Middle East Property
Arada takes a four million square metre city site west of Damascus
By Staff Writer | 1 September 2026
A joint venture with the state owned Syrian Sovereign Fund, carrying 11,000 homes, a 300 bed hospital and a park of 700,000 square metres on a plateau ten minutes from the city centre.
Arada, the Sharjah based master developer, has entered Syria through a joint venture with the state owned Syrian Sovereign Fund. The venture's first project is a mixed use city on a four million square metre site west of Damascus, in an area the developer calls New Damascus, near the Mezzeh district. The estimated gross development value is seven billion dollars, which the developer also states as 25.7 billion dirhams.
The agreement was signed at the fund's headquarters in Damascus by the Arada Group chief executive, Ahmed Alkhoshaibi, and Mohammed Al Khayyat, board member and chief executive officer of the real estate development sector at the fund. The two parties say they are working together to identify further sites across the country.
What is in the four million square metres
The published content is unusually specific for an announcement at this stage. The site carries 11,000 homes, made up of apartments, villas, townhouses and branded residences; 500 hotel rooms; 1,000 serviced apartments; education facilities for 5,000 students; a hospital of 300 beds; office, commercial and retail space; government service buildings; and a public park of 700,000 square metres, which is a sixth of the whole site.
The plateau sits about ten minutes from the centre of Damascus and about twenty five minutes from the international airport, on the developer's own account. The master plan is to be worked up with the relevant Syrian government authorities. The developer says the model draws on its Aljada and Masaar communities in Sharjah.
The Syrian Sovereign Fund's mandate is to attract world-class investment that creates lasting value for the Syrian people, and we believe that this project represents exactly that.
Mohammed Al Khayyat, Board Member and Chief Executive Officer of the Real Estate Development Sector at the Syrian Sovereign Fund
Where it sits in the developer's book
Arada now states a project pipeline of 42 billion dollars across four markets and a portfolio of more than 66,000 homes, in the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Australia and Syria. Syria is the fourth market and the most recent, after a twin tower scheme in Queensland announced on 20 August and a British waterfront programme of 5,000 homes for which it has announced first phase appointments.
Seven billion dollars of gross development value against a stated pipeline of 42 billion means this single site is a sixth of the developer's declared book.
What has not been said
No construction programme has been published, and no start date, phasing, plot release or handover target. No main contractor, consultant or engineer has been named. The funding structure of the joint venture, the split between the partners and the source of the capital have not been described. Nor has the developer said which parts of the site come first, which matters on a scheme of this size because the park, the hospital and the schools are what decide whether early homes are habitable.
A four million square metre site announced with a bed count and a park area but no programme is a statement of intent with numbers attached. The numbers are the developer's own. The programme is the thing to ask for next.