Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Abu Dhabi's register is closed by law — a search certificate costs AED 100 but is issued to the entitled, not the curious — so the towers whose owners can be named are those held by ADX-listed Aldar and Modon and by Mubadala, which disclose their own purchases down to the dirham.
8 buildings · 6 with an owner established · 22 sources · 7 tier A · 1 tier C · prepared 2026-10-04
Title in Abu Dhabi is kept by the Real Estate Registration Department of each municipality under Law No. (3) of 2005, now administered through the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC) and its DARI platform. The register is not public: Article 4 of the 2005 law lets the department issue 'search certificates for a specific property, according to what is recorded in the register' and copies of documents 'to whom it may concern', and the Executive Council's 2018 fee schedule prices a search certificate at AED 100 per plot — but these are services to an entitled applicant who already identifies the property, with no owner name-search and no bulk extract. Who may own at all is set by Article 3 of Law No. (19) of 2005 as replaced by Law No. (13) of 2019: ownership is limited to citizens and their equivalents, public shareholding companies with no more than 49% non-citizen shareholding, and anyone named in a resolution of the Crown Prince or the Chairman of the Executive Council — except that non-citizens, natural or legal, 'are entitled to acquire all original and collateral in-kind rights over properties located within the investment zones'. The zones are designated by Executive Council resolution; ADREC's 2025 market report names Al Reem Island, Al Raha, Yas Island, Saadiyat Island and parts of Khalifa City as the leading ones and counts ~67,000 homes, 21% of the emirate's stock, inside them. What ADREC does publish is aggregate: a half-yearly market report with transaction totals, supply, sales by buyer nationality and a developer pipeline, and no per-sale rows.
The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ADGM office towers — Al Sila, Al Sarab, Al Maqam and Al Khatem ADGM Square, Al Maryah Island 180,000 sqm net leasable area |
Office | Aldar Investment Properties (Aldar Properties PJSC) Abu Dhabi Media Office, 28 July 2022: Aldar 'has signed an agreement with Mubadala Investment Company to acquire four prime Grade A commercial towers in Abu Dhabi Global Market' — 'Al Sila, Al Sarab, Al Maqam, and Al Khatem — with a total net leasable area of 180,000 sqm', plus 'the North and South car parks'. 'The assets will be held by Aldar Investment Properties (AIP) … and are valued at AED 4.3 billion'. The towers were 'developed by Mubadala in 2013'. Aldar is ADX-listed; the same release says Mubadala 'is a founding shareholder in Aldar Properties PJSC, currently holding a 25% position'. |
Public company | AED AED 4.3 billion 2022-07 Agreement with Mubadala signed 28 July 2022; the Media Office release states the assets 'are valued at AED 4.3 billion' A |
| Al Maryah Tower Al Maryah Island |
Office | Aldar Properties PJSC (Aldar Investment) Mubadala's 40% stake acquired by option, Q3 2025; balance of the holding not stated Aldar's Q3/9M 2025 results, published on its own site: 'In Q3, Aldar exercised its option to acquire Mubadala's 40% stake in Al Maryah Tower, which has ramped up to 97% occupancy.' The page does not state what Aldar held before or holds after exercising the option, nor the price of the 40%, so the stake is recorded as the page gives it. The commercial portfolio is described at 99% occupancy with Grade A demand 'fuelling rental growth'. Floor area is not given on the page. |
Public company | —A |
| The Galleria Al Maryah Island Al Maryah Island |
Retail | Aldar–Mubadala retail joint venture (75:25), consolidated by Aldar Properties PJSC Aldar 75% / Mubadala 25% (joint venture closed 2025) Aldar's Q4/FY 2025 results (9 February 2026): 'Creation of AED 9.8 billion national retail champion, which consolidated Yas Mall and The Galleria Luxury Collection following the closing of a 75:25 joint venture with Mubadala.' The Galleria was Mubadala's development on its Al Maryah Island; the 2025 JV puts it under Aldar's consolidation with Mubadala retaining a quarter. The AED 9.8 billion is the value the release gives the combined retail vehicle, not a price paid for this mall, so no acquisition price is recorded. |
Public company | —A |
| Yas Mall Yas Island |
Retail | Aldar Properties PJSC (Aldar–Mubadala retail joint venture, 75:25) Aldar 75% / Mubadala 25% (joint venture) Aldar's retail page: 'Yas Mall is the largest in Abu Dhabi, at the heart of Yas Island'; the portfolio tiles read '7 Malls, 40+ Mn Mall Footfall in Abu Dhabi, 1400 Brands, 36 Retail Communities, 520+K GLA, USD 10 Bn Assets'. The Q3/9M 2025 results: 'Yas Mall remained the key contributor, with a 12% rise in footfall, 10% rise in tenant sales … Occupancy remains high at 97%.' The FY 2025 results place it in the AED 9.8 billion retail vehicle consolidated after the 75:25 JV with Mubadala. Aldar developed the mall, so there is no acquisition price. |
Public company | —A |
| Masdar City Square (seven buildings) Masdar City 47,000+ sqm Grade A commercial space |
Office | Aldar–Mubadala joint venture (established 2024) Mubadala's own release, 16 September 2026: 'Aldar and Mubadala Investment Company (Mubadala), an Abu Dhabi Sovereign Investor, have jointly acquired Masdar City Square for AED 918 million, through their joint venture established in 2024. The transaction forms part of the Aldar-Mubadala JV … which now owns an AED 4.7 billion portfolio of commercial and residential assets in Masdar City'. 'Completed in Q1 2026, the seven buildings at Masdar City Square are already 99% occupied'; 'over 47,000 sqm of Grade A commercial space'; LEED Platinum and WELL Gold. The release does not state the JV's split, so none is recorded. |
Sovereign fund | AED AED 918 million 2026-09 Mubadala press release, 16 September 2026: 'jointly acquired Masdar City Square for AED 918 million, through their joint venture established in 2024' A |
| ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi and Capital Gate Khaleej Al Arabi Street, Al Safarat |
Mixed use | Modon Holding PSC (ADNEC Group) Modon Holding's Annual Report 2025 lists 'ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi' first among the 'Key assets' of its Events, Catering and Tourism segment ('355,000 sqm of exhibition space across 4 centres' with ADNEC Centre Al Ain and ExCeL London), and the financial statements record shares 'issued to ADQRE to acquire 100% ownership interest in ADNEC and other subsidiaries'. Capital Gate on the ADNEC site houses 'Andaz Capital Gate, 188 keys', listed in a hospitality table where owned, operated and JV hotels are told apart by colour, so the hotel's tenure is not asserted. Modon is ADX-listed; L'imad Holding held 84.75% at 31 December 2025 and is, per the report, 'wholly owned by the Abu Dhabi Government'. |
Public company | —A |
| Emirates Palace West Corniche Road |
Hotel | Not established the jurisdiction does not disclose owners The hotel's own page is a Mandarin Oriental brand page — 'Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental, Abu Dhabi … Located on a pristine private beach' — and says nothing about who holds the building; Mandarin Oriental is the brand and operator, and management is not ownership. Emirates Palace does not appear in Modon's or Aldar's asset lists, no listed company discloses it, and Abu Dhabi's register issues certificates only to entitled applicants, so the title-holder is left blank rather than inferred from the brand or from press descriptions of it as government-owned. |
Not established | —A |
| Etihad Towers (five towers) Corniche Road West, Al Bateen |
Mixed use | Not established the jurisdiction does not disclose owners The complex's own site never completes a connection (HTTP 000) and Hilton's page for the Conrad hotel in Tower 1 returns 403; Hilton in any case manages rather than owns. No ADX filing or sovereign-fund page opened here names a title-holder, the pack's scout found the same, and the register is closed, so the owner is blank. Search results that attribute the towers to a projects office of a ruling-family member are not a document and are not used. |
Not established | —C |
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
Abu Dhabi has no assessment roll and a closed register, so its most valuable ground is measured by what ADREC publishes in aggregate and what the two ADX-listed landlords and Mubadala disclose about their own deals. The financial district on Al Maryah Island — ADGM's jurisdiction spans Al Maryah and Al Reem, 14.38 million sqm — carries the only recent tower prices on record.
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
Abu Dhabi is a master-developer market: homes are sold off-plan from a handful of registered developers into ADREC-regulated escrow, and the two largest are ADX-listed companies whose ultimate owners are the emirate's own investment arms — Mubadala holds 25% of Aldar, and a government holding company took 84.75% of Modon in October 2025. ADREC's 2025 report is the nearest thing to a league table: 'Eight major developers account for ~74% of the development projects pipeline supply in Abu Dhabi Region through 2030' (~32,000 units) and it names them — Aldar, Modon, Bloom, Reportage, Eagle Hills, Sama Emirates, Radiant Real Estate and Saas Properties — though the per-developer bars are not legible as data, so the figures below are the companies' own.
| Name | Type | Scale, as the source states it |
|---|---|---|
| Aldar Properties PJSC Q4/FY 2025 results: group sales AED 40.6bn, 'UAE sales to overseas and expat resident customers reaching AED 27.4 billion in 2025, representing 77% of total UAE sales'; new launches Yas Living, The Row Saadiyat, Yas Riva Residences; landbank replenished with GDV AED 120bn+. ADX-listed; Mubadala 25%. |
Public company | UAE sales AED 35.5bn in 2025; UAE backlog AED 61.0bnA |
| Modon Holding PSC Annual Report 2025: 'Record sales of AED 36.3 billion, growing 2.8x compared to 2024', '6,358 units sold', development backlog AED 42.6bn; masterplans Hudayriyat Island (50M+ sqm) and Reem. Formed from Q Holding, Modon Properties and ADNEC; 84.75% held by L'imad Holding, 'wholly owned by the Abu Dhabi Government'. |
Public company | 6,358 units sold; AED 36.3bn sales (2025)A |
| IMKAN Properties Its own site: 'A wholly-owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Capital Group'; Abu Dhabi projects AlJurf, Nudra and Pixel/Makers District on Al Reem Island. Unit counts are not published. |
Private company | 26+ projects, 30M+ m² of land, 5 countriesA |
| Bloom Holding Self-described 'master developer committed to curating premium communities'; communities at Saadiyat Island, Zayed City, Al Bateen Marina, Eastern Mangroves and Corniche (Bloom Living, Bloom Gardens, Bloom Heights). Named by ADREC among the eight developers carrying ~74% of the 2026–2030 pipeline. Its parent is not stated on the page opened. |
Private company | not stated in readable formA |
| Reportage Properties One of the eight developers ADREC names in its 2025 report as driving ~32k pipeline units to 2030; the company's own site serves only a script redirect, so nothing is taken from it. |
Private company | not stated in readable formA |
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
With the register closed, Abu Dhabi's commercial ownership record is what Aldar, Modon and Mubadala say about themselves, and since 2025 the three are intertwined: Aldar consolidates the emirate's malls through a 75:25 JV with Mubadala, the two jointly own AED 4.7bn of Masdar City, and Aldar bought Mubadala's ADGM towers and its share of Al Maryah Tower. Bases differ — Aldar reports AUM and GLA, Modon units, keys and exhibition floor — so these are self-descriptions, not a ranking. ADGM, Mubadala's other Al Maryah holdings and the government's direct estate publish no floor area.
| Name | Type | Portfolio, as the owner states it |
|---|---|---|
| Aldar Properties PJSC (Aldar Investment) FY 2025 results: AUM AED 49bn, adjusted EBITDA AED 3.2bn, develop-to-hold pipeline AED 17.2bn, residential portfolio 'over 11,000' units once Al Shamkha and Yas Island communities complete; retail page: 7 malls, 1,400 brands, 36 retail communities, 'USD 10 Bn Assets'. Portfolio occupancy 97% (Sept 2025). |
Public company | AED 49bn AUM; 7 malls, 520K+ sqm GLA; 11,000+ homes to letA |
| Modon Holding PSC Annual Report 2025 operational highlights: '97% leasing occupancy of owned assets', '2,999 residential units', '70k+ sqm of actively managed retail and commercial GLA', '27 hotels, 7,137 keys' across the UAE, UK, Morocco, Egypt and Iceland (Egypt JVs to be exited in 2026), four exhibition venues including ExCeL London. |
Public company | 27 hotels, 7,137 keys; 2,999 rental homes; 70k+ sqm retail/office GLA; 355k sqm exhibition spaceA |
| Mubadala Investment Company Mubadala, 'an Abu Dhabi Sovereign Investor', developed the ADGM towers (2013) and The Galleria and sold or pooled them with Aldar: the 2025 retail JV (Aldar 75 / Mubadala 25) and the 2024 Masdar City JV, 'which now owns an AED 4.7 billion portfolio of commercial and residential assets in Masdar City'. The Masdar JV split is not stated in the release. Mubadala is also Aldar's founding shareholder at 25%. |
Sovereign fund | 25% of the AED 9.8bn Aldar retail vehicle; JV with Aldar owning AED 4.7bn in Masdar City (split not stated)A |
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- The current Executive Council resolution listing Abu Dhabi's investment zones plot by plot — the law delegates the list to the Council and ADREC's report names only the leading zones (Al Reem, Al Raha, Yas, Saadiyat, parts of Khalifa City); the resolution itself was not opened.
- ADREC's H1 2026 market report (AED 117bn headline) — the PDF is 119.5 MB, above this project's download cap, so only the index-page figure is cited.
- Per-developer pipeline units in ADREC's 'Projected residential units supply by developer 2026-2030' chart — the eight names are legible, the bars are not.
- Which of Modon's 27 hotels, including Andaz Capital Gate, are owned rather than operated — the report distinguishes them by colour only.
- The title-holders of Emirates Palace and Etihad Towers, and the owner of the Al Maryah Island north plot before the Mubadala–Aldar JV develops it.
- Property Finder's and Bayut's terms of use (HTTP 500 and 503) — treated as prohibiting scraping; no listing data was taken.
- Any statistic from the Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi, which is geo-blocked; ADREC's report is the only official series used.
- Unit counts for IMKAN, Bloom, Reportage, Eagle Hills, Sama Emirates, Radiant and Saas — none publishes them in readable form.
Sources
- تقارير السوق — Abu Dhabi Real Estate Market Reports index (headline transaction values H1 2026, 2025, H1 2025, 2024) — Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC) · openA
- Abu Dhabi Real Estate Market Report 2025 (full-year PDF, 76 MB) — Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC), Department of Municipalities and Transport · openA
- ADREC home — service catalogue (9 certificate services: title deeds, search and valuation certificates, property ownership certificates, site plans) — Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC) · openA
- القوانين والتشريعات — الملكية العقارية: Law No. (19) of 2005 as amended by Law No. (13) of 2019 (Articles 3–4), Law No. (3) of 2005 on real estate registration (Article 4), Executive Council Chairman Resolution No. (49) of 2018 fee schedule — Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC) · openA
- Law No. (13) of 2019 amending Some Provisions of Law No. (19) of 2005 concerning Real Estate Ownership (English PDF) — Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC) · openA
- Law No. (19) of 2005 Concerning Real Estate Ownership (English PDF) — Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC) · openA
- الشروط والأحكام — Terms and conditions / privacy statement (no data-reuse licence stated) — Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC) · openA
- Aldar Properties To Acquire Four Commercial Towers In Abu Dhabi Global Market From Mubadala Investment Company — Abu Dhabi Media Office · openA
- Mubadala Investment Company and Aldar launch AED60bn+ expansion of Al Maryah Island's financial district — Abu Dhabi Media Office · openA
- Aldar Announces Q4 FY 2025 Financial Results (group highlights, Aldar Investment, retail JV with Mubadala) — Aldar Properties PJSC (ADX: ALDAR) · openA
- Aldar Q3 / 9M 2025 Financial Results (Al Maryah Tower option, Yas Mall, occupancy) — Aldar Properties PJSC (ADX: ALDAR) · openA
- Aldar and Mubadala JV Expands Investment in Masdar City with Acquisition of Masdar City Square — Mubadala Investment Company · openA
- Annual Report 2025 (operational highlights, hospitality portfolio, corporate governance — major shareholders, financial statements note on the 30 October 2025 change of parent) — Modon Holding PSC (ADX: MODON) · openA
- Investor Relations — 'listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX)' — Modon Holding PSC · openA
- IMKAN — 'A wholly-owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Capital Group' — IMKAN Properties · openA
- Bloom Holding — developer of curated premium communities — Bloom Holding · openA
- Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental, Abu Dhabi (brand page; no ownership statement) — Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group · openA
- Etihad Towers (no connection) — Etihad Towers · blockedC
- Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi (geo-blocked) — Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi · blockedC
- DARI — Abu Dhabi real estate platform (client-rendered, no server content) — ADREC / Department of Municipalities and Transport · blockedC
- About ADGM — 'operates across Al Maryah Island and Al Reem Island, an area of 14.38 million sqm' — Abu Dhabi Global Market · openA
- Aldar Investment — Retail (7 malls, 520K+ GLA, USD 10 Bn assets; Yas Mall) — Aldar Properties PJSC · openA