Urban Horizon by Arete

Ninety apartments and a penthouse set on a three-level podium

Urban Horizon comprises 90 units spread across ten residential floors, plus a penthouse on the rooftop level. Arete Developments is building the tower in Arjan, within the Al Barsha South Third cadastral area, with handover scheduled for the first quarter of 2028. That's a modest scale for a neighborhood where recent projects often run past twenty floors. The building stacks a ground-floor retail level, three podium levels, ten residential floors and a rooftop terrace. The brochure describes dynamic facades with expressive shapes but does not name an architecture firm. The project is sold freehold, in line with most new supply in Arjan.

Three parking levels under ten floors of homes

The building's section follows a straightforward logic. The three podium levels are mainly given over to parking, with EV charging points, bicycle parking and storage rooms on each typical floor. The ground floor, meanwhile, opens onto a retail promenade with its own visitor parking, kept separate from the lobby entrance. It also houses a library, a business center, a coworking space and a decorative water feature. Residential floors start fairly high up as a result, which helps clear the sightlines. According to the plans, units face toward the Dubai Autodrome, the Dubai Cricket Stadium, Palm Jumeirah and Downtown.

30 studios, 40 one-bedrooms, 20 two-bedrooms

The unit mix skews toward smaller layouts: a third are studios, and close to half are one-bedrooms. Studios range from 32.7 to 46.1 sqm, with the smallest layout (type B0) having no balcony at all. One-bedroom units span 62.8 to 109 sqm, a wide range that partly overlaps with the two-bedroom category, which starts at 108 sqm and goes up to 157.7 sqm. One notable detail: the C0 one-bedroom layout includes a private storage room of 7.7 sqm on top of 70.2 sqm of living space and a 2.3 sqm balcony. Some configurations also add a study and a separate laundry room. The rooftop penthouse is the only unit that falls outside these categories, and the brochure doesn't disclose its size.

The podium roof turned into a play area

Most of the outdoor amenities sit on the first level built above the parking. The plan places a mini-golf course, a basketball court, an outdoor cinema and a children's play area with slides there. Dog owners get two dedicated spaces, named Paw Arcade and Wag Walk Park, which is unusual for a building this size. A reflexology path, meditation pods and picnic tables round things out. The infinity pool, sauna, steam room, yoga studio and indoor gym also feature on the amenities list. For 90 units, the ratio of amenities to residents is high, which will likely translate into higher service charges.

Between Mohammed Bin Zayed Road and Umm Suqeim Road

Arjan sits within Dubailand, sandwiched between two major roads: Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road (E311) and Umm Suqeim Road. The developer states a five-minute drive to Jumeirah Village Circle, Motor City and Dubai Science Park. Mall of the Emirates is quoted at ten minutes, Dubai Marina and Palm Jumeirah at fifteen, Downtown at twenty. These times assume free-flowing traffic and should be treated as indicative. No metro station currently serves the area, so a car remains essential. That's largely why three parking levels take up so much of the building's footprint.

A compact building among the towers

In Arjan, neighboring projects tend to go tall. The Central Downtown, for instance, lines up four towers of 22 to 27 floors on a shared podium. Urban Horizon, with 14 floors above ground, bets on a smaller community and a less anonymous building. The heavy weighting toward studios and one-bedrooms clearly targets rental demand from young professionals working in Al Barsha, Dubai Science Park or Motor City. The two-bedroom units above 140 sqm could draw some families, whom the brochure explicitly targets through the play area and green spaces. One open question remains: Arete Developments has a limited public track record on past handovers, so buyers would do well to check the project's escrow account registration with RERA before committing.