The Roof Residence

About The Roof Residence

The Roof Residence is a single building of 68 apartments on Al Ain Road (E66) in Nad Al Sheba 1, on the Meydan side of the city. The developer describes it as the first residential and commercial building in Nad Al Sheba First — the podium carries retail and a café, the six residential floors above hold one and two-bedroom apartments of 854 to 1,973 sq ft, and the roof carries the pool and the terrace that give the building its name.

What you actually get. The apartments are described as having private balconies, large windows and — on selected units — a maid’s room. The portal’s three recorded layouts are a 854 sq ft one-bedroom with two bathrooms, a 1,274 sq ft two-bedroom, and a 1,341 sq ft two-bedroom with a maid’s room. The interiors are marketed heavily — velvet, gilded accents, crystal lighting, marble — which tells you the buyer being pitched is someone who wants a finished, furnished-feeling home rather than a blank shell. Ask precisely what is included: furniture, appliances, or neither.

The view is the sales argument. From the roof and the upper floors you look back across Nad Al Sheba towards the Burj Khalifa and the Downtown skyline — a rare thing at this price in Dubai, and the reason a nine-storey building in a low-rise district can charge Downtown-adjacent money per square foot. It is also the thing to verify in person, because the skyline appears in the developer’s renders at a scale that depends entirely on which floor you buy.

Where it is. Nad Al Sheba 1 sits between Meydan and Al Ain Road, which is the trade-off in one sentence: five minutes to Meydan Racecourse and Meydan Golf, twelve to Dubai Mall, thirteen to Downtown, nineteen to Palm Jumeirah and twenty to the airport, according to the developer. What it is not is a walkable neighbourhood in the Marina or Business Bay sense — this is a low-rise, car-first district of villas, stables and sports facilities, with supermarkets and schools nearby but very little on foot.

What to weigh. First, the price against what has actually sold. Older registered sales in this building, as reported by third-party transaction trackers, sit at AED 1.75–1.97 million for two-bedrooms of 1,275–1,366 sq ft — roughly AED 1,410–1,440 per square foot. The portal’s current asks are AED 2,160–2,200 per square foot. Those records look like launch-price contracts rather than today’s market, but the size of the gap is the negotiation, and it is the first thing to put on the table.

Second, the developer. Soboh Real Estate Development is a small company with one project, an office in Al Garhoud and a corporate website that was under maintenance when we checked; the building is marketed and managed by The Roof Properties, a separate company founded in 2020. That is not disqualifying — plenty of good small buildings are built this way — but it means there is no second delivery, no service-charge history and no track record of snagging lists being closed out. Ask for the building’s completion certificate and its first service-charge budget.

Third, the title. Nad Al Sheba is not a uniformly freehold district, and the ownership structure of an individual building is not something to assume. Before paying a reservation fee, ask for the project’s Dubai Land Department registration, the title type, and confirmation that a foreign buyer can register the apartment in their own name.

Fourth, the cost of the amenities. A pool, a gym, a cinema, a landscaped garden, a café and 24-hour security, shared among 68 apartments, is an expensive list per unit. Fourteen households per floor paying for all of it is a very different service charge from a 300-unit tower’s; get the estimate per square foot in writing, and check what the commercial units contribute.

Compiled November 2026 from the developer’s project site (the building’s position in Nad Al Sheba First, the residential-and-commercial mix, The Roof Properties as manager, the company’s office and the 2020 founding), the listing portal’s record (unit types and sizes, the three price points, the amenity list, the drive times, the Q4 2025 handover and the 20% / 5% × 6 / post-handover payment structure), the developer’s own listing text for the building configuration, and third-party transaction and construction data, which is identified as such where used.

Homes, sizes and price

Three layouts are on record, all with private balconies. The price per square foot is unusually consistent across them — which makes the building easy to read.

Those are portal-listed asking prices on an old record. Whether they are still the asking prices is the first question to ask, because the file has not been updated since early 2025 and the completion date it carries has passed.

The comparison that matters: third-party trackers report registered sales in this building at AED 1.75–1.97 million for two-bedrooms of 1,275–1,366 sq ft — about AED 1,410–1,440 per square foot. If those are launch contracts, the ask has risen by roughly half since launch in a building that is only now reaching completion; if they are recent, the ask is 50% above the market. Either way, that gap is where the conversation starts, and the answer lies in the transaction dates, which you can ask to see.

At AED 2,200 per square foot in Nad Al Sheba you are paying more than most of the low-rise stock around you and close to some Business Bay buildings. The rooftop Burj Khalifa view is the justification. Test it: stand on the floor you are being sold and look.

Price and payment plan

The portal describes the plan in words rather than a schedule: 20% on booking, six instalments of 5%, and a final payment due twelve months after handover. That is 50% before you get the keys and 50% a year later — effectively a 50/50 plan with a deferred half, which is generous for a building at completion stage and worth more than a discount if you plan to let the apartment.

One agent quotes a 70/30 post-handover structure instead, which is a different deal; the developer has not published a formal plan, so ask for the schedule and the dates attached to it before you compare anything. The 4% Dubai Land Department fee is on top.

Because the record says the building should already be complete, the practical question is not the construction schedule but the handover accounts: what has been paid, what is still owed, and on what date the deferred half falls due if you buy now. If the building is finished, a deferred payment tied to a date rather than a milestone is simply a payment schedule — and a 50% balance in a year is a real commitment.

Amenities

The list is short and sensible for a building this size: a swimming pool and sun terrace on the roof, a gymnasium, a cinema, a landscaped garden, a children’s play area, BBQ facilities, a restaurant or café at podium level and 24-hour security with surveillance.

The rooftop pool with the skyline behind it is the amenity that sells the building, and the cinema is unusual at this price point. The café and the retail units are also an amenity of sorts: they make the ground floor active, which matters in a district where very little is within walking distance.

The honest caveat is arithmetic. Eight facilities shared by 68 households means each one is expensive per owner: a pool, a gym, a cinema and a garden do not scale down just because the building is small. Ask for the service-charge budget per square foot, what the commercial units contribute, and whether the café lease subsidises anything — then compare it with a larger tower where the same amenities are spread across 300 apartments.

Where it is

Nad Al Sheba 1 is the low-rise district between Meydan and Al Ain Road (E66), west of Downtown Dubai. The developer’s own drive times: Meydan Racecourse 5 minutes, Dubai Mall 12, Downtown 13, Palm Jumeirah 19, Dubai International Airport 20 minutes.

In practice this is a car address with excellent road access: Al Ain Road puts you on the E66 towards the airport or the desert in one turn, and the Meydan bridge takes you into Downtown without crossing the city. What surrounds it is villas, stables, the Meydan golf course and the Nad Al Sheba Cycle Park — a genuinely good facility if you ride — plus supermarkets, schools and Nad Al Sheba Mall within a short drive.

What it is not: a beach address, a walkable café district, or a place where you will rent to tourists. The tenant here is a Dubai family or professional who values space, parking and a fifteen-minute commute over a marina view. Price the rent accordingly and check what comparable buildings in Nad Al Sheba actually achieve rather than what Business Bay does.

One thing to confirm locally: the building is described as sitting within Nad Al Sheba Gardens, which is a separate masterplan, and the plot’s relationship to that community — access roads, landscaping, shared facilities — is worth understanding before you assume the surrounding greenery is yours. For the wider area, see our Nad Al Sheba community guide.

At a glance

• A single nine-level building: ground, two podium, six residential floors and a roof terrace.
• 68 apartments of one and two bedrooms, from 854 to 1,973 sq ft; selected units with a maid’s room.
• Portal-listed at AED 1,900,000 for a 854 sq ft one-bedroom — about AED 2,225 per square foot.
• Rooftop pool with a Burj Khalifa and Downtown skyline view.
• Gym, cinema, landscaped garden, kids’ play area, BBQ, café and 24-hour security.
• 50% on booking and during construction, 50% twelve months after handover.
• Completion was scheduled for Q4 2025 on the portal record — confirm the current status.
• Five minutes from Meydan, thirteen from Downtown, twenty from the airport.
• A small developer with one building; marketed and managed by The Roof Properties.

What we verify before you reserve

• Whether the building is complete, and if so the completion certificate and handover date.
• The Dubai Land Department registration and the title type — can a foreign buyer register here?
• The sale and purchase agreement of the unit you are offered, and its statement of account.
• The payment plan in writing, with dates, and whether a deferred balance is still outstanding.
• The service-charge budget per square foot, and what the commercial units pay.
• What is included in the price: furniture, appliances, kitchen, balcony.
• The floor, orientation and the skyline view from the actual apartment, not the render.
• Registered sale prices and dates in this building, to test the asking price.
• The parking allocation — podium parking in a 68-unit building should be one space per apartment at least.
• The snagging process and who is responsible for defects after handover.