself, covered above.
How we work
Every figure above comes from ADREC registered transactions, which is the public record of what actually changed hands. We have not used asking prices anywhere, because asking prices on Abu Dhabi portals routinely run at a significant premium to what properties achieve.
If you want this applied to a specific building, a specific budget, or a specific unit you are considering, send us the details and we will come back with the comparables that sit behind it. That is how we begin every conversation.
S A Casa Real Estate. Licence No. CN-6395529. Brokerage No. 202600754690.
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