Aljada: what is built, and what is still a render

1. The scale, and how much of it exists

Aljada is Arada’s masterplan on 24 million square feet in Muwaileh, Sharjah, launched in September 2017 with a stated investment value now put at AED 35 billion and more than 25,000 homes planned for a projected population of around 70,000.

Here is the number that matters more than any of those, and that you will not find on a brochure:

Homes completed	About 9,000
Homes planned	More than 25,000
Residents today	About 20,000
Projected population	About 70,000
Original completion target	2025
Contracts currently running to	2028 and 2029

Roughly a third of Aljada exists. The launch materials in 2017 said the whole thing would be complete by 2025; that date has passed with about 36% of the homes built. Arada awarded AED 2.04 billion of contracts in March 2026 for another 2,210 homes due in the second quarter of 2028, and a further component of 600-plus homes due by the start of 2029.

None of that makes Aljada a bad place to buy. It does mean that if you move in now, you are living on an active construction site for at least another two to three years, and you should be paid for that in the price rather than charged extra for the render.

2. What is actually open today

This is the part where Aljada genuinely outperforms most Sharjah developments, and it deserves to be said plainly before the criticism.

• Madar — a 600,000 square foot entertainment and parkland district, opened by the Ruler of Sharjah in February 2020. Food court, amphitheatre, skatepark, children’s adventure zone, a drive-in cinema, and the Zaha Hadid-designed Discovery Centre pavilion.
• East Boulevard — 87 shops, cafés and restaurants along the 2.2 kilometre avenue, including Spinneys, Carrefour, pharmacies, salons and a long F&B list. It drew 2.4 million visitors in 2023.
• SABIS International School — open since September 2021, 1,268 students from kindergarten to Grade 10, rated Good by the Sharjah Private Education Authority at its February 2025 inspection, up from Acceptable the year before.
• Nest — 2,473 furnished student dormitories across 12 blocks, occupied since January 2023.
• Vida Residences Aljada — Sharjah’s first branded residences, first residents in April 2026, with Emaar Hospitality operating the serviced apartments and concierge.
• Il Teatro — a performing arts complex designed by Tadao Ando in the Naseej district, where construction is now complete.

That is a real community with real footfall, not a marketing suite and a hoarding. It is the strongest argument for Aljada over a newer Sharjah launch with nothing built.

3. What is not open, including the famous one

The building in every Aljada image is not there. The Zaha Hadid-designed centrepiece that defines the development’s marketing is Madar Mall — 1.1 million square feet, 400-plus shops, 80 dining outlets, an eleven-screen cinema, an ice rink and an observation tower.

Arada awarded the AED 2.18 billion construction contract in September 2025. Completion is stated as December 2028.

What exists on that site today is the small Discovery Centre pavilion and the surrounding park, both from 2020. If you have seen a render of a sweeping white structure and assumed it was open, it is three years away.

Also still to come: another 2,210 homes due in Q2 2028, the Jenna component by early 2029, and the Vida hotel. Raffles World Academy Sharjah was scheduled to open in August 2026 — at the time of writing the school’s own website still described it as due to open and listed no current academic year, so confirm its status directly if schooling is part of your decision.

4. The commute, honestly

If you work in Dubai, this is the section that decides it.

Aljada’s road to Dubai is Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road, and it is the most loaded corridor in the system. The Roads and Transport Authority puts around 1.2 million vehicles travelling daily from Sharjah towards Dubai, carried on five corridors totalling 25 lanes — and describes Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road, which accounts for roughly 32% of those lanes, as one of the busiest roads in the country at peak.

A point the marketing will not make: Sharjah’s AED 750 million road programme, with its first phase opening in November 2026, targets the Al Taawun and Al Khan coastal corridor. That is a different route. It will not directly relieve Aljada’s commute.

What could actually change things is rail. Etihad Rail’s passenger network began running in 2026, and a Sharjah University City station is scheduled to open on 30 March 2027 — next door to Aljada. No Dubai-to-Sharjah journey time has been published for that route, so nobody yet knows what it delivers. But it is the first infrastructure in years that addresses Aljada’s actual problem rather than someone else’s.

We are not quoting you a drive time. The figures circulating on property portals range from fourteen to twenty minutes to Dubai Airport and are traffic-blind. Drive it yourself on a weekday morning, both directions, before you commit.

Two more practical gaps: there are no bus stops inside Aljada — the nearest is at Muwaileh — and there is no hospital inside the community, with the nearest facilities in University City.

5. Prices, rents, and a transparency problem

Start with the caveat, because it changes how you read everything below.

No official body publishes a price index for Aljada. The Sharjah Real Estate Registration Department reports by registration district, and Aljada sits inside Muwaileh Commercial — which was the emirate’s top-trading area in the first half of 2026 at AED 2.8 billion across 2,385 transactions. That figure covers the whole district, not Aljada, and anyone quoting it as an Aljada number is misleading you.

What is available is asking prices from property portals, which are what sellers want, not what buyers paid. On that basis, as at August 2026:

Average asking price	About AED 1,120 per square foot
Change over twelve months	Up about 3.9%
Apartment rents, same period	Down about 3.7%

Read those last two lines together. Asking prices rose while rents fell. That is yield compression, and it is the single most useful signal in this data — more useful than either number alone. One-bedroom and two-bedroom rents both fell over that period.

There is a structural reason to expect rental pressure inside Aljada specifically: Nest alone is 2,473 student dormitories, and Vida adds 149 serviced apartments. That is a lot of competing let stock in one community.

And you cannot check any of it. There is no published Aljada resale volume, no days-on-market, no achieved-price series from any official source. For a development of this size, that is a real gap — and it means a buyer cannot verify an exit story with data.

6. What Arada has actually delivered

The test this site applies to any developer: not what has been launched, but what has been finished and handed over.

Arada passes it, which is not true of every developer selling in Sharjah right now.

• Nasma Residences — 1,117 homes across six phases, complete, final handover June 2022. A finished community you can walk through.
• Masaar — 3,000 villas and townhouses across six gated districts; about 1,500 homes handed over as of mid-2025, targeting full completion by the end of 2026.
• Aljada — about 9,000 homes completed, first handover January 2021.
• Jouri Hills, its Dubai project, had not delivered its first homes as of January 2026.

One honest note on the arithmetic: Arada stated in January 2026 that it had delivered "over 10,000 homes" across all projects, while separately stating 9,000 at Aljada alone plus Nasma and Masaar. Those figures do not reconcile as published. Treat each as a separately stated claim rather than adding them up.

On ownership. Arada states that all nationalities can buy freehold in its communities following the Sharjah Executive Council decision of November 2022, which rests on Sharjah Law No. (2) of 2022. That is consistent with the law. But Arada’s own buying guide page still describes the pre-2022 rules, including a five-property cap for non-GCC Arab nationals and geographic limits on where expatriates may buy — with no mention of the change. The page appears simply to be out of date, but it is a reminder to confirm ownership status for your specific unit with the Registration Department rather than from a website.

7. Who Aljada suits

It suits you if you want a Sharjah community where a meaningful amount is already built and working — school, retail, parkland, restaurants, occupied buildings — rather than a launch with nothing on the ground; you are buying to live rather than to flip quickly; and you either work in Sharjah or have flexibility on when you drive into Dubai.

It does not suit you if your case depends on the mall being open, on a quick resale into a market where no achieved-price data exists, on rising rents, or on a predictable weekday commute into central Dubai.

The fair summary is that Aljada is the most substantial thing in Sharjah and it is also two-thirds unbuilt, and both halves of that sentence are documented. A seller will give you the first half. The second half is the part you are paying for.

8. Frequently asked questions

Sources & verification. Masterplan size, investment value, home counts, handover milestones and amenity details are as published by Arada and are developer-stated. Completed-home figures and the Aljada investment value were also reported by Sharjah24, the Sharjah Government Media Bureau. School inspection rating per the Sharjah Private Education Authority inspection report for SABIS International Private School – Aljada, inspected February 2025. Foreign ownership per Sharjah Law No. (2) of 2022 amending Law No. (5) of 2010 and the Sharjah Executive Council decision announced 1 November 2022. Traffic volumes and corridor data per the Roads and Transport Authority. Transaction values per the Sharjah Real Estate Registration Department. Prices and rents are asking prices published by property portals, not transacted values — no official body publishes an Aljada-level price index. Position as at 15 September 2026.