Meraas Awards Dh2.4 Billion Contracts for Dubailand 557 Villas at The Acres

Meraas, a member of Dubai Holding Real Estate, has awarded Dh2.4 billion in main construction contracts for new phases of its flagship villa developments, The Acres and The Acres Estates, in Dubailand. The contracts cover 557 villas across two distinct communities, both anchored in a nature-led design philosophy that is reshaping expectations for premium residential living in Dubai.

Contract Award Overview

United Engineering Construction (UNEC) has been appointed to deliver The Acres, while GCC Contracting will lead construction at The Acres Estates. Both contracts cover full construction, testing, commissioning, and handover of completed villas with all community infrastructure.

Contract Details at a Glance

Two Communities, One Vision

The Dh2.4 billion award covers two distinct but connected communities within the same masterplan. The Acres will deliver 371 villas spanning three to five bedrooms, alongside complete community infrastructure including roads, utilities and shared amenities. It is centred around the Halo Loop Park, a landscaped green spine that connects every neighbourhood through a continuous loop of walking and cycling paths.

The Acres Estates operates at a different scale entirely. Its 186 villas span five to seven bedrooms, are positioned on larger plots, and feature curated architectural collections drawing on stone, wood and glass. Swimmable lagoons, landscaped waterfront areas and private garden settings define the offering. This is the ultra-luxury tier of the masterplan.

What Is Being Built: Inside The Acres

The Acres is not a conventional villa compound. Meraas has conceived it as a nature-integrated community in which every design decision flows from the landscape outward. The Halo Loop Park forms the green heart of the development, a continuous landscaped circuit that residents access within minutes of their front door.

Surrounding it are specialised garden zones including the Arrival Garden, Village Garden, Nature Garden and Lagoon Garden. Swimmable lagoons and floating decks are woven throughout the community, giving residents year-round aquatic recreation without leaving the neighbourhood.

At the infrastructure level, the community includes a primary school, kindergarten, community clubhouse, mosque, retail promenade, healthcare facilities, outdoor gym, dog parks and jogging tracks. The Edible Garden provides herbs and al fresco dining within the community grounds.

Villa Architecture and Design

The villas at The Acres are characterised by open-plan layouts, double-height living spaces and floor-to-ceiling windows that frame views of the surrounding greenery. Stone, wood and glass are the dominant materials, with each bedroom configuration carrying a distinct architectural identity. Three-bedroom villas emphasise a harmonious connection with natural surroundings. Four-bedroom homes feature a signature stone wall anchoring the aesthetic. Five-bedroom villas maximise privacy on the street side while opening fully onto internal courtyard gardens.

Villa Types and Pricing

The Acres and The Acres Estates: Unit Overview

Sustainability: LEED Gold Precertification

The Acres has achieved LEED Gold for Communities Precertification, one of the most credible international benchmarks for sustainable community design. This rating covers the full masterplan across resource efficiency, sustainable design principles, long-term environmental performance and community health standards. In the context of Dubai’s development market, where sustainability credentials are increasingly a buyer priority, this certification positions The Acres at the front of the field.

Khalid Al Malik described the development as designed to combine nature, connectivity and long-term value. In the context of the LEED Gold certification, this signals a development engineered from the ground up to perform sustainably, a meaningful differentiator as buyers across the region place growing weight on environmental credentials when choosing homes.

Location: Why Dubailand in 2026

The Acres sits at the intersection of Sheikh Zayed bin Hamdan Al Nahyan Street and Emirates Road, two of Dubai’s primary arterial routes. This gives residents direct connectivity across the emirate without the congestion of more established central locations. The Dubailand corridor has consistently outperformed older villa communities in transaction volume growth over the past two years.

Connectivity from The Acres

Market Context: Why Villa Demand Is Surging

The Meraas contract award does not occur in isolation. Dubai’s villa segment is experiencing structural demand growth driven by several converging forces. Population growth continues at pace, with the emirate absorbing record numbers of new long-term residents via the Golden Visa and related residency programmes.

Families relocating to Dubai are prioritising space, privacy and community amenities over city-centre convenience. Four-bedroom villa layouts are leading transactions in established and emerging family communities, and supply in the premium segment remains far below demand.

Why Dubai villa demand will continue rising:

• Population growth is absorbing new supply at pace across family-oriented communities with quality schools and amenities
• Golden Visa holders with families are the primary buyers of four to seven bedroom homes, a segment growing at over 30 percent annually
• Dubai’s villa supply pipeline is disciplined. Nakheel awarded Dh3.5 billion in Palm Jebel Ali villa contracts in the same period, but overall supply remains below demand
• Rental yields in nearby Arabian Ranches 2 start at AED 160,000 per year for three-bedroom villas, making The Acres a compelling investment option
• Buyers in the AED 5.5 million to AED 15 million bracket are upgrading from apartments in JVC and Dubai Marina to villa communities as families grow
• LEED-certified communities command a rental and resale premium as ESG-aware buyers from Europe and India prioritise sustainability credentials

Construction Progress and Timeline

The Acres is not a paper project. As of March 2026, raft foundations are completed across 220 villas and initial superstructure work is underway, including eight fully completed villas. Internal inspection data from Meraas places construction progress at 11.58 percent as of March 10, 2026, with RERA reporting 9.07 percent progress based on a February 23 inspection.

The appointment of UNEC and GCC Contracting for the new contract phases accelerates the delivery pipeline significantly. Both contractors have committed to maintaining the highest construction standards throughout. The project is tracking toward a Q1 2028 completion target.