Al Marjan Island in Ras Al Khaimah is rapidly emerging as a standout market for waterfront property investment. With strong rental income trends, significant recent value gains, and landmark developments like the Wynn resort reshaping expectations, this analysis dives deep into the numbers at play.
Al Marjan Island Projects, the investor guide to what is actually happening, and what to watch next
Key takeaways
- Al Marjan is in a repricing phase, with +16.8% YoY apartment growth in Q3 2025 cited from ValuStrat-linked reporting.
- Off-plan dominates, 84% of residential sales across the first nine months of 2025, which explains why pricing feels story-driven.
- Wynn’s development timeline is tangible, spire planned in 2026, opening targeted Spring 2027, so the catalyst is not abstract.
- STR underwriting should anchor to observable market stats, AirDNA shows ~42% occupancy and ~$222 ADR in the Al Marjan dataset.
- Treat “very high net yields” as unit-specific and operator-specific, baseline first, upside second.
The first thing to get straight, why people argue about the “average price”
Al Marjan Island real estate is experiencing rapid growth in 2025 to 2026, driven by the upcoming Wynn resort, but the price headlines get messy fast. I keep seeing people quote a single “average” that sounds super precise, and then someone else calls it nonsense. Both can be right, which is annoying, but also kind of the point.
Here’s the simple reason. There are at least two different pricing worlds on Al Marjan:
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Market level valuation benchmarks that track the broader apartment market, including older and non branded stock.
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New launch, branded, beachfront off plan pricing, which can be dramatically higher per sq ft.
If you only look at branded launches, you can convince yourself the “average” is in the multiple thousands per sq ft. If you look at valuation benchmarks, it can look closer to the low one thousands. The truth is that both exist at the same time, on the same island.
For example, ValuStrat reporting cited in Khaleej Times shows Al Marjan apartment prices at about AED 1,127 per sq ft in Q3 2025, with 16.8% year on year growth.
That is not the same thing as a brand new branded tower asking rate.
So when you write a “price and yield analysis” that is meant to rank, and also survive a skeptical investor reading it, you want to separate these layers early, and keep doing it.
If you’re weighing Al Marjan versus Dubai waterfront, I can run a quick side-by-side ROI comparison using your budget and your holding timeline. Send me a message.
Market numbers at a glance (2025 to 2026)
| Metric | Best current public benchmark (what you can cite) | What it means in plain English |
|---|---|---|
| Apartment value growth on Al Marjan | +16.8% YoY in Q3 2025 | Strong appreciation, but not a straight line every quarter |
| Price anchor (apartments) | ~AED 1,127 per sq ft in Q3 2025 | A market benchmark, not a branded launch rate |
| Off plan dominance (RAK freehold) | 84% of total residential sales in first nine months of 2025 | Off plan is driving the market’s volume and psychology |
| Wynn timeline | Spire planned in 2026, opening planned Spring 2027 | A real catalyst, but still a pipeline story today |
| STR snapshot (Al Marjan, AirDNA) | ~42% occupancy, ~$222 ADR | Useful for underwriting, but highly unit dependent |
A small note, because it matters: some agency blogs quote apartment pricing bands like AED 850 to AED 1,200 per sq ft in parts of RAK, which is broadly consistent with the benchmark view, but those are not always indexed or audited the same way. I use them for context, not as the main anchor.
Real Estate Price Analysis (2025 to 2026 trends)
1) Appreciation is real, but it is not uniform
The cleanest statement you can make is this: Al Marjan led RAK’s apartment growth in Q3 2025, up 16.8% year on year, and it also posted a quarterly rise in capital values.
That kind of growth usually shows up when a place shifts category, from “regional leisure pocket” to “internationally marketed waterfront narrative”. Wynn is a big part of that narrative, and so is RAK’s broader push into tourism.
Also, broader RAK coverage in early 2026 reporting points to Al Marjan seeing more than 21% price per sq ft growth in 2025 (Bayut data reported via Khaleej Times), which helps explain why the island feels like it is moving quickly even to people who are not watching weekly.
2) A practical price per sq ft range
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Benchmark level (market wide apartments): around AED 1,127 per sq ft (Q3 2025 index referenced publicly).
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Premium off plan and branded beachfront: often materially higher, especially for branded towers with direct beach positioning, where asking rates can move into multiple thousands per sq ft depending on the brand, view, and payment plan.
That second bullet is intentionally not a single number, because if you lock it to “AED 2,500 to AED 4,000 per sq ft” as the island’s “entry” price, you will be mixing segments.
3) Off plan dominance, and why it changes pricing behavior
ValuStrat’s market reporting states that off plan properties represented 84% of total residential sales across the first nine months of 2025, and it frames activity as developer led demand.
When off plan dominates like that, pricing becomes story driven. Not fake, just story driven. Buyers are underwriting future scarcity, future tourism lift, future brand gravity. It can push premiums into the launch market, while the broader benchmark is still catching up more slowly.
So yes, you can see premium towers pricing like they are already in “mature resort island” mode, even while parts of the resale market still feel like a normal waterfront community.
Want the premium vs benchmark breakdown for Al Marjan? I can show you which towers are priced for the story, and which are still priced like a normal market. Send me a message with the word "Al Marjan".
The Wynn effect
What we can say with confidence:
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Wynn Al Marjan reached a topping out milestone, and Wynn’s own updates state the spire installation is planned for 2026, with a Spring 2027 opening target.
What I think is true:
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Wynn is functioning like a pricing magnet. It compresses the “time to premium” narrative for nearby branded stock, and it lifts the island’s global awareness in a way that normal residential marketing rarely does.
Rental Yield and ROI Analysis, long lets vs short stays, and what the numbers really imply
There’s a moment most investors hit with Al Marjan where the story starts to split.
On one side, you have the “Wynn effect” narrative, the kind of catalyst that can pull pricing forward before the island is fully mature. On the other, you have the boring part, rent, occupancy, operating costs, and the slightly unglamorous question of whether a unit actually cashflows once it’s handed over.
Rental yields, define the terms first (because people mix them up)
Gross yield
This is the simplest version:
Gross Yield = Annual Rent ÷ Purchase Price
It ignores costs. It’s not wrong, it’s just incomplete.
Net yield
This is what you actually care about if you are not trying to win an argument on social media:
Net Yield = Net Operating Income ÷ Purchase Price
Net operating income means rent (or STR revenue) minus service charges, maintenance, letting fees, furnishing refresh, management, utilities (for STR), and vacancy.
Reality check
When someone tells you “12.6% yield”, they might mean gross, they might mean net, and they might mean a best-case unit in a best-case month. So we are going to build a model that survives bad months too.
Long term rentals (the steadier baseline)
A clean, citeable public benchmark is that Al Hamra Village and Al Marjan Island offered steady rental yields between 5.5% and 5.8% based on Bayut data reported in Khaleej Times.
That yield range is useful as a baseline, but you still want to connect it to actual rents.
Bayut’s 2025 Ras Al Khaimah market report summary states that apartments for rent on Al Marjan Island saw rental prices rise by about 8% to 11%, with studios around AED 39k, 1-beds around AED 59k, and 2-beds around AED 90k.
Now here’s where it gets interesting, and slightly confusing.
If you combine “AED 59k rent” with a “high purchase price”, the yield can look lower than the 5.5% to 5.8% range. That does not automatically mean the yield benchmark is wrong, it usually means one of these is happening:
- the purchase price you are assuming is too high for the unit you are renting long term
- the rent you are assuming is too low for a furnished waterfront unit, or a smaller unit with stronger rent-per-dirham dynamics
- the yield figure is being expressed for a different slice of inventory, different timing, or different calculation method
So rather than pretend the market is a single clean line, I like to publish the cost and yield stack explicitly.
Long let cost stack (typical items to budget)
| Cost item | Why it matters | How it usually behaves |
|---|---|---|
| Service charges | The silent yield killer in waterfront buildings | Usually fixed per year, tied to building facilities |
| Maintenance reserve | AC, appliances, paint, small repairs | Lumpy, not monthly, plan a reserve anyway |
| Leasing and renewal fees | Tenant acquisition, renewals | Recurring, and varies by operator |
| Vacancy allowance | Time between tenants | Even a good unit is not 12 months occupied forever |
A long-term lease model is not “set and forget”, but it’s close. It’s also the model that tends to hold up best when the market gets noisy.
Short term rentals (STR), what the market snapshot suggests in 2025 to 2026
Here’s a dataset we can actually point to without hand-waving.
AirDNA’s Al Marjan overview shows about 42% occupancy, about $189.8 ADR, and 161 active listings in the dataset.
Those three numbers are enough to build a first-pass revenue estimate. Not perfect, but useful.
A simple STR revenue estimate (using AirDNA snapshot)
- ADR: $189.8
- Occupancy: 42%
- Nights sold per year: 365 × 0.42 ≈ 153 nights
- Gross revenue: 153 × 189.8 ≈ $29,000 per year (ballpark)
Then convert to AED at the pegged rate and you are in the neighborhood of AED 100k to 110k gross.
That sounds good until you price the unit, and then the yield starts to look like a normal yield again. Which is not bad, it’s just not magic.
Why STR yields can look “high” and still disappoint
STR has a second set of costs long lets do not:
| STR cost item | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Management | Guest comms, pricing, channel ops |
| Turnover | Cleaning, linens, consumables |
| Utilities and internet | Usually owner-paid |
| Wear and tear | Furniture refresh, small breakage, more frequent |
This is why publishing “net STR yield” as a confident single number can backfire. It depends on the operator, the furnishing level, and how seasonal the demand ends up being on your specific micro-location.
Price anchors for Al Marjan in 2025 to 2026
We used “AED 2,546 per sq ft”, and yes, this number is supported as a published benchmark in dubizzle’s Ras Al Khaimah annual market report for 2025, which states Al Marjan apartment per-square-foot price increased to AED 2,546 in 2025.
Bayut’s market analysis snippet for Al Marjan apartments also suggests pricing by bedroom type around:
- 1-bed: AED 2,381 per sq ft
- 2-bed: AED 2,447 per sq ft
- 3-bed: AED 2,586 per sq ft
So a defensible way to phrase pricing is:
- Mainstream transaction and portal benchmarks cluster around the mid AED 2,000s per sq ft in 2025.
- premium branded beachfront stock can price higher (and can also distort “average” discussions)
A practical yield bridge, what STR needs to do to beat long lets
Instead of promising a 12% net yield, I prefer showing a small sensitivity table. It feels more honest, and it helps readers self-select.
STR sensitivity (illustrative, using AirDNA-style inputs)
Assume a unit where the STR can achieve:
| Occupancy | ADR ($) | Approx annual gross revenue ($) | What it implies |
|---|---|---|---|
| 35% | 175 | ~22,000 | Soft demand or weaker positioning |
| 42% | 190 | ~29,000 | Close to AirDNA snapshot baseline |
| 55% | 230 | ~46,000 | Strong operator, strong seasonality capture |
If your purchase price is high, the only way STR produces “headline yields” is if ADR and occupancy climb together, and costs do not climb at the same pace. Sometimes they do, sometimes they do not. That’s the risk and the opportunity.
Al Marjan vs Dubai waterfront, a quick benchmark comparison
A lot of investors want to compare Al Marjan to Dubai Marina because it’s a familiar waterfront reference, and because it’s liquid.
Dubizzle’s Dubai 2025 sales report states that in Dubai Marina, the average price per sq ft for apartments rose to AED 2,190, and the area delivered about 5.73% ROI (their wording).
Now compare that to Al Marjan’s published benchmark of AED 2,546 per sq ft in 2025.
Comparison table (using published portal benchmarks)
| Market | Price per sq ft (benchmark) | Yield / ROI (published) | Takeaway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Al Marjan Island | ~AED 2,546 (2025) | 5.5% to 5.8% yields (Bayut data via Khaleej Times) | Pricing is no longer “cheap”, the bet is future maturity and tourism gravity |
| Dubai Marina | ~AED 2,190 (2025) | ~5.73% ROI (dubizzle) | Mature, liquid, often easier to underwrite, but less “new catalyst” upside |
This is one of those moments where you pause and go, wait, Al Marjan is pricing close to Dubai Marina on a per sq ft basis. That feels counterintuitive.
But it also explains why the narrative matters so much. You are not buying “cheap RAK”, you are buying a future resort island positioning.
Where off-plan dominance changes the ROI conversation
ValuStrat’s Q3 2025 reporting states that off-plan properties represented 84% of total residential sales across the first nine months of 2025.
When off-plan dominates like that, yield is often a second-order decision. Investors are buying delivery timing, payment plan leverage, and future repricing, not just year-one cashflow.
Wynn timeline, risk map, underwriting rules, FAQs, and ready-to-paste schema
If Batch 1 was about “what are we even measuring” and Batch 2 was “does it cashflow”, this last section is the part investors usually skim, then later realize they should not have skimmed.
It’s the catalyst timeline, the decision rules, and the uncomfortable bits.
Wynn timeline (what matters, and what is just noise)
Let’s keep this factual first.
Wynn Al Marjan’s tower hit its highest structural concrete point at 70 floors, and Wynn’s own update states the spire installation is planned for 2026. When the spire is installed, the building reaches its full architectural height of 352 meters, and Wynn targets a Spring 2027 opening.
That matters for pricing because markets do not wait for ribbon cutting. They price in milestones in waves:
A simple “catalyst ladder” (how repricing often happens)
| Catalyst stage | What buyers start to believe | Typical market behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Announcement and planning | “This place is about to be re-rated” | Premiums begin, mostly in off-plan |
| Visible construction milestones | “It’s real, and it’s on track” | Broader demand expands beyond early adopters |
| Infrastructure delivery (roads, bridges, services) | “Access improves, hassle drops” | End-user demand and STR demand improve |
| Opening window | “Tourism volume becomes measurable” | Rent and ADR trends become easier to underwrite |
Right now, Al Marjan is in the late milestone phase, the project is real, the timeline is tangible, but the island is still finishing its “resort ecosystem” feel. That gap is where the opportunity can exist, and also where the mistakes happen.
2025 to 2026 price narrative
A lot of blogs want one number. Real markets give you two.
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ValuStrat-linked reporting cited by Khaleej Times shows Al Marjan apartment prices up 16.8% YoY in Q3 2025, and +6.3% quarter-on-quarter in capital values, which supports the “repricing phase” thesis.
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Khaleej Times also reports that Al Marjan saw prices rise by more than 21% in 2025 (Bayut data, reported Jan 2026).
At the same time, the wider RAK market context matters, ValuStrat’s own update notes 84% of residential sales were off-plan across the first nine months of 2025, and gross rental yields averaged 5.4%.
Those two lines alone tell you what kind of market this is. It’s developer-led and future-facing, but yields still have to land somewhere rational if you want the investment to hold up.
A practical underwriting model (use this as your “ROI sanity check”)
This is the part I would actually want in front of me before buying a unit, especially if it’s priced as “future premium”.
Step 1: Pick your strategy bucket
| Strategy | Who it fits | What you are betting on |
|---|---|---|
| Long let, unfurnished or lightly furnished | Conservative investors, stable cashflow | Tenant demand and steady yields |
| STR, professionally managed | Hands-off but return-focused | Tourism volume, ADR, and operations |
| Off-plan, exit or refinance at handover | Growth focused | Repricing between launch and handover |
| Hybrid, long let most of the year, STR seasonally | Optimizers | Capturing peaks without full STR complexity |
Step 2: Revenue reality check (STR)
AirDNA’s Al Marjan snapshot shows ~42% occupancy, ~$222 ADR, and a dataset of 161 properties, with monthly revenue figures shown in the same view.
That gives you a baseline. Your unit can beat it, or underperform it, but you stop guessing wildly.
A quick rule I use:
If your underwriting requires both “high ADR” and “high occupancy” to work, it’s fragile. If it works at baseline and improves with good management, it’s stronger.
Step 3: Cost stack (net yield is where deals live or die)
Long let costs tend to be simpler.
STR costs add turnover and utilities, plus higher wear.
If you want a clean shortcut for STR net math, use a conservative operating ratio first, then refine later:
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STR net = STR gross revenue × (1 − operating ratio)
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Many operators will land somewhere in a broad band depending on service level, furnishing, and how often the unit turns. Start conservative, then negotiate.
I know that sounds vague. It is. But it’s safer than publishing a fake precise “net yield” that collapses the second a building’s service charges come in.
Al Marjan vs other markets (why the comparison is not just about price)
Here’s the more useful comparison than “is it cheaper than Dubai”.
Comparison table (decision factors)
| Factor | Al Marjan Island (2025 to 2026) | Mature Dubai waterfronts (general) |
|---|---|---|
| Market phase | Re-rating, catalyst-driven | Mature, liquidity-driven |
| Supply shape | Off-plan heavy, new launches dominate | More balanced resale market |
| Demand driver | Tourism pipeline plus new resort ecosystem | Established resident and tourism base |
| Underwriting difficulty | Higher, more assumptions | Lower, more historical data |
| Upside style | Narrative plus delivery milestones | Mostly yield plus modest growth |
You can still absolutely make money in either. It’s just different work.
Risks and watchpoints (the honest section)
Risk map
| Risk | What it looks like | What to do about it |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery risk | Handover slips, finishing quality variance | Buy from stronger execution, inspect clauses |
| Price volatility | Fast growth cools, resale spreads widen | Underwrite long-term hold, avoid forced exits |
| STR seasonality | Occupancy swings, rates soften off-peak | Choose unit type with broad demand, studios and 1BR often help |
| Service charge surprise | Net yield gets clipped | Ask for service charge ranges early, do not assume |
| Overpaying for the story | Paying tomorrow’s price today | Compare against baseline performance, not the brochure |
One mild contradiction I’ll admit: I like catalyst markets, but I also don’t like paying peak premiums. So I end up recommending the same thing again and again, focus on the micro, the stack, the view, the layout, the operator, the building’s rules for holiday homes, because that’s where returns get protected.
FAQs
What is the current price per sq ft on Al Marjan Island in 2025 to 2026?
Pricing depends on whether you mean market-wide benchmarks or branded new-launch asking rates. ValuStrat-linked reporting shows strong growth on Al Marjan, including +16.8% YoY in Q3 2025, while premium beachfront products can price materially higher depending on brand, view, and payment plan.
Are rental yields on Al Marjan Island actually high?
At the market level, ValuStrat’s update notes gross rental yields averaged 5.4% in Ras Al Khaimah in Q3 2025. Short-stay performance can exceed long lets for well-positioned units, but net yield depends heavily on service charges, turnover costs, and the operator.
How much does Wynn affect Al Marjan property prices?
Wynn is the main global attention catalyst. Wynn’s own updates confirm major construction milestones, with the spire planned in 2026 and opening targeted Spring 2027, which tends to pull buyer demand forward before the resort opens.
Is Al Marjan mostly off-plan or resale?
Off-plan dominates the market cycle right now. ValuStrat reports 84% of residential sales were off-plan across the first nine months of 2025, which explains why launch pricing and payment plans shape expectations.
What’s the simplest way to underwrite an STR on Al Marjan?
Start with observed market stats, then stress-test. AirDNA shows roughly 42% occupancy and $222 ADR in its Al Marjan dataset, then you apply a conservative cost ratio before you call anything “net yield”.
For those seeking coastal ROI and ready to wait out two or three development phases, Al Marjan offers one of the most data-supported entry points in the GCC waterfront landscape.
