UAE developers abroad: DAMAC in Miami, Eagle Hills in Budapest, Sobha in the US and Australia
DAMAC is building a 37-home Zaha Hadid Architects tower in Miami from $15m, Sobha has bought land in Texas and Australia, and Eagle Hills lost its $12.3bn Budapest scheme to the city. What overseas expansion means for someone buying from these developers in Dubai.
Dubai's big private developers have been taking their boom-year profits abroad. For an investor buying off-plan in Dubai this is more than corporate news: a developer active on three continents spreads both its capital and its management attention. Three cases show the range of outcomes.
DAMAC: Miami, London, the Maldives — and data centres
In Surfside, Miami, DAMAC is building The Delmore, a 12-storey building of 37 residences designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. It bought the 1.8-acre site in 2022 for $120m; prices start around $15m and completion is expected in 2029. The group also has projects in London and the Maldives, and in January 2025 its founder Hussain Sajwani pledged at least $20bn for US data centres through the Edgnex arm.
None of that changes the fact that Dubai remains DAMAC's core business. When comparing two DAMAC launches, the construction percentage registered with RERA tells you more than any overseas headline. Our DAMAC profile covers the model in detail.
Talk to a licensed broker: 📲 +971 50 120 32 64 on WhatsApp, @dubai_oleg on Telegram
Eagle Hills: the Budapest deal that slipped away
Eagle Hills, founded by Emaar's Mohamed Alabbar, signed with the Hungarian government in January 2025 to redevelop Rákosrendező in Budapest — a scheme billed at $12.3bn. But the land carried pre-emption rights, and a Budapest municipal company exercised them, taking Eagle Hills' place as buyer. In March 2026 the city named the winner of a design competition for roughly 10 000 homes and 25 hectares of green space instead.
The lesson: a headline overseas project can fail for reasons entirely outside the developer's control. Eagle Hills is better judged on work it is actually delivering in the UAE, from Lulu Island in Abu Dhabi to Maryam Island in Sharjah.
Sobha: Texas, Queensland and Sydney
Sobha Realty closed 2025 with AED 30bn of sales, up 30% year on year, and announced its move into the United States and Australia with regional offices and land in Texas, Queensland and Sydney. At home it launched four master plans, including Sobha Central and Sobha SkyParks, and sold AED 8bn in Umm Al Quwain.
Sobha builds in-house, with its own factories and crews — the approach explained in our Sobha profile. Overseas, that model will be tested: factories in the UAE do not travel, and building in Texas means local contractors.
What it means for a Dubai buyer
- Expansion signals spare capital, not distress — but it also means new risks outside the UAE.
- Your money is ring-fenced. Off-plan payments in Dubai go into a project-specific escrow account and cannot be redirected to a tower in Miami.
- Track delivery at home. RERA-registered progress and on-time handovers of already sold buildings are the better measure of any developer.
Current projects and availability are on our DAMAC and Sobha Realty developer pages.
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