WHO IS ARADA

Arada was founded in 2017 by Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, a senior member of the Sharjah ruling family and Chairman of Basma Group, and Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, Chairman of KBW Investments. The company is privately held — despite the royal family connection, Arada is not a government entity, and operates independently from the Sharjah government while working closely with local authorities on planning and approvals. Ahmed Alkhoshaibi has led the company as Group CEO since inception.

Arada’s founding thesis was specific: Sharjah had a population of over 1.8 million people and a long-standing shortage of modern, master-planned communities — residents who wanted gated, amenity-rich living had to look to Dubai for it. Arada set out to close that gap, and the approach worked quickly. The company has gone on to capture approximately 50 percent of Sharjah’s off-plan market, a level of dominance in a single emirate that few UAE developers achieve anywhere.

By early 2026, Arada had 55,000 homes delivered, under construction, or planned, with a total pipeline value of AED 130 billion. The company has issued two international sukuk — a debut $500 million issuance in 2022 and a further $400 million in 2025 — making it the youngest private UAE company to access global bond markets in this way.

PORTFOLIO IN SHARJAH

Nasma Residences, launched in March 2017, was Arada’s debut project — 908 townhouses and villas in Al Tay, adjacent to the Sharjah-Dubai border, sold out quickly and delivered ahead of schedule. It established the operating model the company would repeat at scale.

Aljada, launched in September 2017, is Sharjah’s largest-ever mixed-use development — a 24 million sq ft, $9.5 billion masterplan that will eventually house over 25,000 homes alongside a 38-building smart office hub, schools, hotels, and the Zaha Hadid–designed East Village retail and leisure district. More than 20,000 residents already live there, and the community drew 8 million visitors last year. Construction began in 2018 with full completion targeted for 2025, financed in part through over AED 2.5 billion in Islamic financing secured across multiple rounds since 2017.

Masaar, launched in January 2021, is the UAE’s first forested villa community — 3,000 villas and townhouses built around a 50,000-tree green spine in Sharjah’s Suyoh district. Its success led directly to Masaar 2, a AED 5.5 billion follow-up that sold out its 2,000 homes within hours of launch, and a third Masaar phase launched in September 2025 with 4,000 villas and townhouses across eight gated districts, with its first two phases also selling out on launch day.

EXPANSION INTO DUBAI AND BEYOND

Arada launched its first Dubai project in November 2022, and the move into the emirate has been deliberate rather than rushed — Alkhoshaibi has described the company’s approach as taking the time needed “to find the right locations” after establishing its Sharjah dominance first. That patience produced Armani Beach Residences on Palm Jumeirah, an ultra-luxury branded project that has continued to draw demand even through regional turbulence, including a AED 92.5 million penthouse sale in March 2026, and W Residences at Dubai Harbour, the AED 5 billion Marriott-partnered waterfront development covered in this site’s Dubai Harbour area guide.

The company’s footprint now extends well beyond the UAE. In November 2025, Arada agreed to acquire an 80 percent stake in Thameside West, a London waterfront mixed-use project valued at AED 12 billion, and has separately unveiled 100 Avenue Road, a residential development in an established London neighbourhood. UAE sales alone rose 199 percent year on year in 2025 to AED 17.3 billion across 5,140 units, more than double the 2,171 units transacted in 2024.

BEYOND REAL ESTATE

Arada has built a deliberate ecosystem of supporting brands around its core real estate business — Wellfit gyms, the Zad food truck park concept, Manbat (an Emirati farmers’ market partnership with the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment), and Artal, an Emirati fashion label. Formative, the company’s fitness collective, became the UAE’s largest gym operator by revenue with 40,000 members across 19 clubs. 

The company has also entered hospitality directly, opening its first hotel in late 2025 and partnering with Minor Hotels on the Anantara Sharjah Resort and Residences. 

Group CEO Alkhoshaibi has described this explicitly as a strategy to give buyers “a reason to commit that goes far beyond price per square foot” — embedding revenue-generating lifestyle infrastructure into every community the company builds.

THE RISK SIDE

Arada has not been without delivery friction. 

The Jouri Hills project in Dubai experienced material construction delays in 2024 tied to contractor performance and procurement issues, and Aljada saw delays in issuing title deeds in 2023. 

The company also reported weaker-than-anticipated 2024 revenue recognition, partly due to a strategic shift toward build-to-rent at Aljada. 

None of this is unusual for a developer scaling as fast as Arada has, but buyers evaluating newer Dubai launches — including W Residences — should weigh the company’s relatively short Dubai track record (its first Dubai project dates only to late 2022) against its much longer and more proven Sharjah delivery history.

ARADA LISTINGS ON BELOWMARKETDEALS.AE

The listings on this site include secondary market positions in Arada developments sourced from sellers exiting before handover or within early post-handover windows — verified below-cost entries into branded waterfront and master-community product without the launch-day premium.