Brookfield, Apollo, Goldman Sachs: how global funds are moving into UAE real estate
Apollo has put $1.9 billion into Aldar’s bonds across four deals, Brookfield owns a DIFC tower and is building in Dubai Hills, and Mapletree plans $2 billion across the Gulf. We look at why the world’s largest funds are choosing Dubai.
While private buyers debate individual apartments and villas, a quieter and arguably more telling process is playing out one floor up: the world's largest institutional funds are moving into UAE real estate and its developers. Their decisions come after months of due diligence, which is exactly why they speak to market maturity louder than any ranking.
Who is buying, and what
Canada's Brookfield, which manages more than $800 billion, already owns the ICD Brookfield Place office tower in DIFC — a 53-storey building with over 83 000 sqm of office space, built jointly with Investment Corporation of Dubai. It is now preparing a mixed-use development in Dubai Hills, extending its footprint beyond the financial district.
Apollo Global Management put $500 million into bonds issued by developer Aldar in one of the region's largest corporate hybrid private placements, and has invested $1.9 billion across four deals with Aldar since 2022. Hong Kong's Hillhouse, through its Rava Partners unit, bought the real estate of Hartland International School in Dubai for $100 million — its first deal in the region. Singapore's Mapletree, controlled by state fund Temasek, opened an office in Abu Dhabi and announced plans to invest around $2 billion across the Gulf, while Goldman Sachs Asset Management has publicly flagged interest in Sunset Hospitality Group.
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Why now
The timing is not a coincidence. The same period has seen the UAE hold onto high sovereign ratings (S&P AA, Moody's Aa2, Fitch AA, all stable), growing assets inside DIFC, and a broader trend of family offices and funds relocating to the region. For large institutional capital, that combination — a stable sovereign credit backdrop plus a working legal system built on English common law — lowers the perceived risk of entry far more than any single deal could.
Fund logic differs fundamentally from a private buyer's: institutions are not chasing yield on one asset, they are building a position in a developer or an asset class as a whole — hence Apollo buying Aldar bonds rather than specific apartments, or Hillhouse buying a working school asset rather than a development plot.
What it means for a private buyer
There is no direct way to "co-invest with Brookfield," but the indirect effect matters: institutional capital going into a developer's balance sheet is confirmation of financial staying power for years ahead — particularly relevant when buying off-plan. Apollo's stake in Aldar, for instance, lowers the risk that the developer runs short of capital to finish projects already announced, which is the first question worth asking about any developer before an off-plan purchase.
The second effect is neighbourhood-level: districts where these funds land get high-quality commercial infrastructure that pulls housing demand along with it — exactly how Brookfield's DIFC tower has fed rental demand for apartments nearby.
For more on the developer attracting global fund capital, see our profile of Aldar.
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