Living in Al Jurf and Ghantoot (2026): the coast between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, distances, daily life and buying

Living in Al Jurf and Ghantoot means living on the last stretch of Abu Dhabi's coast before Dubai: beachfront masterplans, a polo club and open desert, with both cities a highway drive away. This guide covers where the two places are, how far everything is, what daily life involves and what to check before you buy off-plan.

For every project on sale and today's prices, see our Al Jurf and Ghantoot pages. This guide is about living there.

Both are in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, on the Gulf coast at its north-eastern edge, beside the border with Dubai. They sit off Sheikh Zayed Road (E11), the highway that links the two cities.

Ghantoot is the closer of the two to Dubai. It is the area around the Ghantoot interchange and the Ghantoot Racing & Polo Club, right on the border. Al Jurf lies a short way west along the same coast, on what IMKAN calls the Sahel Al Emarat coast.

The practical point is that the emirate border and daily life do not line up. Your title deed, registration fees and residency rules are Abu Dhabi's, but Jebel Ali, Dubai South and Dubai Marina are closer by road than Abu Dhabi city.

By road, Ghantoot is about 42 km from Dubai Marina Mall and 87 km from Abu Dhabi's Corniche. Al Jurf is about 58 km from Dubai Marina Mall and also about 87 km from the Corniche.

Developer drive times assume an empty highway. Sheikh Zayed Road through Jebel Ali and Dubai Marina is busy at rush hour, so if you will commute into Dubai every day, drive the route at the hour you would travel before you buy.

For an Abu Dhabi commute, the distance is the issue. At almost 90 km to the Corniche, Al Jurf and Ghantoot suit people who work in the eastern Abu Dhabi suburbs, in Dubai's south and west, or from home, better than daily commuters to downtown Abu Dhabi.

Al Jurf is a coastal destination planned by IMKAN. Its masterplan covers several neighbourhoods and a waterfront town centre, set around a historic site and existing landscape that IMKAN says the development aims to protect.

• Naseem AlJurf and Kayan. Residential neighbourhoods within the masterplan.
• AlJurf Gardens. Described by IMKAN as a sanctuary of wellness and calm, mixing nature with heritage-inspired architecture.
• Jiwar Alqasr. The town centre and gathering place, with a planned wellness clinic and retreat, a boutique hotel and other amenities.
• Marsaljurf. Homes on the sea, along a pier and in a marina, with water canals.

The best-known new project is Jacob & Co. Beachfront Living by Ohana Development, a 457-residence branded development with handover scheduled for Q2 2028. It runs from 43 sqm apartments to beachfront mansions of 1,500 sqm, with villas, canal villas, penthouses and sky mansions in between.

Ohana lists a beach club about ten minutes away for residents, a residents' club, a pool with private beach access, a spa, a fitness centre, a kids' club, private marinas and a natural reserve nearby. The community is gated with 24-hour security.

BAYN is ORA Developers' beachfront community at Ghantoot. ORA announced it in April 2025 as a 4.8 million sqm masterplan with 1.2 km of Gulf beachfront, lagoons, a marina, a beach town and a business park.

ORA plans more than 55% of the land as open space, including one million sqm of public parks, a sports club of over 100,000 sqm, and about 9,000 homes from apartments to mansions. Outdoor gyms, padel courts, barbecue areas and playgrounds are part of the plan, with retail, leisure, wellness and schools listed among the amenities.

The first phase, launched on 24 April 2025, has 464 homes across two gated clusters, mostly three to five bedrooms, with handover set for 2028. Since then ORA has released Y Views at BAYN, a gated hillside cluster of five and six-bedroom villas between 6,854 and 15,794 sq ft built up, with the beach three and a half to six minutes' walk away.

Quiet, coastal and car-based. Both masterplans are being built, so for the next few years residents will live among construction, with shops, schools and clinics opening in stages.

Beach and outdoors. The draw is the coast: private beaches, marinas, lagoons and parks within the communities, and the Ghantoot Racing & Polo Club nearby. Ohana puts the polo club 15 minutes from Al Jurf.

Shopping and errands. There is no large mall in either place today. The nearest Abu Dhabi suburb, Al Samha, is about 27 to 28 km by road; on the Dubai side, Expo City Dubai is about 36 km from Ghantoot and Dubai Marina about 42 km.

Getting around. There is no metro or rail station serving either place, and Abu Dhabi has no metro network. Residents drive or take taxis. Check with Abu Dhabi's Integrated Transport Centre and Dubai's RTA for any intercity bus stop near your community before relying on one.

None inside either community yet. Families drive to private schools on the Abu Dhabi mainland, such as in Al Samha (about 27 to 28 km) and Khalifa City (about 62 to 63 km), or across the border to Jebel Ali and Dubai South.

Schools in Abu Dhabi are inspected by ADEK and schools in Dubai by KHDA, so a family here may compare ratings from two regulators. Look up each school's current rating, curriculum and fees on TAMM for Abu Dhabi, or on KHDA's site for Dubai, and ask about places for your child's year group.

BAYN lists schools among its planned amenities. Ask ORA which school is confirmed, who will run it and which year it opens, and compare that date with your handover.

For hospital care, residents drive. Al Rahba Hospital, on the Abu Dhabi side, is about 40 km by road from either place. Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi on Al Maryah Island is about 83 to 84 km.

On the Dubai side, look at the clinics and hospitals in Jebel Ali and Dubai South. Check which facilities your health insurance covers in each emirate, and drive the emergency route once before you move in.

IMKAN's plans for Al Jurf include a wellness clinic and retreat at Jiwar Alqasr. Treat it as a wellness destination rather than a substitute for a hospital.

Mostly large homes: villas, townhouses and mansions, with some apartments.

At Al Jurf. Jacob & Co. Beachfront Living offers one to three-bedroom apartments from 43 sqm, villas from 330 sqm, canal villas, penthouses from 586 sqm, sky mansions from 1,671 sqm and a 1,500 sqm beachfront mansion. It is a branded residence, which usually brings hotel-style services and a higher service charge.

At Ghantoot. BAYN's first phase is mostly three to five-bedroom villas and townhouses in gated clusters. The Y Views villas come in four designs, from the five-bedroom Sunray at 6,854 sq ft to the six-bedroom Seaward at 15,794 sq ft, on plots of up to 23,058 sq ft.

Compare homes on price per square foot rather than headline price, and ask which area the brochure quotes: internal, built-up or built-up plus terraces. For larger homes across the UAE, see villas, and for budgets, AED 5M to 10M and AED 10M to 20M.

The tables below list every project we track in each place, with today's starting price, payment plan and handover date. They update when we add or revise a project.

Al Jurf

Ghantoot

See the latest releases on new launches, and compare plans on our payment plans page.

Abu Dhabi's. Even though Dubai is closer by road, both places are in Abu Dhabi emirate, so the sale is regulated by the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC), not by Dubai's RERA or the Dubai Land Department.

Foreign buyers can own freehold inside Abu Dhabi's investment zones, and both communities are sold to all nationalities. Confirm on the registration that your plot is in an investment zone; a brochure name is not a legal boundary.

The standard Abu Dhabi process applies.

1. Check the project. Look it up on DARI, which shows registered projects, their escrow account and completion rate. Anyone selling to you must hold an ADREC licence.
2. Read the disclosure statement. The developer must give you a regulator-approved statement describing the unit, the project, the finishes and the estimated delivery date before you sign.
3. Sign the sale and purchase agreement. Check the handover date, payment schedule, unit size, delay terms and who pays the registration fee.
4. Register on the Interim Real Estate Register. An off-plan sale is not binding until it is registered. The fee is 2% of the price, split between buyer and seller unless the contract says otherwise, plus a TAMM electronic fee of AED 450. If the seller has not registered within 21 days, you can apply yourself.
5. Pay into escrow. Every instalment goes into the project's escrow account.
6. Take handover. Pay the balance, inspect the home, and the unit moves to the Real Estate Register with a title deed in your name. TAMM lists AED 900 plus AED 50 for the transfer.

A developer may charge an administration fee of no more than AED 5,000. Off-plan mortgages are capped at 50% of value under the Central Bank's regulations; see off-plan mortgages in the UAE.

The Golden Visa. Abu Dhabi grants a ten-year Golden Visa to an owner of property worth at least AED 2 million. For an off-plan home it asks for proof that at least AED 2 million has been paid to the developer. Many homes here are priced above that, but check when you will reach AED 2 million paid on your plan; see the Golden Visa and UAE property.

The full process, with fees worked through, is in buying property in Abu Dhabi as a foreigner, and the regulator's role in ADREC explained. For off-plan rules in more depth, see our Abu Dhabi off-plan buyer's guide.

The main running costs are the service charge, utilities and, in a branded residence, any extra service fees. On large villas the service charge and utilities are the figures to check.

Service charges. In Abu Dhabi, ADREC approves service fees for jointly owned property. The disclosure statement must include a budget and an estimate of service fees for the first two years after completion, so ask for it before you sign and keep it.

As a worked illustration, every AED 1 per sq ft on a 6,854 sq ft villa adds AED 6,854 a year. These are illustrations, not quoted rates.

Utilities. Dubai's DEWA does not supply Abu Dhabi addresses, so ask the developer which Abu Dhabi company will supply electricity and water to your community, and how cooling is supplied and billed.

ADREC publishes official rents from leases registered in Tawtheeq, but Al Jurf and Ghantoot are too new to appear in its building tables. There is no rent history for these communities yet, so any rent quoted at launch is an estimate.

ADREC's rent freeze from 2 June 2026 holds renewals at a 0% increase and re-lets at the previous contract's rent across the emirate outside ADGM, and that includes both places. A new home has no previous lease, so its first rent is set by the market at handover. For the official figures elsewhere in the emirate, see Abu Dhabi rents by area.

The facts in this guide fit some households better than others. The table sets out what they mean; it is not a ranking.

Nearby alternatives on the Dubai side include Palm Jebel Ali and Dubai South; on the Abu Dhabi side, see living in Yas Island.

Both masterplans are early in their life, so the first residents will share the coast with building sites. That affects you in three ways.

Noise and dust. Ask which plots around yours are still to be built and roughly when. A villa facing a finished park is a different home from one facing an empty plot.

Facilities in stages. Beach clubs, shops, schools and clinics open as each phase fills. Ask the developer what will be open at your handover date, and where the nearest supermarket and pharmacy will be.

Access roads. New communities sometimes open with temporary access. Ask how you will reach Sheikh Zayed Road in your first year and whether the final interchange is built.

• Al Jurf. A coastal area of Abu Dhabi emirate west of Ghantoot, home to IMKAN's AlJurf masterplan.
• Ghantoot. The Abu Dhabi coastal district at the Dubai border, home to BAYN and the Ghantoot Racing & Polo Club.
• ADREC. The Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre, the emirate's property regulator.
• DARI. ADREC's platform for checking projects, escrow accounts and completion rates.
• Interim Real Estate Register. Abu Dhabi's register of off-plan sales. The sale moves to the main Real Estate Register at handover.
• Investment zone. An area of Abu Dhabi where non-UAE nationals can own property freehold.

1. Drive your commute at rush hour, to work in whichever emirate you work in.
2. Confirm the investment zone on the registration of your plot.
3. Ask what will be open at handover: beach club, shops, school, clinic and the access road.
4. Ask for the service fee estimate in the disclosure statement, and which utility company serves the community.
5. Check schools and places in both emirates for your child's year group.
6. Check health insurance cover for hospitals on both sides of the border.
7. Map the Golden Visa against your payment plan if residency is part of the plan.

Tell us how you will use the home and we will send the Al Jurf and Ghantoot homes that fit, with today's availability checked.