Saadiyat Island apartments: Mandarin Oriental Residences and Henge Residences beside Abu Dhabi’s museums

For years Saadiyat was sold on a promise of museums. By autumn 2026 the promise is nearly kept: the Louvre has been open since 2017, the Natural History Museum opened on 22 November 2025, Zayed National Museum in December 2025, and Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is due to open on 11 December 2026. Against that backdrop two branded residential schemes came to market with very different entry prices.

Mandarin Oriental Residences: a museum view

Aldar and Mandarin Oriental began sales on 21 November 2024. These are the brand’s first residences in Abu Dhabi: about 228 homes from one to four bedrooms plus five-bedroom penthouses, in the Cultural District, facing the Gulf and the falcon-wing roof of Zayed National Museum. The architect is Bjarke Ingels Group; some reviews credit Foster + Partners, but Foster designed the museum, not the housing. The Louvre, the Natural History Museum and the Guggenheim are all within walking distance.

Prices in 2025 started at around AED 6.2m (about USD 1.7m), with completion planned for Q3 2028. Service is hotel-grade: concierge, housekeeping, laundry, in-residence dining, spa and gym. It is a product for buyers choosing Abu Dhabi as a place to live and paying for an address next to the country’s flagship museums.

Henge Residences: Italian furniture at another price point

In spring 2025 Nord Lifestyle Development and the Italian design house HENGE announced Henge Residences, an AED 500m scheme in Saadiyat’s marina district. For HENGE, known for handcrafted work in bronze, stone and rare timbers, it is the first move into residential property. The building has 166 homes — studios, one to three bedrooms and two duplexes — fitted with the brand’s interiors and furniture. Studios started at about AED 1.1m and one-bedrooms at about AED 1.4m, with handover planned for Q1 2028.

The two side by side

	Mandarin Oriental Residences	Henge Residences
Developer	Aldar	Nord Lifestyle Development
Brand type	hotel operator	furniture house
Homes	about 228	166
Entry	from ~AED 6.2m	from ~AED 1.1m
Completion	Q3 2028	Q1 2028

The difference is more than price. A hotel brand is responsible for service in the building for as long as it manages it; a furniture brand is responsible for design and fit-out on the day of handover. The first shapes rents and liquidity for years, the second mostly how the unit looks when you get the keys. If you are buying to let, ask who will manage the building after completion and on what terms.

Then there is the developer. Aldar is Abu Dhabi’s largest, with a long record of completions; Nord is much younger. On a small island, a project’s reputation quickly becomes part of its resale price. For comparison, look at other branded schemes on the island such as Four Seasons Private Residences Saadiyat.

How much land is left on Saadiyat and what its last phase will contain — see Marsa Al Saadiyat: the final phase of Saadiyat Island.