Overview
RAK Central is a business district being built by Marjan, the Ras Al Khaimah government master developer, on 288,000 sq m opposite Al Hamra Village. It was announced in January 2024 and is positioned as the largest business district in the northern emirates.
The masterplan runs to 8.37 million sqft of built area: 3 million sqft of rentable office space, more than 4,000 apartments, four hotels with more than 1,000 keys between them, a university campus, a cultural and civic quarter and retail. Towers go up to 45 floors, around 200 metres.
The site is at Al Jazirah Al Hamra, on Sheikh Mohammed bin Salem Al Qasimi Street directly off the E11, looking across at Al Hamra Golf Club and the Gulf. Two points that are frequently reported incorrectly: the developer is Marjan and not RAK Properties, and the site is on the coast at Al Hamra rather than inland at Al Dhait.
Nothing is open. District infrastructure, including roads, utilities and district cooling, was completed in September 2025, and all 32 sellable plots had been sold by then. Buildings are now going up plot by plot.
Who it suits
Buyers who want a city apartment at Al Hamra prices without buying into a resort. Entry prices start below AED 700,000, which is less than a studio on Al Marjan Island.
Investors betting on the office market. If 3 million sqft of Grade A space fills, several thousand professionals need somewhere to live within a few minutes, and this district is where they will look first.
Businesses. RAK Central offers a RAKEZ free zone licence or a mainland licence on the same address, which is unusual.
It does not suit anybody who needs to move in soon, or who wants to see what they are buying. The earliest handovers are late 2027 and the district will be a building site for years after that.
Homes and prices
Every home in RAK Central is off-plan and built by a sub-developer on a plot bought from Marjan. The four confirmed residential schemes:
One RAK Central, by Pantheon Development. A roughly AED 1 billion mixed-use scheme with studios from 390 sqft, one-bedrooms around 677 sqft and two-bedrooms around 945 sqft, alongside Grade A offices and hotel apartments. From AED 699,900. Handover quoted for the fourth quarter of 2027.
Colibri Views, by Major Developments. Two towers of 32 floors over a basement, 380 residences from 380 sqft studios to three-bedroom penthouses of about 4,073 sqft. From about AED 1,100,000 in 2026, having launched at AED 797,000. Handover quoted for the first quarter of 2029.
Radisson Blu Hotel and Residences, by BNW Developments. A dual tower with 361 hotel keys and 222 branded residences, signed in January 2026 and due in 2029.
A 27-floor tower by DARA Properties on a 50,000 sqft plot, around 350 apartments from studios to three-bedrooms, quoted for the fourth quarter of 2027.
| Type | Beds | Baths | Size (sqft) | Price from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | 0 | 1 | 380 to 475 | AED 699,900 |
| 1-bed apartment | 1 | 1 | 677 to 900 | |
| 2-bed apartment | 2 | 2 | 945 to 1,400 | AED 1,100,000 |
| 3-bed penthouse | 3 | 4 | 2,500 to 4,073 |
On a per sqft basis, One RAK Central works out at roughly AED 1,795 at entry and Colibri Views at AED 2,570 to AED 2,900. For comparison, ValuStrat valued Al Hamra apartments at AED 880 per sqft and Al Marjan Island apartments at AED 1,160 in the second quarter of 2026. RAK Central is being sold at new-build off-plan pricing, not at the local resale level.
No rental evidence exists yet because nothing has handed over.
Follow the listings as they come to market at properties for sale in RAK Central, apartments for sale in RAK Central, 1-bedroom apartments for sale in RAK Central and properties for rent in RAK Central. Other off-plan schemes across the emirate are at new projects in Ras Al Khaimah.
Amenities
The commercial core is RAK Central Square, a joint venture between Marjan and RAKEZ signed in November 2024. Five buildings, 2.27 million sqft of gross floor area and 82,000 sq m of lettable space with floor plates of about 1,500 sq m. It is designed by Gensler, built by ALEC, targeted at LEED Gold and marketed by JLL. Structural works finished in May 2026 and topping out is due in the fourth quarter of 2026, with opening in the fourth quarter of 2027. It will be the emirate’s first Grade A office product.
Confirmed occupiers are RAKEZ, Marjan itself, RAK Hospitality Holding, Al Hamra and the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority. Claims elsewhere that the Ras Al Khaimah government headquarters or the Chamber of Commerce will move here are not supported by any published source.
The wider masterplan adds retail and dining zones, four hotels, a university campus, civic buildings, public art, shaded walkable streets, cycle paths, electric vehicle infrastructure and district cooling. No retail floor area has been published.
Getting around
RAK Central sits directly off the E11 at Al Jazirah Al Hamra. Al Hamra Mall is 2.5 km, about four minutes. Al Marjan Island is 9.5 km, roughly ten minutes. Ras Al Khaimah city centre at Al Nakheel is 22.7 km, about 23 minutes. Ras Al Khaimah International Airport is 39 km, about 34 minutes, and Dubai International Airport 79 km, about 58 minutes.
Those distances are our own routing rather than published figures. Several broker distance tables for this district are demonstrably wrong, including one that puts Dubai airport closer than the Ras Al Khaimah one.
Schools and healthcare
RAK Academy Al Hamra is about five minutes across the road in Al Hamra Village, with primary and, since August 2026, secondary campuses. The New British International School and Delhi Private School Ras Al Khaimah are both within about fifteen minutes.
The RAK Medical Center inside Al Hamra Mall is four minutes. Sheikh Khalifa Specialty Hospital is 10 to 13 minutes.
Investment view
RAK Central is a bet on office demand, not on housing demand. The residential towers exist because 3 million sqft of offices implies people who need to live nearby. If the offices let, the apartments have a tenant base that nothing else in the emirate offers. If they do not, you own an off-plan apartment in a half-built district twenty minutes from the coast.
Two facts support the bet. Marjan sold all 32 plots, which means the sub- developers have paid for the land. And RAK Central Square is being built by ALEC with Gensler as architect and JLL letting it, which is a serious delivery team with named anchor occupiers already committed.
Two facts temper it. The office core has already slipped a full year, from a fourth quarter 2026 opening to a fourth quarter 2027 one, and Marjan marketing material has continued to show the older dates. And the pricing is high relative to the surrounding market: about AED 1,795 per sqft at the cheapest against AED 880 for existing Al Hamra apartments a few minutes away. Some of that gap is new-build premium and some is optimism about a district that does not exist yet.
The widely repeated claim that RAK Central represents an AED 2.4 billion investment appears in no primary source. Marjan has never published a total value for the project, and the figure looks like a misattributed market statistic. We do not use it.
Anyone buying here should read our guide to buying off-plan in Ras Al Khaimah, insist on the escrow arrangements in writing and treat every handover date as provisional.
