SOMA Residences

On SOMA's first floor, the terrace is nearly as big as the apartment

On the first floor of SOMA Residences, the 2-bedroom-plus-study unit offers 101 sqm indoors and 95 sqm outdoors. The same layout, three floors up, keeps only 31 sqm of terrace. That gap is really what this small building is about. It's developed by Origami Development and marketed by Devmark on Dubai Islands. The building itself stays modest: a ground floor, a podium, six residential floors and a rooftop terrace. Handover is set for December 30, 2028. No launch date has been announced yet.

The podium's first floor, a category of its own

The podium roof doubles as a pool deck and a private extension for first-floor units. The Type 01 one-bedroom makes this clear: 67 sqm indoors in both cases, but 32 sqm of terrace on the first floor versus 12 sqm from the second to the sixth. That pushes total floor area from 79 to 99 sqm. For the 2-bedroom-plus-study unit, total area climbs to 196 sqm, against 132 sqm on the typical floors. The first floor holds only four units, making it a very limited offering. In exchange, buyers get views over the pool deck, with all the activity that comes with it.

Six residential floors in a rising archipelago

With six residential levels, SOMA sits among the lowest-rise buildings on Dubai Islands. Azizi Wasel stacks thirteen residential floors, Wynwood fourteen, and Bay Grove Residences goes up to twenty. The typical floor plan, from the second to the sixth level, places eight apartments per landing. The advertised outlooks are community views, pool deck views and park views. The brochure makes no promise of direct sea views, which is worth checking unit by unit before booking. A low-rise building like this limits the density of shared amenities, but it also leaves residents more exposed to future neighboring construction.

From one-bedroom to 3-bedroom duplex

The scheme covers five property types: 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom, 2-bedroom with a flexible room, 3-bedroom and 3-bedroom duplex. The one-bedroom comes in two variants, with Type 02 offering 73 sqm indoors instead of 67. Even the smallest layout includes a walk-in closet, an ensuite bathroom off the bedroom and a separate guest toilet, which is unusual at this size. The duplex, at around 219 sqm, is clearly aimed at settled families. Finishes rely on European materials (the supplier isn't named) and on home automation built into every unit.

Rooftop padel and separate changing rooms

The most visible amenity is the padel court on the rooftop terrace. On the first floor, the clubhouse brings together a café, a coworking space and a terrace. The wellness area is more detailed than what's typically seen at this scale: separate men's and women's changing rooms, each with its own sauna and steam room, plus a treatment room. The yoga studio opens onto its own terrace. On the pool side, an infinity pool lined with sunken loungers sits alongside a children's pool and a play area.

Waterfront Market four minutes away

According to the marketing agent, the Waterfront Market promenade and a future metro station are four minutes away. Sheikh Zayed Road is an eight-minute drive, DXB Airport twelve minutes, and Downtown Dubai and Dubai Mall thirteen minutes. The DIFC business district is fifteen minutes away. These times remain theoretical during rush hour, since the archipelago depends on a limited number of bridges to Deira. The market remains the main existing hub of activity nearby.

A buyer looking to live in, not flip

The generous storage throughout the layouts, the duplexes and the wellness area speak more to owner-occupiers or long-term tenants than to short-term rental buyers. The coworking space targets freelancers and part-time remote workers, a sizeable group among Dubai's expat population. The freehold system lets foreign buyers own outright, as is the case across Dubai Islands. Origami Development remains a less established name on the archipelago than Nakheel or Azizi. Before committing, buyers should look closely at the escrow account and the developer's delivery track record.