Off-plan projects in Al Marjan Island, Ras Al-Khaimah

The busiest off-plan market outside Dubai

Off-plan projects in Al Marjan Island are apartment towers, almost without exception, and a remarkable number of them carry a brand. Fashion houses, hotel groups and design labels have all put their names on buildings here: Karl Lagerfeld, Tonino Lamborghini, Gianfranco Ferre, Mondrian and Sheraton all appear on the current list, a concentration of licensing you would otherwise find only on the Dubai coast.

The island itself is a set of reclaimed fronds off the Ras Al Khaimah shore, joined to the mainland by causeways, with beach on both sides of most parcels. What changed this market sits at one end of it: an integrated resort under construction, due to open with the country’s first licensed casino, which has drawn hotels, restaurants and a wave of residential launches in behind it. The emirate’s airport is close and Dubai is about an hour by road.

The scale is the other surprise: 40+ launches from more than twenty developers, priced from around $200K, with handover dates running from 2026 to 2029 and most of them clustered in the later years. Booking deposits vary enormously, from 5% on some schemes to as much as 40% on others, so the cash required at signing is not comparable between projects and is worth establishing before anything else.

Almost every buyer here is making the same bet in a different form: that the resort economy fills these towers with short-stay guests once it opens. That is a real thesis rather than a slogan, but it carries concentration risk, because a very large amount of stock completes within a few years of itself on a single island, and the branded schemes are priced on the assumption that demand arrives on time. Gorilla Real Estate’s specialists follow which of these launches sit on a beach and which on a channel, and how deposits and brand premiums compare, which is where the real differences show up. Off-plan properties for sale in Al Marjan Island are listed above.