One Residence

A landing pad for flying taxis sitting atop a 196-unit tower

One Development is presenting One Residence as what it calls the world's first vertiport built into a residential tower. The concept is a platform for electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL), placed on the roof of a 27-storey residential building. The rest of the scheme is more conventional: 196 units, ground-floor retail space, three levels of podium parking and a landscaped rooftop. Handover is expected in the second quarter of 2028, with an indicative date of 22 June. The building sits on Al Reem Island, along the mangrove-lined waterfront. For investors, the question is straightforward: separate what belongs to the marketing pitch from what actually shows up in the plans.

Rooftop vertiport: what still needs confirming

The brochure mentions "urban access by drone taxi" and a drone delivery system. None of the documents supplied specify the operator, flight frequency or civil aviation approvals involved. Abu Dhabi has signed agreements with eVTOL manufacturers to launch commercial services, but how quickly these will scale up by 2028 remains uncertain. Buyers should treat the platform as infrastructure that is ready to operate, not as a guaranteed service on handover. Other questions worth asking: noise disturbance for top-floor units and how platform maintenance might affect service charges.

From an 81 sqm simplex to a 311 sqm duplex

Within a single building, One Residence offers seven unit types. One-bedroom simplex units range from 875 to 1,300 square feet (roughly 81 to 121 sqm), while one-bedroom duplexes run from 968 to 1,309 square feet. Two-bedroom simplex units span 1,371 to 1,867 square feet, and two-bedroom duplexes reach up to 2,421. Three-bedroom units top out at 2,485 square feet in simplex form and 2,786 in duplex. Four-bedroom units come only as duplexes, ranging from 3,196 to 3,352 square feet, close to 300 sqm. These are generous floor plates for Reem Island, where recently launched one-bedroom units rarely exceed 800 square feet.

Maid's room from the two-bedroom duplex upward

The layout of ancillary spaces points to the target buyer. The one-bedroom simplex comes with a laundry room, while the one-bedroom duplex and two-bedroom simplex each include a storage room. From the two-bedroom duplex upward, every unit adds a maid's room and a storage room. Parking allocation runs at one space for units up to two bedrooms, rising to two spaces for three and four-bedroom units. The ground-floor commercial unit, roughly 2,368 square feet, comes with 15 parking spaces. This points to a product built for settled families with domestic staff rather than short-term rental tenants.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy and mini golf on the amenity list

The amenities go well beyond the standard pool and gym. The building includes a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber, equipment more commonly found in sports recovery clinics. There's also a spa with sauna, a yoga and Pilates studio, an indoor gym and an outdoor fitness area. For families, the amenities include a mini golf course, a multi-sports court, a playground, a kids' pool and an outdoor cinema. Pet owners get a dedicated garden, and smart home technology is included in the units.

Five to seven minutes from the business district

The developer states 5 to 7 minutes to Abu Dhabi's Central Business District and 15 minutes to the Corniche or to Saadiyat's Cultural District. Yas Island is roughly 25 minutes away, and Zayed International Airport around 30. Nearby landmarks useful to families include Sorbonne Abu Dhabi, Repton Senior School, GEMS World Academy, Cleveland Clinic and Reem Hospital. For shopping and leisure, Reem Mall, Boutik Mall and Al Fay Park are all close by. Reem Island is freehold, open to foreign buyers, and continues to grow denser as the capital's second downtown.

A developer betting on artificial intelligence

One Development claims to be the first developer to integrate AI across every stage of design and operations, and describes One Residence as Abu Dhabi's first AI-enabled community. The brochure doesn't spell out what this means in practice. It's unclear whether this refers to predictive energy management, access control, maintenance systems or simply connected smart home features. With 196 units, the project remains modest in scale, in the same range as the neighboring A1LA Residence. Before committing, buyers would do well to ask for the construction schedule, the associated escrow account details and a precise list of digital services included in the service charges.