Off-plan apartments in Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Apartments account for nearly all of the emirate’s off-plan supply, from around $180K on the mainland beachfront up to the island phases at roughly double that. What separates them is setting and developer rather than format, since both are low-rise buildings facing water.

For an investor, the return here is seasonal rather than salaried, driven by holiday demand and weekend traffic from the emirates to the south. That makes the timing of a purchase matter more than usual: the earliest completions will be letting into a coast that is still filling in, while later phases arrive once more of the amenities are open. The counterweight is how little it takes to start: deposits from 5% on booking mean the money committed before completion stays modest, and the instalments are spread across years rather than months. It is also worth comparing the two addresses directly, because the island and the mainland strip answer quite different briefs at quite different prices. The price, the deposit and the delivery date are set out with each listing above.