Is Al Reem still cheaper than Yas and Saadiyat?

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Is Al Reem still cheaper than Yas and Saadiyat today?

Yes. Al Reem Island is still clearly cheaper than both Yas Island and Saadiyat Island today, although the discount to Yas has become much smaller than the old “cheap Reem” reputation suggests.

Bayut's latest property indices put Al Reem at around AED 1,776 per sq ft, compared with AED 2,218 on Yas and AED 2,717 on Saadiyat. At those levels, buying on Reem costs roughly 20% less per square foot than Yas and 35% less than Saadiyat.

The comparison becomes even cleaner when we look at apartments bedroom by bedroom. A one-bedroom is currently around AED 1,793 per sq ft on Reem, versus AED 2,325 on Yas and AED 3,128 on Saadiyat. Two-bedroom apartments show almost exactly the same hierarchy.

So Reem still deserves to be called the cheaper island, particularly against Saadiyat. Against Yas, though, “cheaper” now means a discount of roughly one-fifth rather than a completely different price bracket.

Current price measure	Al Reem Island	Yas Island	Saadiyat Island	Reem discount
Overall property index	AED 1,776/sq ft	AED 2,218/sq ft	AED 2,717/sq ft	20% vs Yas; 35% vs Saadiyat
1-bed apartment	AED 1,793/sq ft	AED 2,325/sq ft	AED 3,128/sq ft	23% vs Yas; 43% vs Saadiyat
2-bed apartment	AED 1,730/sq ft	AED 2,254/sq ft	AED 3,182/sq ft	23% vs Yas; 46% vs Saadiyat
3-bed apartment	AED 1,740/sq ft	AED 2,187/sq ft	AED 3,103/sq ft	20% vs Yas; 44% vs Saadiyat

Has Al Reem been catching up with Yas and Saadiyat?

Yes. Al Reem has risen fast enough over the past two years to narrow part of its old price gap, especially with Saadiyat.

Bayut's broad property index puts Reem at AED 1,776 per sq ft today, up from AED 1,208 two years earlier. That works out to an increase of about 47%. Yas went from AED 1,548 to AED 2,218 over the same period, an increase of roughly 43%. Saadiyat moved from AED 2,218 to AED 2,717, or about 23%.

The latest transaction-based evidence points in the same direction without producing exactly the same numbers. Knight Frank found apartment prices on both Al Reem and Yas up around 18% year on year in its latest Abu Dhabi residential review. Saadiyat remained the most expensive apartment location in the firm’s dataset, with transactions averaging roughly AED 43,100 per square metre, equivalent to about AED 4,000 per sq ft.

Different methodologies produce different absolute prices, which is normal when one source tracks portal data and another looks at transactions. The more useful point is the pattern that survives both datasets: Reem has been appreciating quickly, Yas has also been moving strongly, and Saadiyat remains considerably more expensive than either.

Broad property index	Two years ago	Currently	Approx. increase
Al Reem Island	AED 1,208/sq ft	AED 1,776/sq ft	47%
Yas Island	AED 1,548/sq ft	AED 2,218/sq ft	43%
Saadiyat Island	AED 2,218/sq ft	AED 2,717/sq ft	23%

Is Al Reem still cheaper if we compare the same type of apartment?

Yes. Matching one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments still leaves Al Reem about 20% to 23% below Yas and roughly 43% to 46% below Saadiyat.

This is a useful test because the three islands contain very different mixes of homes. Saadiyat has a much heavier concentration of luxury and branded residences, while Yas includes villas, townhouses and a wide range of newer master-planned projects. Reem has a much deeper pool of conventional apartment towers.

The bedroom-level numbers reduce some of that distortion. A two-bedroom currently averages about AED 1,730 per sq ft on Reem, AED 2,254 on Yas and AED 3,182 on Saadiyat. For a 1,200 sq ft apartment, those rates imply roughly AED 2.08 million on Reem, AED 2.70 million on Yas and AED 3.82 million on Saadiyat before we account for the huge variation between individual buildings.

The result is fairly decisive. Reem's lower average does not come only from comparing small apartments with Saadiyat villas or older towers with Yas townhouses. The discount remains visible when we compare broadly similar apartment sizes.

Apartment type	Al Reem	Yas	Saadiyat	Reem vs Yas	Reem vs Saadiyat
1 bedroom	AED 1,793/sq ft	AED 2,325/sq ft	AED 3,128/sq ft	23% cheaper	43% cheaper
2 bedrooms	AED 1,730/sq ft	AED 2,254/sq ft	AED 3,182/sq ft	23% cheaper	46% cheaper
3 bedrooms	AED 1,740/sq ft	AED 2,187/sq ft	AED 3,103/sq ft	20% cheaper	44% cheaper

Can an expensive Al Reem apartment now cost as much as one on Yas?

Absolutely. Premium Al Reem projects already overlap with the lower and middle parts of the Yas market, so comparing island averages can hide some very real exceptions.

Marina Square on Reem is currently around AED 1,468 per sq ft, while Najmat Abu Dhabi is about AED 1,485. Move into newer or more premium stock and the picture changes quickly. Makers District is around AED 2,131, Canal Residence around AED 2,064, Yasmina Residence around AED 2,177 and Elie Saab Waterfront a little above AED 2,100 on Bayut's current building indices.

Those figures sit directly inside Yas territory. Yas Bay is around AED 2,200 per sq ft overall, with three-bedroom apartments around AED 1,850. Some Yas communities and larger units therefore cost less per square foot than premium stock on Reem.

At the upper end of Yas, prices climb again. Gardenia Bay has been around AED 2,200 per sq ft, Water's Edge above AED 2,200 in recent apartment data, and developments such as Yas Riva have moved beyond AED 2,600.

A buyer choosing between actual buildings can therefore find a Reem apartment that costs more than a Yas apartment. The island-wide discount still holds, but it should never replace a building-by-building comparison.

Is new off-plan property on Al Reem still cheaper than Yas and Saadiyat?

Yes. Al Reem's price advantage survives even when we remove much of the older resale stock and look specifically at new off-plan apartments.

Current Bayut data puts off-plan apartments on Reem at around AED 1,850 per sq ft. Two-bedroom off-plan apartments are close to AED 1,796, with one-bedrooms around AED 1,837.

Yas Bay, one of the main off-plan apartment areas on Yas, currently sits around AED 2,167 per sq ft overall. Its two-bedrooms are around AED 2,030 and one-bedrooms around AED 2,317.

Saadiyat remains far above both. Its current off-plan apartment index is around AED 3,228 per sq ft, including roughly AED 3,229 for one-bedrooms and AED 3,171 for two-bedrooms.

That comparison is particularly revealing. Reem's lower pricing cannot be dismissed as an artefact created by twenty-year-old towers. Developers are still launching and reselling new Reem apartments at a meaningful discount to new Yas and Saadiyat stock.

Off-plan apartment	Al Reem	Yas Bay	Saadiyat
Overall	AED 1,850/sq ft	AED 2,167/sq ft	AED 3,228/sq ft
1 bedroom	AED 1,837/sq ft	AED 2,317/sq ft	AED 3,229/sq ft
2 bedrooms	AED 1,796/sq ft	AED 2,030/sq ft	AED 3,171/sq ft
3 bedrooms	AED 1,765/sq ft	AED 1,762/sq ft	AED 3,251/sq ft

What can AED 2 million buy on Al Reem compared with Yas and Saadiyat?

AED 2 million still goes noticeably further on Al Reem, and this is where the difference between the three islands becomes much easier to feel than a price-per-square-foot percentage.

Bayut's H1 Abu Dhabi sales review put the average one-bedroom apartment on Reem at about AED 1.4 million. A two-bedroom averaged around AED 2.13 million. A buyer with a hard AED 2 million ceiling therefore sits near the top of the one-bedroom Reem market and within reach of selected two-bedroom stock.

The same report put an average Yas one-bedroom around AED 1.84 million and a two-bedroom around AED 2.95 million. AED 2 million can still buy on Yas, but the buyer has far less room to move up in size.

Saadiyat is much more fragmented because ordinary units, new luxury projects and Cultural District residences sit beside each other. Recent listings and project indices show studios close to or above AED 1 million, while many new one-bedrooms are already comfortably above AED 2 million. Bayut's ultra-luxury H1 sample put the average Saadiyat one-bedroom above AED 4 million, heavily influenced by premium projects.

For a buyer capped at AED 1.5 million to AED 2 million, Reem therefore offers the broadest selection of mainstream apartments among these three islands. Yas remains accessible, while Saadiyat increasingly requires either a smaller unit, a less expensive submarket or a higher budget.

Is Saadiyat now in a completely different price category from Al Reem?

For mainstream apartments, yes. Saadiyat currently behaves much more like a luxury market than a direct substitute for Al Reem.

The island-wide numbers already show a large gap, but the Cultural District makes the difference much clearer. Bayut currently places apartments there around AED 3,860 per sq ft. One-bedrooms are roughly AED 3,720, two-bedrooms around AED 3,890 and three-bedrooms above AED 4,300.

Those prices are more than double many established Reem buildings. Marina Square is around AED 1,470 per sq ft and Najmat Abu Dhabi around AED 1,485. Even premium Reem projects around AED 2,100 remain well below much of Saadiyat's Cultural District.

Knight Frank's latest transactions also reinforce this picture. Its average Saadiyat apartment price reached about AED 43,100 per square metre, or roughly AED 4,000 per sq ft.

Saadiyat still contains cheaper individual apartments, especially outside its most prestigious projects, so there is some overlap at the edges. But someone comparing a normal Reem apartment with a new Cultural District residence is really comparing two different tiers of the Abu Dhabi residential market.

Are rents cheaper on Al Reem too?

Yes. Renting on Al Reem currently costs less per square foot than renting on either Yas or Saadiyat, although the rental gap is much smaller than the purchase-price gap.

Bayut's latest broad rental index is about AED 107 per sq ft annually on Reem. Yas sits around AED 122, and Saadiyat is also around AED 122 in the latest overall data.

One-bedroom apartments give a similar result. Reem is roughly AED 110 to AED 111 per sq ft, compared with about AED 135 on Yas and AED 127 on Saadiyat. For two-bedrooms, Reem is close to AED 102, Yas around AED 127 and Saadiyat roughly AED 123.

The interesting part is the size of the difference. Reem purchase prices are around 20% below Yas and much further below Saadiyat, while rents are only around 12% below the two islands on the broad index. Owners on Reem are therefore buying the underlying property at a larger discount than tenants receive on the rent.

Annual apartment rent	Al Reem	Yas	Saadiyat
Broad property index	AED 107/sq ft	AED 122/sq ft	AED 122/sq ft
1 bedroom	~AED 110/sq ft	AED 135/sq ft	AED 127/sq ft
2 bedrooms	AED 102/sq ft	AED 127/sq ft	AED 123/sq ft
3 bedrooms	AED 98/sq ft	AED 121/sq ft	AED 109/sq ft

Does buying cheaper on Al Reem actually give a better rental yield?

Usually, yes. Al Reem currently offers a stronger projected apartment yield than Yas, while the gap with premium Saadiyat apartments is much larger.

Bayut's latest half-year market review estimated a 6.34% projected return for Reem apartments. Yas came in at 5.94%. Saadiyat's ultra-luxury apartment sample was around 3.51%.

The difference follows directly from the rent and purchase-price data. Reem rents are lower than Yas rents, but the purchase price falls by slightly more. Saadiyat takes that pattern much further: buyers can pay close to twice the Reem price per square foot for premium apartments without collecting anything close to twice the rent.

We should be careful with the Saadiyat figure because Bayut classifies its sample as ultra-luxury, while Reem sits in the report's mid-tier category. Still, that classification itself says a lot. Buyers are paying for beach access, branding, scarcity and Cultural District positioning on Saadiyat, while Reem remains much more closely tied to conventional residential rental economics.

Bayut H1 apartment segment	Average sale price	Projected ROI
Al Reem Island	AED 1,690/sq ft	6.34%
Yas Island	AED 2,393/sq ft	5.94%
Saadiyat Island	AED 3,893/sq ft	3.51%

Why has Al Reem become so much more expensive lately?

Al Reem has become more expensive because demand is rising in an island that already functions as one of Abu Dhabi's biggest established residential markets.

The latest ADREC market report gives us useful scale. Investment zones contained around 72,000 homes in total in the first half of 2026, and Reem alone accounted for roughly 27,500 of them. That makes it by far the largest residential stock concentration among Abu Dhabi's investment zones.

Reem also generated around AED 10.5 billion in residential sales together with Al Maryah Island in ADREC's latest half-year data. Earlier in the year, Reem alone had already recorded approximately AED 9.45 billion of real-estate transactions during the first quarter, second only to Hudayriyat in that official ranking.

Demand is therefore hitting a market with real depth rather than a small speculative enclave. Reem gives residents quick access to Al Maryah Island and central Abu Dhabi, while Reem Mall, schools, parks and newer waterfront projects have made the island easier to live on than it was during its earlier development years.

Prices have responded quickly. Bayut's broad Reem index is now about 17% above its level twelve months earlier, and its off-plan apartment index is up more than 20%. One-bedroom apartment prices have risen around 20% over the same period.

Reem can still be cheaper while also being expensive by its own historical standards. That is increasingly the right way to think about it.

Has Al Reem's price growth started to cool?

There are early signs that parts of Al Reem are slowing, even though the twelve-month figures still look very strong.

Bayut's current broad Reem index is AED 1,776 per sq ft. Six months earlier it was already AED 1,745. Most of the 17% annual increase therefore happened before the latest six-month window.

Several individual projects show the same pattern. Makers District is up around 16% over twelve months but almost flat over the latest six months. Canal Residence is up about 7% over the year and less than 2% over six months. Elie Saab Waterfront is only slightly higher than a year earlier and has been roughly flat recently.

Others are still climbing. Tamouh is up more than 20% over twelve months, Julphar Residence by roughly 22% and City of Lights by more than 20%.

That split is worth watching. Reem's recent rise has been broad enough to change its affordability story, but current movement is much less uniform than the annual headline implies. Another 40% to 50% two-year jump from today's base should not be treated as the default.

Could all the new supply make Al Reem cheaper again?

New supply should give buyers more choice, but current evidence does not support assuming that Reem prices are about to fall simply because Abu Dhabi has a large construction pipeline.

ADREC expects roughly 71,000 additional homes across Abu Dhabi by 2030, with deliveries peaking at about 21,800 units in 2028. Six districts, including Reem, Yas and Saadiyat, are expected to account for 77% of the additional supply in the Abu Dhabi region.

Knight Frank uses a narrower definition that counts units already under construction and reaches about 36,900 homes through 2030. In its dataset, Yas has the largest identifiable community pipeline at roughly 7,700 homes, while Saadiyat has around 3,250.

The different totals come from different definitions, yet both sources point to the same broader reality: all three islands are receiving substantial new stock. Reem is not uniquely exposed.

The type of supply will probably matter more than the headline number. Thousands of ordinary new apartments on Reem compete directly with Marina Square, City of Lights, Shams and Najmat. Ultra-luxury branded residences on Saadiyat compete with a much narrower pool of existing homes. Yas sits somewhere between the two.

For now, rising supply is a reason to be more selective about the building and purchase price. It has not erased Reem's discount.

Is Al Reem still the best place of the three for a buyer who mainly wants value?

Al Reem currently gives buyers the most apartment for their money of these three islands, especially below roughly AED 2 million and for investors who care about rental yield.

A buyer is paying around 20% less than Yas for comparable one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and more than 40% less than Saadiyat in many of those same categories. Reem also still produces a projected apartment yield above 6% in Bayut's latest half-year analysis.

That advantage comes with a trade-off in product positioning. Yas offers a newer master-planned leisure environment with attractions, hotels, waterfront areas and a growing family housing market. Saadiyat commands its much larger premium through beaches, resorts, branded residences and the Cultural District. Reem's appeal is more practical: dense apartment choice, access to central Abu Dhabi and Al Maryah, established rental demand and a lower purchase price.

The important qualification is that Reem has already re-rated sharply. Buyers chasing value today need to be much more selective than buyers who entered two or three years ago. Paying AED 2,100 or AED 2,200 per sq ft for a premium Reem apartment creates a very different value proposition from buying an established building around AED 1,450 to AED 1,600.

So, is Al Reem still cheaper than Yas and Saadiyat?

Yes. Al Reem is still meaningfully cheaper than Yas and dramatically cheaper than Saadiyat for mainstream apartments today.

The cleanest comparison puts one- and two-bedroom Reem apartments roughly 23% below Yas and more than 40% below Saadiyat. New off-plan property shows the same broad hierarchy, which confirms that older Reem towers are only part of the explanation. Rents are cheaper too, although by a much smaller margin, helping Reem produce stronger rental yields.

What has changed is the size and meaning of the discount. Reem prices have climbed about 47% on Bayut's broad index over two years, compared with roughly 43% on Yas. Premium Reem buildings now overlap directly with parts of the Yas market, and several current Reem projects already trade above AED 2,000 per sq ft.

Saadiyat remains in a clearly higher price tier. Yas is still more expensive overall, but the gap with Reem is now narrow enough that individual buildings regularly cross over.

Al Reem is therefore still the cheapest of the three, but today its strongest value case sits in the right buildings rather than in the island name alone.

Fact-checked and reviewed by our local expert

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Osama Shawky 🇦🇪

CEO, estaie

Osama Shawky is the CEO of estaie, a platform specializing in flexible long-term stays. Through his work with property operators and investors, he has developed a strong understanding of Abu Dhabi’s real estate market, especially the demand driven by expatriates and business professionals. Using data and AI-driven pricing strategies, he helps maximize occupancy and returns in the capital’s evolving property landscape.

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SANDS OF WEALTH

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