Buy a home on Yas Island and you will pay less than the Abu Dhabi average. You will also pay more than it. Both come out of the same twelve months of registered sales, and the whole of the difference is 473 square feet.
That is the useful thing about this island. It is not a cheap one or an expensive one. It sells a different shape of home from the rest of the emirate, and almost every number below follows from that.
Key takeaways
- Yas Island recorded 4,779 registered sales in the last twelve months, 17% of everything sold in Abu Dhabi and second only to Al Reem Island.
- The median home went for just under AED 2 million, about 18% below the Abu Dhabi median, at AED 2,197 per square foot, about 26% above it.
- Studios changed hands at AED 2,720 per square foot, roughly 83% more per foot than four-bedroom homes on the same island.
- The bay-front launches sold around AED 1,809 per square foot, about 23% under the island's other off-plan stock.
One in six Abu Dhabi homes now sells on this island
Yas Island took 4,779 of the 27,671 sales registered across Abu Dhabi in the last twelve months. That is 17%, and it ranks second of the emirate's 80 districts, behind Al Reem Island on 8,110.
One point of housekeeping, because it changes how you read the rest. Yas Bay is a waterfront district on the island's southern edge, not a separate registry area. Sales are recorded at island level, so every figure here covers Yas Island as a whole, with the bay-front stock pulled out separately where it behaves differently.
Freehold ownership is open to buyers of any nationality here, because the island is one of Abu Dhabi's designated investment zones, a status set out on the UAE government portal. The title, the escrow account your payments sit in and the registration itself all run through the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre, the emirate's property regulator.
Cheaper homes, dearer square feet
The median Yas Island sale was AED 1,988,600, against AED 2,430,536 across Abu Dhabi. That is 18% below the emirate.
The median price per square foot was AED 2,197, against AED 1,747 across Abu Dhabi. That is 26% above the emirate.
A place cannot be 18% cheaper and 26% dearer unless something else is moving, and here it is floor area. The median Yas unit measured 882 square feet against 1,355 for Abu Dhabi as a whole, which is 35% less room. Subtract one from the other and you get the 473 square feet the opening sentence was about.
So the island is the affordable option and the premium option at the same time, and the reconciliation is a spare bedroom you do not get.
Rank it before calling it expensive, though. At AED 2,197 per square foot Yas is the fourth dearest district in the emirate among those with at least 150 sales, behind Fahid Island at AED 3,756, Ramhan Island at AED 3,746 and Saadiyat Island at AED 3,217. Premium, comfortably. Top of the market, no.
| Layout | Sales, 12 months | Median price | Median floor area | Median per sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | 1,018 | AED 1,094,602 | 473 sq ft | AED 2,720 |
| 1 bed | 1,749 | AED 1,772,449 | 811 sq ft | AED 2,217 |
| 2 beds | 1,358 | AED 3,000,000 | 1,308 sq ft | AED 2,211 |
| 3 beds | 405 | AED 3,569,209 | 2,011 sq ft | AED 1,761 |
| 4 beds | 184 | AED 4,349,200 | 3,312 sq ft | AED 1,490 |
| 5 beds | 52 | AED 5,316,517 | 3,187 sq ft | AED 1,436 |
The smallest units carry the biggest premium
Studios sold at AED 2,720 per square foot, one-bedroom apartments at AED 2,217, two-bedroom at AED 2,211, three-bedroom at AED 1,761, four-bedroom at AED 1,490 and five-bedroom at AED 1,436.
A studio therefore costs about 83% more per foot than a four-bedroom home in the same postcode. The reason is not mysterious. A kitchen and a bathroom cost what they cost whether or not a second bedroom is attached, so the smaller the box, the larger the share of it that is plumbing.
Studios are also the busiest thing on the island after one-bedroom apartments, 1,018 sales in twelve months at a median of AED 1,094,602. The industry calls them entry level. Entry level!
Which raises the question the brochure will not answer: if a studio costs the most per foot, does the rent make it back?
The bay front is the cheaper way onto the island
The bay-front projects accounted for 890 sales, about 19% of the island's twelve-month total, at a median of AED 1,378,127 and AED 1,809 per square foot. The rest of the island ran AED 2,289.
That gap survives a like-for-like check, which is the part that matters. Bay-front studios sold at AED 1,938 per square foot against AED 2,921 elsewhere on the island, a 34% difference. One-bedroom apartments were 22% cheaper, two-bedroom 25% cheaper, three-bedroom level. Comparing off-plan against off-plan only, the bay front still came in 23% below.
Smaller units normally cost more per foot, and at 809 square feet these are slightly smaller than the island median. They are cheaper anyway, so the discount is real rather than a trick of the mix.
What you are buying for that discount is time. All 890 of those sales were off-plan, so the stock sits earlier in construction than the island's finished blocks, with the money held in a regulated escrow account while you wait. That is the trade: a lower rate per foot against a longer wait and the ordinary risks of buying something unbuilt. Current launches and payment structures sit on our new projects page.
New, finished, or from an owner
Off-plan is 88% of what sells here, above Abu Dhabi's 81%.
Off-plan stock went at AED 2,237 per square foot against AED 1,847 for finished homes, a premium of about 21% for buying early. Useful context from the other emirate: the same premium across Dubai runs about 28%, so paying up for off-plan costs less here than it does there.
The more interesting number is resale. 1,541 of the island's 4,779 sales, or 32%, were homes sold on by an owner rather than by a developer, against 25% across Abu Dhabi and 23% across Dubai. That works out to 48 resales for every 100 new sales, which for an island still full of cranes is a genuinely liquid secondary market.
Those resales went at AED 1,854 per square foot against AED 2,359 from a developer, about 21% less. Some of that is older stock, some of it is that a private seller is not running a sales gallery. Either way, the building that already exists is the cheaper one per foot, the reverse of what launch pricing implies. If you are weighing the two routes, our guide to buying off-plan covers the mechanics.
What the rent actually covers
Gross yields on finished Yas Island stock, taking median annual rent against median finished sale price for the same layout: studios 6.2%, one-bedroom 5.6%, two-bedroom 5.0%, three-bedroom 4.8%.
So yes, the studio earns its premium back. It costs the most per square foot and it returns the most per dirham, and the ladder runs in a straight line from there.
Two caveats. These are gross figures, before service charges, vacancy and management, and they cover finished homes only, because an off-plan price divided by a current rent is not a yield, it is two unrelated numbers. Samples are modest, from 82 finished studio sales to 172 two-bedroom.
Working out what any of that leaves after costs is a calculation with half a dozen inputs that go stale the moment a service charge changes, which is the sort of thing people build once in a spreadsheet and never touch again. Our ROI tools hold those inputs with UAE defaults already filled in.
Where prices have gone
The median rate per square foot has gone from AED 1,652 in the final quarter of 2024 to AED 2,246 by the second quarter of 2026, with the sharpest single move in the first quarter of this year. Year on year the island is up 29.7%, on 19% more sales.
A rise that size is usually worth treating as suspect, because a wave of new launches can lift a district's median without any existing home repricing at all. This one holds up under every cut we ran: apartments alone up 28.1%, off-plan alone up 29.5%, finished homes alone up 26.3%, one-bedroom apartments alone up 29.1%. When four independent slices agree to within two points, it is the market moving rather than the mix.
The second quarter of 2026 came in slightly below the first, which reads as consolidation after a steep run. Volumes stayed high through it.
Off-plan property carries construction and delivery risk, and figures from past registered sales describe what has happened, not what will. This is information, not financial advice.
FAQ
Where is Yas Bay in Abu Dhabi?
Yas Bay is a waterfront district on the southern edge of Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, alongside the island's leisure and entertainment strip. Property sales there are recorded by the registry at Yas Island level rather than as a separate district, so market figures for Yas Bay are normally reported island-wide.
How much does an apartment on Yas Island cost?
The median registered sale over the last twelve months was AED 1,988,600. By layout, studios ran a median of AED 1,094,602, one-bedroom apartments AED 1,772,449, two-bedroom AED 3,000,000 and three-bedroom AED 3,569,209. The cheapest tenth of studio sales started around AED 712,000.
Can foreigners buy property in Yas Bay?
Yes. Yas Island is one of Abu Dhabi's designated investment zones, where buyers of any nationality can own freehold title. Registration and the escrow account holding your payments are handled through the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre, and title details are published on the emirate's official property platform.
What is the rental yield on Yas Island?
Gross yields on finished stock run from about 6.2% for studios to 4.8% for three-bedroom homes, with one-bedroom at 5.6% and two-bedroom at 5.0%. These are gross figures before service charges, vacancy and management, computed from median annual rents against median finished sale prices.
Is off-plan cheaper than finished property on Yas Island?
No, it is dearer per square foot. Off-plan sold at a median AED 2,237 per square foot against AED 1,847 for finished homes, a premium of about 21% for buying before completion. The equivalent premium across Dubai runs about 28%.
Is there a resale market on Yas Island?
A substantial one. About 32% of the island's sales in the last twelve months were resales from private owners rather than developers, roughly 48 resales for every 100 new sales. Those resales priced about 21% below developer stock on a per-square-foot basis.
References
Figures in this article are computed from official UAE property transaction records (DLD, ADREC) via Prop971 market analytics, including transactions up to 13 September 2026.
