Isolana Residences
From AED 1,698,640 · 50/50 plan
Developers / Hayaat Developments
Developer profile · Dubai · residential
Hayaat Developments: a 25-year record abroad, and a first Dubai tower with three completion dates
A developer that built student villages, heritage conversions and oil-and-gas compounds in Britain and Mozambique before opening in Dubai. Its first residential tower, Isolana Residences, is well designed, competitively priced at AED 2,073 to 2,500 per square foot and fully documented on price and payment plan — but its own brochure, its own website and the listing portal give three different dates for when it will be finished.
TypeDeveloper · Dubai
Founded2001, as Hayaat Group
LeadershipMohammed Ikhlaq, founder & chairman
Record25+ years · 4 continents
DeliveredAED 4bn+ GDV (own figure)
Under way2 Dubai projects
On the portal1 project, no developer page
Weak pointThree completion dates for one building
About Hayaat Developments
Hayaat Developments is a Dubai developer with an unusual shape: two and a half decades of building behind it, almost none of it in Dubai. The company began in 2001 as the investment arm of Projenco, moved into development in the UK from 2002, and spent the following twenty years on student housing, urban regeneration, heritage conversions and corporate compounds in Britain and Mozambique. It opened in Dubai with Oasi Villa, a 40,000 sq ft house on Fountain Drive in Al Barari, and is now building its first residential tower, Isolana Residences, on Dubai Islands.
The track record is itemised, which is rarer than it should be. The company publishes eleven projects with dates rather than an adjective: The Green, a 1,000-bed student village for the University of Bradford delivered in about 18 months between 2008 and 2013, which it says won more than 20 awards and the highest BREEAM rating in the world at the time; Campus House, a 300-year-old mill converted to student housing and sold to a sovereign-affiliated Gulf fund; Chelford Block, 22 apartments that took the district’s Best Build in Quality award in 2005; Compass Point (52 apartments), Delta Point (70 apartments, sold with planning) and Newall Green Farm, a Grade II listed farmhouse converted to a 39-bed facility. In Mozambique it built serviced corporate compounds in Pemba and Tete for oil and gas clients including Halliburton and Anadarko. Its most recent completed job, a three-bedroom apartment at North Gate on Prince Albert Road in London, was sold in 2024 at twice its acquisition cost.
What that record does and does not tell you. It is a real record of delivery — schemes finished, occupied and exited, in regulated markets, with awards attached — and it is more than most Dubai launches can show. But the scale is modest: 22 flats here, 52 there, 39 beds there, one very large student village. Isolana is 71 homes, which fits that pattern, and it is the company’s first building in a market where the delivery risk sits less in construction than in the permitting, escrow and handover machinery. Ask who on the team has taken a Dubai building through handover before.
Isolana is the project to judge them on. 71 homes on Island A at Dubai Islands — 39 one-bedrooms, 22 two-bedrooms, six three-bedrooms and four penthouses — designed by Tony Ashai around the “dancing balconies” idea, with a six-metre lobby, an amenity floor carrying an infinity pool, padel court, sauna, gym and crèche, and interiors specified well beyond the usual for the price. Prices run from AED 1,698,640 for a one-bedroom to AED 5,617,950 for the smallest penthouse, which works out at AED 2,073 to 2,500 per square foot at entry. The payment plan, unusually, is fully published: 50/50, with five 10% instalments in the first year.
The documentation is where the company is weakest. The same building carries three different completion dates: Q2 2027 on the project page, Q1 2027 on the factsheet and payment-plan PDF in the current download pack, and Q3 2027 on the listing portal. The project page reports 11% built, with substructure 72% and nothing above ground. The portal’s payment calculator defaults to 40/60 while the developer publishes 50/50. No service charge estimate is published, floor areas come only as ranges wide enough to change the unit you are buying, and the 38-page brochure still carries placeholder Latin text on its location spread. None of that is fatal; all of it is the sort of thing that should be fixed before a buyer signs.
On the portal, the project exists and the company does not. Isolana has a portal record — three units, a three-bedroom of 2,258 sq ft from AED 4,788,000, handover Q3 2027 — but there is no Hayaat developer page, so there is no independent portfolio to weigh it against. The developer’s own figures — AED 4 billion of gross development value delivered across four continents, 20+ international awards — are self-reported. The project list behind them is unusually specific, which is why we give them more credit than the numbers alone would earn.
The honest read. A serious builder with a documented record, entering Dubai with a well-designed, well-priced first tower on a plot that is better than most on the island. The risk is not competence; it is that a first building in a new market rarely lands on its first programme, and this one has published three different dates for itself. Buy the contract with the date and the delay clause in it, confirm the service charge and the delivery team, and treat the price per foot — currently competitive with anything comparable on Dubai Islands — as the reason to do that work rather than a reason to skip it.
Hayaat Developments projects on this site
One, so far: Isolana Residences on Dubai Islands. The company’s other current Dubai project, Oasi Villa in Al Barari, publishes no price, layout, completion date or availability, so there is nothing to review.
Isolana Residences is 71 homes on Island A at Dubai Islands: 39 one-bedrooms, 22 two-bedrooms, six three-bedrooms and four penthouses, from AED 1,698,640, on a 50/50 plan, with the developer reporting 11% built. It is on the Dubai Islands community page. Villa Oasi in Al Barari is the company’s other current project; it has no page here yet because nothing about it can be verified beyond its existence and size.
What distinguishes Hayaat Developments
An itemised record, not a slogan
Eleven projects with names, places and years, from a 1,000-bed university village in Bradford to compounds in Mozambique and an apartment in London sold at twice cost. Most developers of this size publish none of that.
A first tower, deliberately ambitious
For a debut residential building the specification is high: a named architect, custom balcony geometry, a six-metre lobby with a sky-well, and an amenity floor with an infinity pool, padel court and sauna for 71 flats.
Priced at the accessible end of the island
AED 2,073 to 2,500 per square foot at entry, on an island where waterfront schemes ask considerably more. You are buying the inland plot and the specification, not the sea view.
A published payment plan
50/50 with five 10% instalments is on the developer’s own payment-plan PDF, complete with the 4% DLD line. That is more than many Dubai launches publish before you ask.
New to this market
The Dubai office is recent; the delivery record is British and African. The construction, consultant and handover team is the question, not the intention.
Documentation that contradicts itself
Three completion dates for one building, a portal calculator that disagrees with the published plan, no service charge figure and a brochure with placeholder text left in. Small errors, but they are the buyer’s work to fix.
Buying a Hayaat Developments home: what to check
A developer in a new market, with a well-specified first building and a schedule that has moved on paper. These are the items to have in writing before you reserve.
The completion date in the sale and purchase agreement, with a delay clause and a remedy.
The contractor’s programme to Q2 2027 and the consultant’s latest progress certificate.
Who on the Dubai team has delivered and handed over a building in this market.
The project escrow account and its Dubai Land Department registration.
The DLD permit and the licensed unit mix, against the marketed 39/22/6/4 split.
The service charge estimate per square foot, and what it assumes about occupancy.
What ‘semi-furnished’ includes, itemised, with a replacement value.
The net and gross area of the specific unit, against the published range.
The master developer’s published delivery timeline for Island A’s parks, mall and marina.
The 4% DLD fee plus the administration fee, quantified before you reserve.
Whether your budget clears AED 2 million if a golden visa is part of the plan.
For Villa Oasi: whether the villa is complete, titled and available, since none of that is published.
Hayaat Developments frequently asked questions
Who is Hayaat Developments?
A Dubai-based developer founded in 2001 as the investment arm of Projenco, which spent more than two decades building in the UK and Mozambique before entering Dubai. Its Dubai projects are Isolana Residences on Dubai Islands and Oasi Villa in Al Barari. The chairman is Mohammed Ikhlaq; Afzaal Hussain is chief executive and Shahzaib Elahi executive director.
Is Hayaat a new developer?
New to Dubai, not new to building. The company publishes eleven completed projects between 2003 and 2024, including a 1,000-bed student village at the University of Bradford and corporate housing in Mozambique. Isolana is its first residential tower in this market.
What is Hayaat building in Dubai?
Two things. Isolana Residences, a 71-home tower on Island A at Dubai Islands, and Oasi Villa, a 40,000 sq ft house on Fountain Drive in Al Barari launched in 2022. The company says more projects are coming.
Is Villa Oasi on this site or on the portal?
Not on this site yet, and it does not appear on the listing portal either. Hayaat’s own about page confirms it as a current project. We have not published a page for it because there is no price, layout, completion date or availability published anywhere we can verify.
How much does an Isolana home cost?
From AED 1,698,640 for a one-bedroom, AED 2,594,025 for a two-bedroom, AED 4,790,745 for a three-bedroom and AED 5,617,950 for the smallest penthouse. The portal quotes from AED 4,788,000, which is the cheapest of the three three-bedroom units it lists rather than the building’s entry price.
When is Isolana finished?
The developer’s project page says Q2 2027, its factsheet and payment-plan PDF say Q1 2027, and the portal says Q3 2027. The building is 11% complete with substructure 72% done. Only the contract date matters.
Is Hayaat Developments on the listing portal?
Its project is: Isolana has a portal record with three units listed. The company has no developer page on the portal, so there is no independent portfolio or project count to compare against its own claims.
Is Hayaat a good developer to buy from?
The record is real and unusually well documented, and the first Dubai building is well designed and competitively priced. The caution is that it is a debut tower in a new market with three published completion dates and no service charge estimate. Those are answerable questions, and the answers belong in the contract.
How do I buy through you?
Tell us the project and budget. We will get a dated price list and unit schedule with square footage, the payment plan and the contract completion date, confirm the contractor, the escrow and the DLD registration, and give you our honest read – including the case against.
Considering an Isolana Residences home?
Tell us the unit type and budget. We will get a dated price list and a unit schedule with square footage, the payment plan and the contract completion date, confirm the contractor, the escrow and the DLD registration, and give you our honest read — including the case against.
Sources and verification. The company history, the eleven completed projects, the leadership, the “AED 4 billion of gross development value delivered” and “20+ international awards” figures and the Villa Oasi reference come from Hayaat Developments’ own website. Unit counts, area ranges, starting prices, the 50/50 payment plan, the 4% DLD line, the construction percentages and the location and amenity claims come from its Isolana project page, factsheet, payment plan and brochure. The three listed units, the AED 4,788,000 three-bedroom, the 40/60 calculator default and the Q3 2027 handover come from the listing portal’s project record. Committed to publication: the developer publishes three different completion dates for Isolana — Q2 2027 on its project page, Q1 2027 on its factsheet and payment-plan PDF, Q3 2027 on the portal; the portal’s payment calculator defaults to 40/60 while the developer’s published plan is 50/50; no service charge estimate is published; floor areas are published only as ranges; the brochure’s location spread carries placeholder text; there is no developer page on the portal, so the portfolio figures are self-reported; and Villa Oasi has no published price, layout, completion date or availability. Nothing on this page is a valuation or a promise of return.