The Rings

Two buildings and just thirteen residences of 9,500 to 19,500 sqft, designed by Foster + Partners — the most one-off address on the canal waterfront.

Thirteen residences and Foster + Partners

The Rings is developed by PMR Property. The design architect is Foster + Partners, Norman Foster’s practice; Conin Incorporated Consultants is architect of record. A practice of that standing on a residential building of this size is rare in Dubai — firms at that level normally take towers and public buildings, not thirteen-home projects.

The scheme is two buildings holding around thirteen residences of five, six and seven bedrooms, ranging from 9,500 to 19,500 square feet — roughly 880 to 1,810 square metres. The lower bound here is larger than the upper bound of most Dubai penthouses.

Each residence is designed with its own pool, private lift, gym, cinema and double-height living room. This is not an apartment with building amenities; it is a villa lifted onto a floor, where the infrastructure is private rather than shared.

Construction has been running since January 2024 with a stated handover of December 2025. At the time of writing the building is still listed as under development, so that date has passed. The Land Department puts the construction value at AED 173 million.

What "thirteen neighbours" actually buys

The unit count is the product. In a building with thirteen owners there is no queue for the lift, no stranger in the lobby and no argument about house rules in a five-hundred-person chat. The shared areas belong, in practice, to a few families.

The same coin has a second face: the service charge. Maintaining the common parts, security, lifts and grounds is divided between thirteen owners rather than five hundred. In absolute dirhams the annual bill here will be noticeably higher than in a comparable tower, and it should be counted in dirhams rather than as a rate per foot.

The third consequence is the market. Thirteen lots mean there will be almost no public statistics on the building: deals are few and irregular, and the price is set by the specific negotiation rather than by an index. The reference points have to come from neighbours — One Canal, Four Seasons Private Residences, Casa Canal.

Location

The address is Jumeirah 2, the northern bank of the Dubai Water Canal. This is old low-rise Jumeirah: villas, schools, clinics, and Jumeirah Beach a couple of minutes away. Water in front, sea behind.

The immediate neighbours along the bank are Mr. C Residences and The Melgrano; a little further west, Four Seasons Private Residences and Eden House The Canal. Opposite, across the water, is Al Wasl with Cavalli Couture and Casa Canal.

The Jumeirah bank is dearer than the other side, and the deals bear it out: Four Seasons Private Residences recorded prices above AED 14,000 per square foot, while the Al Wasl side traded in a range of AED 3,500–5,300. The difference in address costs real money here.

Who it suits

This is a building for exactly one case — living in it yourself. A seven-bedroom residence of some 1,500 square metres does not let in any ordinary sense: the pool of tenants at that level in Dubai runs to dozens of people.

The second possible case is a family asset meant to be passed on. Thirteen Foster + Partners residences on a waterfront where no new plots will appear is about rarity, not about yield.

It does not suit an investor on a two- or three-year horizon: selling takes months, the buyer is found by introduction, and the price is always negotiated.

The Rings factsheet on propsearch and the Dubai Land Department construction valuation. Waterfront price comparisons come from registry deals in neighbouring buildings.