Drive almost anywhere in Abu Dhabi and you are moving through something this company built. The
infrastructure on Yas Island. The waterfront at Al Raha Beach. The towers on Reem Island. The circular
building on the coast road that half the country uses as a landmark without knowing its name.
Aldar Properties is not the oldest developer in the Gulf, nor the loudest. It is,
however, the one whose corporate history most closely tracks the physical growth of the UAE capital —
and a company whose structure is routinely misdescribed, including by people who live in the buildings.
How it began
The founding story usually told is a date in January 2004. The company’s own regulated filings say
something more precise.
Aldar’s establishment was approved by Decision No. 16 of 2004 of the Abu Dhabi Department of Planning
and Economy, dated 12 October 2004. Its incorporation was then declared by Ministerial Resolution No. 59
of 2005, issued by the UAE Minister of Economy on 23 February 2005. It listed on the Abu Dhabi
Securities Exchange later that same year, with a mandate to undertake development projects primarily in
Abu Dhabi.
Two acquisitions then made it what it is. In June 2013 it merged with Sorouh Real Estate, taking on
net assets of AED 8.4 billion and booking a gain on acquisition of AED 2.6 billion — a combination that
removed its principal domestic rival. In 2018 it acquired a portfolio of assets and operating businesses
from the Tourism Development and Investment Company for AED 3,625 million, covering hospitality, retail,
residential, district cooling, education and infrastructure. In the company’s own words, that
transaction “facilitated the Issuer’s entry into Saadiyat Island” — which is the accurate answer to how
Aldar came to be building next to the Louvre.
Expansion beyond the UAE came later: a consortium of Aldar and ADQ acquired around 85.5% of Egypt’s
SODIC in December 2021, and Aldar bought the UK developer London Square in late 2023.
Who owns it
Here is the detail that gets flattened almost everywhere. Aldar is not a state-owned
company. It is a public joint stock company listed on ADX, with a government-linked anchor
shareholder.
The precise formulation in its January 2026 listing particulars is that the company “is 25.12 per
cent. owned by companies owned by Mubadala Investment Company PJSC, which is wholly owned by the
Government.” Not owned by Mubadala directly — owned by companies that Mubadala owns. That structure is
worth reproducing rather than simplifying, and the figure is worth date-stamping, because holdings move.
Our profiles of Mubadala and
of ADQ under L’IMAD
cover the sovereign side of that relationship, and our guide to
investing on ADX explains
the exchange the shares trade on.
Two companies inside one
Aldar describes itself as operating “around two core businesses: Aldar Development and Aldar
Investment.” The split is the single most useful thing to understand about it, because the two halves
make money in completely different ways.
Aldar Development runs three segments: property development and sales; project
management services, the group’s delivery arm; and international, which houses SODIC and London Square.
Alongside sales revenue it earns fee income for managing projects on behalf of the government — a
quietly important line, because it means Aldar gets paid to build things it will never own.
Aldar Investment runs four: investment properties across retail, residential,
commercial and industrial and logistics; Aldar Hospitality; Aldar Education, with 27 owned and managed
schools; and Aldar Estates, the property and facilities management business. This half earns rent and
recurring fees.
Aldar Investment held assets under management of AED 52 billion as at the first quarter of 2026, with
investment property occupancy of 97% over the first nine months of 2025.
What it has built
The company’s filings list, among its completed large-scale work, key infrastructure on Yas Island,
Al Raha Beach and Reem Island, the World Trade Centre mixed-use development, the Ferrari World theme
park, Yas Waterworld, Yas Marina and Yas Marina Circuit. A distinction worth preserving: those are
developments Aldar completed, not businesses it runs.
On Yas, its remaining land bank stood at 1.7 million square metres as at 30 September 2025, with The
Sustainable City launched in 2023 and Yas Riva in 2024. On Saadiyat, it had delivered 847 residential
units across three projects as at the end of 2024, with roughly 4,753 units across 15 projects under
development — an island it entered through the TDIC deal and now builds on at scale. Our guides to
Abu Dhabi real estate
on Saadiyat and Yas and to the
Saadiyat Cultural
District cover what is going up around those units.
Its commercial portfolio includes ADGM Towers, International Tower and Daman House in the Capital
Gate district, and the building most people picture when they picture Aldar. The filing describes it
plainly and without flourish: the “HQ Building, which is an iconic circular building on the Al Raha
Beach development and is primarily leased to Federal and Government departments.” The design
superlatives attached to it elsewhere do not appear in any source the company itself publishes.
The numbers, carefully
Aldar reports frequently and in detail, which makes it easy to quote figures that measure different
things. These are the ones with a date and a source attached.
| Measure | Figure | As at |
|---|---|---|
| Total assets | AED 102,058 million | 30 September 2025 |
| UAE land bank | 60.4 million square metres | 30 September 2025 |
| Share of total assets in the UAE | 92.1%, almost entirely Abu Dhabi | 30 September 2025 |
| Full-year net profit | AED 8.8 billion, up 36% | FY2025 |
| Group sales | AED 40.6 billion | FY2025 |
| Revenue | AED 8.7 billion, up 12% year on year | Q1 2026 |
| Net profit after tax | AED 2.3 billion, up 20% | Q1 2026 |
| Development revenue backlog | AED 72.1 billion | Q1 2026 |
| Project management services backlog | AED 91.6 billion | Q1 2026 |
Aldar’s own website cites a land bank of “c. 65 million sqm” against the filing’s 60.4 million — a
different basis and a different date, not a contradiction, but a reason to quote one and say which.
The most revealing figure in the Q1 2026 release is not a profit line. Of AED 5.9 billion in UAE
sales, 88% went to overseas and expatriate buyers. Abu Dhabi’s property market, long
characterised as the domestic, end-user counterweight to Dubai’s investor churn, is being bought by the
same global money — a shift our analysis of
Abu Dhabi
property outperforming Dubai traced from the other direction. What that means for people who
actually live there is covered in our guide to
renting under the 0% rent
cap.
Where it is going
Two commitments stand out. Aldar has partnered with the Department of Municipalities and Transport to
deliver 9,000 value housing units for rent in Abu Dhabi, part of a residential portfolio heading toward
20,000 rental units — a decisive move from selling homes to owning and letting them. And it has been
raising capital accordingly: a USD 1 billion public hybrid in January 2026, a second USD 1 billion
hybrid placed with Apollo in February, and an AED 5 billion sustainability-linked revolving credit
facility completed in April, leaving total available liquidity of AED 33.2 billion at the end of March.
The company is chaired by H.E. Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, with Talal Al Dhiyebi as group chief
executive. Its dividend for 2025 was AED 0.205 per share, up nearly 11%, for a total payout of AED 1.61
billion.
For a company that began as a government-sponsored vehicle to build a capital city, becoming a
landlord to 20,000 households is a more consequential change of identity than any tower it has put up.
Primary sources: Aldar Properties PJSC’s
Listing
Particulars dated 14 January 2026, approved by Euronext Dublin — the source for the incorporation
history, the Mubadala shareholding, the TDIC acquisition and the balance-sheet figures; Aldar’s
company
story; and its
Q1
FY2026 financial results. This article is general information, not investment advice.
