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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Nakheel has awarded a contract to upgrade about 3 km of shoreline on Island B of Dubai Islands and to form a new stretch of beach there, Khaleej Times reported on 8 October 2026. The work has gone to Mar Marine & Building Contracting and is expected to be finished in the fourth quarter of 2027.
It is the second announcement about Dubai Islands in three days. On 6 October the trade title Middle East Construction News reported that Nakheel had unveiled Bay Estate, a community of about 360 three- and four-bedroom homes inside a masterplan of 653,709 sq m. Read together, the two reports show a developer working on the coast and on the housing behind it at the same time, and they also show how much is still not public: neither announcement comes with a price.
Khaleej Times, 8 October 2026, reporting Nakheel's contract award to Mar Marine & Building Contracting.
What the shoreline contract covers
According to Khaleej Times, the contract is for marine and beach works along roughly 3 km of the western shoreline of Island B. Three kinds of work are named: new breakwaters, the formation of beach, and the refurbishment of coastal areas that already exist. The report says the works will add 320 metres of new beach frontage near Bay Villas, a villa and townhouse community on the same island.
The two lengths are worth keeping apart. The 3 km is the stretch of coast being worked on. The 320 metres is the new beach that comes out of it, which is about a tenth of that stretch. The rest of the scope, as Khaleej Times describes it, is protection and repair: breakwaters on the sea side and refurbishment of the existing coastal areas.
Related readBuying off the plan in New South Wales: what the law gives a buyerThe developer is Nakheel, which Khaleej Times describes as a member of Dubai Holding Real Estate. The contractor is Mar Marine & Building Contracting L.L.C. The value of the contract has not been disclosed. Gulf News, in a report by its business desk carrying a "last updated" stamp of 8 October, gives the same figures and dates the announcement to that day.
Two people are named in the Khaleej Times report in their professional roles: Khalid Al Malik, chief executive of Dubai Holding Real Estate, and Nabil Abou Rjaili, general manager of Mar Marine. Mr Al Malik, as the newspaper reports him, presented the works as a way of giving the island a high-quality coastal setting that advances at the same pace as the wider masterplan.
Three contracts on one island
The shoreline award is the third contract on Island B that the sources describe. Khaleej Times recalls the two that came before it, and they explain why a beach contract arrives now.
The largest is the construction contract for Bay Villas, which Khaleej Times puts at AED 2.6 billion and says went to Fibrex Contracting L.L.C. Bay Villas is a community of 636 villas and townhouses. The second, awarded in April 2026 according to the same report, is an AED 527 million contract with Al Nasr Contracting Company for primary infrastructure and utilities on the island.
| Work | Contractor | Value | Timing in the reports |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bay Villas, 636 villas and townhouses | Fibrex Contracting | AED 2.6 billion | Awarded "last August" (Khaleej Times); August 2025 (Gulf News) |
| Primary infrastructure and utilities | Al Nasr Contracting Company | AED 527 million | Awarded April 2026 |
| Marine and beach works, about 3 km | Mar Marine & Building Contracting | Not disclosed | Reported 8 October 2026; completion expected Q4 2027 |
Khaleej Times, 8 October 2026; Gulf News, last updated 8 October 2026.
The two contracts with a published value add up to AED 3.127 billion. That is a floor for what has been committed on Island B, not a total, because the marine contract has no public figure.
Related readSingapore's Canberra Drive EC site draws 13 bids and a record land priceOne detail differs between the two newspapers. Khaleej Times says the Bay Villas contract was awarded "last August"; Gulf News gives August 2025. The Gulf News date is the more precise of the two. On that date, the order of events is homes first, then infrastructure and utilities in April 2026, then the coast in October 2026.
Each contract has gone to a different firm, and each covers a different trade: house building, infrastructure, marine works. The material reviewed for this article does not show how the three programmes are co-ordinated on site, nor when Bay Villas itself is due for handover.
Bay Estate, the new community
Two days before the shoreline award, Middle East Construction News reported that Nakheel had unveiled Bay Estate on Dubai Islands. The title is trade press, published by CPI Trade Media, and it is the only source for this part of the story in the material reviewed for this article. Its account should be read on that basis.
According to that report, Bay Estate holds approximately 360 homes with three or four bedrooms, arranged in three collections named Cala, Verda and Agora. The masterplan it sits in covers 653,709 sq m, with 2.4 km of beachfront and 6.5 km of waterfront. More than 12,000 residents are planned at full completion.
Those last two figures do not appear to describe the same thing. About 360 homes would not on their own house 12,000 people, which suggests that the population figure belongs to the masterplan at full completion, while the 360 homes are what has been unveiled. The report as reviewed does not spell that out, nor what else the masterplan will contain.
Related readSingapore's Government Land Sales programme: how the two lists workThe report quotes Mr Al Malik on the wider project. "Dubai Islands represents one of the most significant opportunities to shape the future of waterfront living in Dubai," he said, according to Middle East Construction News.
The names are close enough to confuse. Bay Villas is the 636-home community on Island B that is already under a construction contract. Bay Estate is the newly unveiled community of about 360 homes. The material reviewed does not show on which of the islands Bay Estate stands, and this article does not assume it.
How both projects sit in the masterplan
Dubai Islands is a group of five islands. The figures for the whole project are the same across the three sources: more than 230,000 residents, about 62,000 homes, more than 11,000 hotel keys and more than 4,000 branded residences. Middle East Construction News adds two 18-hole championship golf courses, eight marinas, three bridges to the mainland, and about 57 km of added coastline, of which 21 km is beachfront. It places the project within 10 km of Dubai International Airport and 15 km of Downtown Dubai.
Against those totals, this week's announcements are small pieces of a very large plan.
| Measure | Bay Estate masterplan | Dubai Islands | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planned residents | More than 12,000 | More than 230,000 | About 5% |
| Beachfront | 2.4 km | 21 km | About 11% |
| Area | 653,709 sq m | 18.6 sq km | About 3.5% |
Middle East Construction News, 6 October 2026. Shares computed from the reported figures.
The comparison says something about the kind of place Bay Estate is meant to be. Its masterplan takes about 3.5 per cent of the land and about 5 per cent of the planned population, but about 11 per cent of the beachfront. In other words it has more coast per resident than the project as a whole.
The home counts tell the same story of scale from another side. Bay Villas, with 636 homes, is about 1 per cent of the 62,000 homes planned across the islands. The 360 homes of Bay Estate are a little over half of 1 per cent. Together the two communities come to 996 homes.
Related readSingapore: Lucerne Grand 61% sold as The Serra Residences previewsThe size of Dubai Islands is given in two different units
Khaleej Times writes that the masterplan spans 18.6 km. Gulf News and Middle East Construction News both give 18.6 sq km, an area. The table above uses the area, as two of the three sources do, and readers should treat the Khaleej Times wording as the outlier.
What the reports leave open
For anyone who sells, buys or values property on the islands, the useful part of this week's news is the dates, and the gaps are just as plain.
On the shoreline, there is one firm date: completion expected in the fourth quarter of 2027. The material reviewed for this article holds no start date for the works, no phasing plan, and no detail on access to the coast while the works are under way. Nor does it show whether the new beach will be open to the public or reserved for residents. Those are questions a buyer looking at a home near that shoreline would reasonably ask, and the answers are not in the reports reviewed.
On Bay Estate, the trade report gives the number and size of the homes and the names of the three collections. It gives no prices, no launch date and no sales date. A community that has been unveiled is not the same thing as one that has been released for sale, and nothing in the source says which stage Bay Estate has reached beyond the unveiling itself.
On money, only two of the Island B contracts carry a value. The cost of the marine works is undisclosed, so no total for the island can be stated.
There is also more Dubai Islands news than these two items. The Gulf News page that carried the shoreline story listed related headlines on a contract for 537 homes on Dubai Islands and on villa contracts at Palm Jebel Ali. Those reports were not reviewed for this article and their figures are not used here.
Related readUS residential construction spending rose 1.1% in August 2026A builder moves elsewhere in the UAE
One other piece of contracting news from the same week comes from outside Dubai and is worth a short note, because it shows a different way of getting homes built. On 7 October, Middle East Construction News reported that Roberts Co, which it describes as an Australian tier-one contractor acquired by the developer Arada last year, is launching in the UAE. Its first project is in Arada Central Business District, part of the Aljada project in Sharjah, which the title values at US$9.53 billion.
The report names Ahmed Alkhoshaibi, group chief executive of Arada, and George Kostas, chief executive of Roberts Co. Mr Alkhoshaibi, as the title reports him, said the move lets the group bring in skills and innovation from other parts of the world.
The contrast with Island B is one of method only. There, by the newspapers' account, Nakheel has placed three packages with three separate outside firms. Arada, by the trade title's account, is building up construction capacity inside its own group. The sources draw no conclusion about which approach delivers faster or cheaper, and none is drawn here.
What comes next
The calendar that can be taken from the sources is short. The marine and beach works on Island B are due for completion in the fourth quarter of 2027. The infrastructure and utilities contract awarded in April 2026 and the Bay Villas construction contract concern the same island, with no completion dates given in the reports reviewed.
For Bay Estate, the next facts to look for are the ones missing from the first report: prices and a sales launch. Until an established newspaper or the developer publishes them with a date, the 360 homes and the 12,000 residents remain announced figures from a single trade source.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
