Ten of the 175 homes sold in Noya over the last twelve months came from the developer. The other 165 came from people who had already bought one.
Noya is a townhouse and villa neighbourhood on Yas Island released in five phases, three delivered and two still under construction, and its market is now almost entirely owners selling to other buyers. Which produces the strangest number in this guide: the homes that exist sell for 31% more per square foot than the homes that do not exist yet. Everywhere else on the island, that premium runs the other way.
Key takeaways
- The median Noya sale over the last twelve months was AED 3.87 million, or AED 1,784 per square foot, across 175 registered sales.
- The three finished phases sold at AED 2,193 per square foot, the two unbuilt phases at AED 1,668. That 31.5% gap holds at 25% to 32% bedroom by bedroom.
- Across Yas Island as a whole, off-plan trades about 21% above finished stock. Noya inverts the island.
- Prices per foot rose 26.7% year on year while sales fell from 411 to 175.
What a Noya home costs, bedroom by bedroom
Yas Island sold 4,779 homes over the last twelve months and 92% of them were apartments. Villas and townhouses made up 401 sales, and Noya alone accounted for 175 of those, 44% of every villa and townhouse sold on the island. The island-wide picture is in our Yas Bay guide, and the Yas Island district page carries the live numbers.
| Layout | Sales, 12 months | Median price | Median floor area | Median per sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 beds | 34 | AED 2,785,000 | 1,334 sq ft | AED 2,076 |
| 3 beds | 54 | AED 3,512,500 | 1,760 sq ft | AED 1,918 |
| 4 beds | 58 | AED 4,362,500 | 2,505 sq ft | AED 1,756 |
| 5 beds | 29 | AED 4,900,000 | 3,187 sq ft | AED 1,537 |
Noya homes come in essentially one size per bedroom count, so the per-foot ladder is unusually clean: AED 2,076 for a two-bedroom, falling to AED 1,918, AED 1,756 and AED 1,537 as the house grows. A five-bedroom costs 76% more than a two-bedroom and comes with 139% more floor.
The step from three bedrooms to four costs AED 850,000 at the median and adds 745 square feet, or AED 1,141 per additional foot, well under the going rate. The marginal room is the cheap one.
The finished premium: 31% inside one community
The five phases split neatly in two. Phases 1 to 3 recorded 44 sales over the last twelve months, every one a completed home sold on by its owner. Phases 4 and 5 recorded 131 sales, every one off-plan.
The finished phases sold at AED 2,193 per square foot, the unbuilt phases at AED 1,668. That is a 31.5% premium for the house that exists, and it is not a trick of the mix: two-bedroom homes were 25% dearer finished than unbuilt, three-bedroom 32% dearer, four-bedroom 30% dearer.
That is the reverse of the island, where off-plan sold at roughly a 21% premium to finished homes over the same period, and of the Al Muneera guide, which found a finished community trading 13% under the plans around it. Noya is the case where the plan is the discount.
The reason is in the first sentence of this guide. Of the 131 unbuilt-phase sales, 121 were resales of launch contracts, and a launch contract carries its original price on the front page. The seller asks for that number plus a margin small enough to make waiting for handover worthwhile. The finished phases have no launch sheet to anchor to. They price against the island, and the island has moved.
So the unbuilt homes are cheaper because they are still being sold by the people who bought them cheaply. The industry calls this an investor market. It is.
The premium did not exist two years ago
In the final quarter of 2024 the finished phases were changing hands at AED 1,223 per square foot and the unbuilt phases at AED 1,418. The finished home was 14% cheaper. The lines crossed in the second quarter of 2025, when finished sales jumped to AED 1,808 against AED 1,404, and by the second quarter of 2026, the last complete one, the finished phases stood at AED 2,262 and the unbuilt at AED 1,767.
That is an 85% rise for the finished homes in seven quarters and a 25% rise for the unbuilt ones. Counts get thin in late 2025, twelve and seven sales in the fourth quarter, so read the direction rather than any single point.
Once the first three phases were handed over, they stopped being priced like Noya and started being priced like Yas Island. The two later phases are still priced like Noya in 2024, plus a margin.
Cheaper per home than the island's other villas, at every size
A two-bedroom Noya home sold at a median of AED 2.79 million against AED 2.89 million across the island's other villas and townhouses, 226 sales in all, 4% less. Three-bedroom homes were 5% cheaper, four-bedroom 11% cheaper and five-bedroom 44% cheaper, at AED 4.9 million against AED 8.7 million.
This is a comparison by home rather than by foot, deliberately: the island's larger villa communities record floor area on a different basis, and a per-foot line would flatter Noya for the wrong reason. Compact is what you are paying less for.
Against the emirate the picture flips at one end. Abu Dhabi's median three-bedroom villa or townhouse sold at AED 3.78 million, so Noya's is 7% cheaper, and the median four-bedroom at AED 5.61 million, so Noya's is 22% cheaper. The emirate's median two-bedroom went for AED 2.01 million, though, and Noya's sits 39% above it. Which makes Noya the island's cheap villa and the emirate's expensive townhouse, depending on which brochure you are holding.
Prices up 27%, sales down 57%
Noya went from AED 1,408 to AED 1,784 per square foot year on year, up 26.7%. Unlike Al Muneera, the median home also got bigger, from 1,794 to 2,073 square feet, as the mix shifted toward the newest phase's four and five bedroom homes. A bigger median home pulls the per-foot figure down, not up, so the mix did not manufacture this rise.
Every bedroom count is up, and the smaller the home the larger the rise: two-bedrooms 49.6%, three-bedrooms 37.6%, four-bedrooms 18.6%, five-bedrooms 10.8%. A 39-point range means 27% is the middle of a wide band, not a rate any particular house earned.
Sales went the other way, from 411 to 175. The prior year contained the launch of the two newest phases; this year the developer sold ten homes and owners sold 165. Rising prices on falling volume, with the developer out of the market, is a resale market thinned to the people who actually want to sell.
What the rent covers, finished homes only
Gross yields on finished Noya homes, taking the island's median annual rent for each bedroom count against the median finished Noya sale price: two-bedroom 4.2%, three-bedroom 4.7%, four-bedroom 5.4%.
The ladder runs upward with size, the reverse of the island's apartments, where studios yield 6.2% and three-bedrooms 4.8%. The island's four-bedroom rent is set by its larger villas, while Noya's four-bedroom price is set by its 2,197 square feet: you buy the compact version and let it at the standard version's rent.
Three caveats. These are gross, before service charges, vacancy and management. They use the island's rents rather than Noya's own. And the finished samples are modest, at twelve, nineteen and eleven sales. Unbuilt homes have no rent yet, so they are left out.
What that leaves after costs depends on a service charge you do not know yet, a void month you cannot predict and an agent's fee that varies by who you ask, and the spreadsheet goes stale the moment one changes. Our ROI tools hold those inputs with UAE defaults filled in.
Off-plan property carries construction and delivery risk, and past registered sales describe what has happened rather than what will. This is information, not financial advice. If you are weighing the unbuilt phases, our guide to off-plan projects in Abu Dhabi covers the escrow and handover mechanics.
FAQ
What is Noya on Yas Island?
Noya is a townhouse and villa community on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, released in five phases, three of them handed over and two still selling off-plan. It recorded 175 registered sales over the last twelve months, 44% of all villa and townhouse sales on the island.
How much does a house in Noya cost?
The median Noya sale over the last twelve months was AED 3.87 million, with a quarter of sales below AED 3.08 million and a quarter above AED 4.5 million. By bedroom count, two-bedroom homes had a median of AED 2.79 million, three-bedroom AED 3.51 million, four-bedroom AED 4.36 million and five-bedroom AED 4.9 million.
Can foreigners buy property in Noya?
Yes. Yas Island is one of Abu Dhabi's designated investment zones, where buyers of any nationality can hold freehold title. Registration runs through the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre, and tenure is recorded per title, so confirm it on the individual unit before committing.
Is it cheaper to buy off-plan in Noya?
Per square foot, yes. The two unbuilt phases sold at AED 1,668 per square foot against AED 2,193 for the finished phases, a 24% discount for buying before completion. Most of those sales, 121 of 131, were resales of launch contracts, so the seller is usually another buyer rather than the developer.
What is the rental yield in Noya?
Gross yields on finished Noya homes run from about 4.2% for a two-bedroom to 4.7% for a three-bedroom and 5.4% for a four-bedroom, using the island's median annual rent for each bedroom count against the median finished sale price, before service charges, vacancy and management.
Are prices in Noya rising?
Yes. Prices went from AED 1,408 to AED 1,784 per square foot year on year, a 26.7% rise, with every bedroom count up, from 10.8% for five-bedroom homes to 49.6% for two-bedroom. Sales fell from 411 to 175 over the same period.
References
Figures in this guide are computed from official UAE property transaction records. See Prop971 market analytics for the underlying data, and ADREC and DARI for official Abu Dhabi property information.
