Ellington Properties in Dubai

Ellington is the design led developer on this site, and the one I recommend most often to buyers who care what the building will feel like to live in. Cofounded in Dubai in 2014 by Elie Naaman, Joseph Thomas and Robert Booth, the last of whom had previously run Emaar Properties in Dubai, it has built a reputation on interiors and finish rather than on volume.

Be aware of what it does not publish. Ellington is private with no listed debt, so there is no revenue figure, no profit figure and no cumulative units delivered total anywhere in the public record. Any site quoting you one has made it up. What can be verified is its project record and its awards, and both are strong.

Ellington Properties at a glance

Track record

The clearest evidence on Ellington is its awards record, because it is independently judged rather than self reported. At the 2024 International Property Awards it won in every one of the seven categories it entered, including Bathroom and Kitchen Design for Ellington Beach House and Berkeley Place, Mixed Use Development for Mercer House, and Residential High Rise Development for One River Point. For a developer whose entire pitch is design, that is the right kind of proof.

On commercial momentum, Ellington launched fourteen projects during 2024 and reported all of them sold out. It delivered Berkeley Place in Mohammed Bin Rashid City in January 2025. Its 2026 run has been busy: The Meriva Collection on Dubai Islands in February, five residential buildings plus a signature beachfront residence and a hotel; Everly Place at Meydan Horizon in June, 209 homes overlooking the crystal lagoon; and in October Berkeley Tower in Business Bay, its largest and tallest project to date at above sixty floors and AED 2.8 billion.

Two things it is not, despite what you will read elsewhere. Ellington is not a master developer of any community, and it has no branded residence partnerships. Its collaborations are development and design arrangements, such as the one with SOL Properties and Northacre on Ellington Ocean House, not brand licences.

Best known for

Delivery and handover

Handover at Ellington House II in Dubai Hills Estate and Arbor View in Arjan began in May 2026, the latter being its first completed project in Arjan. Ellington House III and IV are progressing behind them. Berkeley Place was delivered in January 2025.

Ellington does not publish unit counts with its handover announcements and does not publish a cumulative delivery total, so the record has to be read project by project. I found no delays, disputes, cancellations or regulatory actions on public record. On the contractor side it has awarded AED 305 million of work to Aroma International and a USD 272 million contract on Mercer House, which is the kind of commitment that tends to precede delivery rather than follow it.

One practical note. The published handover date for Ellington Ocean House on Palm Jumeirah is inconsistent across listing portals. If that building is the one you are interested in, I will confirm the date directly with Ellington rather than quote you a portal.

Where Ellington builds

Around twenty communities, and the spread is wider than most people expect: Dubai Islands, Dubai Hills Estate, Palm Jumeirah, Jumeirah Village Circle and Triangle, Business Bay, Downtown, Mohammed Bin Rashid City, Meydan Horizon, Nad Al Sheba, Jumeirah Islands, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Al Jaddaf, Arjan, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubailand, Dubai South, Mina Rashid, Emirates Hills, La Mer, and Ras Al Khaimah.

Because it is not a master developer, Ellington buys plots inside other people’s communities and builds the best building on the street. That is worth understanding when you buy: the quality of your apartment is Ellington’s, and the quality of the district around it belongs to whoever master planned it, usually EmaarAldar, Nakheel or Meydan.

Area guides: Jumeirah Village Circle, Dubai Hills Estate and Business Bay.

Payment plans and what you pay up front

Ellington runs 20/50/30 as standard and does so consistently, on Ellington Ocean House and Ellington Sands as well as on Everly Place, which I list. Twenty per cent on booking, fifty across construction, thirty on handover. Meriva Gardens, the other Ellington scheme here, is an exception at 70/30.

Alongside the standard plan it has run time limited sales initiatives, including a 2026 offer of guaranteed rental returns over a fixed term. Those come and go with the release, so treat any such offer as something to check rather than assume, and read what is guaranteed and by whom before you value it.

The Dubai Land Department registration fee is 4 per cent of the purchase price. On off plan it is normally paid when the sale is registered on the Oqood system, so budget for it alongside the booking deposit rather than at handover.

What it costs to run

Four things cost you money every year once the keys are handed over. The service charge, set per building and billed per square foot. District cooling, which in some towers is billed separately and in others sits inside the service charge. DEWA for water and electricity, plus a refundable deposit when you open the account. And if you let it, a management fee, usually 5 to 8 per cent of the rent on a long let and 15 to 25 per cent on a holiday let.

Ellington buildings tend to carry a lot of amenity for their size, which is part of what you are buying and does show up in the service charge. There are no published Ellington figures at all, so this is one where the per building lookup genuinely matters.

Service charges are the number most buyers never check and then complain about. Every community has a figure approved by RERA and published on the Dubai Land Department service charge index, which you can look up per building in the Dubai REST app. It is a per building lookup, not a developer average, and the whole developer ranges you see quoted online are not sourced from anywhere. I will pull the approved figure for any building you are serious about before you commit, because on a high amenity tower it is the difference between a gross yield that works and one that does not.

My view on Ellington

Who Ellington suits

It suits a buyer who will eventually use the property themselves, or who is letting to the upper end of the tenant market where finish quality decides between two otherwise similar apartments. It also suits anyone who has been disappointed by a Dubai handover before, because interiors are the thing Ellington is actually known for.

It suits you less if you are optimising purely for gross yield at the lowest entry price, or if you need to see audited numbers before committing capital. For the first, Binghatti or IMAN. For the second, Emaar.

How Ellington compares

Against Emaar you are buying a better finished building inside an Emaar community, usually at a similar price, and giving up the government backing and the published accounts. Against Binghatti you are paying more per bedroom for a materially better specification and a quieter architectural style. Against DAMAC you are choosing design over scale, and apartments over villa communities.

Ellington Properties: common questions

Figures as published by the developer, judged awards and the press, checked in October 2026. Ellington publishes no financial accounts, so no revenue, profit or delivery total appears on this page.