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BILDCO and Wujod Real Estate Development have signed a strategic partnership to develop a 10 million square metre integrated sustainable city in Abu Dhabi, with first-phase investment of AED 2 billion ($544 million), positioned as one of the region's most ambitious low-density master-planned projects.
May 25, 2026 | Riya Malhotra | UAE | Developers
Abu Dhabi National Company for Building Materials (BILDCO) and Wujod Real Estate Development have announced a strategic partnership to develop a 10 million square metre integrated sustainable city in Abu Dhabi, a project the two firms have positioned as one of the region's most ambitious low-density master-planned developments.
The first phase carries an investment of AED 2 billion ($544 million), with the full development covering approximately 107 million square feet. Implementation will proceed in line with approved development plans and regulatory requirements.
The project's defining characteristic is its deliberate low-density model. In a UAE market dominated by high-rise, high-density residential supply, the BILDCO–Wujod proposition is a curated ecosystem combining ecological estate living, wellness destinations, equestrian and golf facilities, innovation hubs, productive landscapes, and tourism-linked hospitality assets. The master plan explicitly aims to define what the developers describe as a new category of lifestyle-led, sustainability-driven urban development.
For context, the project is materially larger than most contemporary master communities in the UAE. At 10 million square metres, the initial phase alone is several times the size of typical mid-sized Dubai master communities and underscores the scale at which Abu Dhabi is now able to allocate land for sustainability-focused, low-density projects, a function of land availability that Dubai's mature urban core no longer offers.
The partnership structure is notable. BILDCO, listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, is the UAE capital's largest specialist building materials and construction solutions company, and brings infrastructure-level supply capability to the project. Wujod Real Estate Development, founded and led by CEO Issa Ataya, is Dubai-based, an inter-emirate alignment that signals continued capital and operational flow between the two emirates as Abu Dhabi accelerates its low-density development pipeline.
For BILDCO specifically, this is the second major sustainability-anchored real estate partnership the firm has been associated with in recent months, suggesting a deliberate strategy of moving from materials supplier toward integrated development partner, a positioning shift that several of the region's larger materials businesses have been signalling.
The development sits explicitly within Abu Dhabi's economic diversification strategy. Acting CEO of BILDCO Shamsa Sulaiman Alfahim said the partnership supports the UAE's vision for sustainable urban growth, while Wujod's Issa Ataya framed the project as aligned with Abu Dhabi's priorities across economic diversification, sustainability leadership, tourism growth, wellness economies, innovation ecosystems, food security initiatives, and private capital attraction.
This positioning matters because Abu Dhabi's residential market enters 2026 with a measured supply pipeline, Cavendish Maxwell projects actual 2026 deliveries of 6,500 to 9,000 units against a headline forecast of around 15,900 units. A 10 million square metre, low-density, multi-decade development sits structurally outside the standard supply equation, instead representing a separate category of land use focused on long-term destination-building rather than near-term inventory delivery.
For developers, planners, FM operators, and community management companies watching Abu Dhabi's development pipeline, the BILDCO–Wujod project is one of several recent signals that the UAE capital is positioning itself for a different kind of development cycle, one defined by scale, sustainability, and integrated lifestyle infrastructure rather than density.
Sources: BILDCO (Abu Dhabi National Company for Building Materials) and Wujod Real Estate Development joint announcement, May 2026, as carried by Khaleej Times, Gulf News, Zawya, Trade Arabia, and Enterprise AM UAE; statements from Shamsa Sulaiman Alfahim, Acting Chief Executive Officer, BILDCO, and Issa Ataya, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Wujod Real Estate Development, via company communications; supporting context referenced from Cavendish Maxwell Abu Dhabi Residential Market Performance Q3 2025 report and the broader Abu Dhabi economic diversification strategy framework.
