Mubadala backs One&Only residences in Abu Dhabi sovereign-capital play

Mubadala's Al Maryah Island bet shows sovereign wealth pivoting from infrastructure to ultra-luxury residential as a long-term yield strategy.

By Disrupts Editorial Team Thu, 15 October 2026 AI level 2 of 5

AI level 2 of 5: drafted by our AI editorial assistant from the company's announcement; fact-checked, edited and signed off by Mark Walker, Editorial Director. What the levels mean

Two modern glass skyscrapers with numerous balconies and palm trees below, captured during bright daylight with sunlight reflecting off the building on the right, and a distant cityscape visible on the horizon.

Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi's US$385 billion sovereign investor, has partnered with UAE property developer TARAF and Kerzner International to deliver a collection of One&Only Private Residences on Al Maryah Island. The deal, signed at LIVEX 2026, positions Mubadala not merely as a financial backer but as master developer of the island, underscoring a deliberate shift in sovereign capital strategy: from passive portfolio holdings toward active place-making as a long-duration return mechanism.

The 44-storey, 230-metre tower will deliver residences ranging from one-bedroom apartments through expansive duplexes to a penthouse, all connected directly to The Galleria retail and dining destination. Architecture draws on a warm terracotta and champagne-metal palette, and an elevated amenity deck is conceived as a landscape retreat rather than a conventional gym-and-pool floor. One&Only, Kerzner's ultra-luxury residential and resort brand with properties across Mauritius, the Maldives, South Africa, Greece and Dubai, brings its service and design standards to the project.

Sovereign capital enters the branded-residences race

The structural story here runs deeper than a single tower. Mubadala's active co-development role on Al Maryah Island reflects a pattern visible across Gulf sovereign wealth funds: converting long-held land and infrastructure assets into mixed-use, lifestyle-anchored destinations that generate recurring revenues and attract high-net-worth residents who bring further capital with them. Abu Dhabi is competing directly with Dubai's established branded-residences market, where Kerzner already operates Atlantis The Royal Resort and Residences on The Palm.

The branded-residences segment has been one of the fastest-growing subsectors in global luxury real estate over the past five years, with consultancy data consistently showing price premiums of 20 to 30 percent over unbranded equivalents in comparable locations. For a sovereign investor managing a six-continent portfolio, those premiums translate into both direct asset appreciation and an anchor effect that lifts surrounding commercial and retail valuations, a dynamic Mubadala has an explicit interest in given its stewardship role across Al Maryah Island.

Wellbeing and hospitality as capital-allocation signals

The inclusion of Kerzner's SIRO brand in its wider pipeline (Miami, Riyadh, Los Cabos, Tokyo) alongside One&Only is a signal worth reading carefully for cross-sector investors. Luxury hospitality groups are increasingly structuring their growth around wellness and longevity-adjacent amenity stacks, treating health infrastructure as a premium differentiator in the same way that fibre connectivity or concierge services once were. That convergence of real estate, hospitality and wellbeing is attracting a distinct class of capital, including family offices and ultra-high-net-worth buyers who evaluate residential acquisitions partly as lifestyle infrastructure.

For Gulf sovereign funds, the calculus is also geopolitical. Attracting wealthy international residents to Abu Dhabi strengthens the emirate's case as a global headquarters destination, reinforcing the broader Vision 2030-adjacent diversification narrative that frames economic planning across the GCC. Each premium residential address adds to the gravitational pull for talent, family offices and regional headquarters relocations that Abu Dhabi is actively competing to win against Singapore, London and, increasingly, Riyadh.

Ali Eid AlMheiri, Executive Director of Diversified Assets at Mubadala, described the partnership as "about bringing together the right partners and specialist expertise to create an increasingly diverse destination for Abu Dhabi."

The immediate next question for observers tracking this space is pricing and absorption: the ultra-luxury Abu Dhabi residential market remains smaller in absolute transaction volume than Dubai, and the degree to which One&Only's brand carries pricing power in a market still building its international profile will be a meaningful data point for other sovereign-backed developers watching the island's trajectory.