Published: 14 September 2026
A custom-built villa on an exceptionally large plot in a sought-after part of the prestigious Emirates Hills has changed hands for AED 75 million. The home sits on an enviable plot, with views stretching across the Montgomerie Golf Course, the lake and the wider Dubai skyline. The sale marks the beginning of an ambitious transformation for the property, and stands as a telling indicator of just how much strength remains in Dubai's most established mansion community. The sale was completed by Peter Blenman, a Director at Dubai Sotheby’s International Realty, working with Executive Director Leigh Borg, a longstanding specialist in Emirates Hills.
An ambitious renovation ahead
The buyer intends to carry out a complete renovation of the property, extending it beyond 20,000 sq. ft. It is an undertaking on a genuinely significant scale, but not an unfamiliar one for this particular client, who has already completed successful renovation projects in Jumeirah Golf Estates and Arabian Ranches. This will, however, be their first project within Emirates Hills itself, a community that places its own distinct demands on design and execution given the calibre of homes that surround any given plot.
Peter will continue to work closely with the client throughout the design, extension and renovation process, with the intention of bringing the completed property back to the market once the transformation is complete. It is the kind of long-term collaboration that has become increasingly common at this level of the market, where buyers are looking well beyond the point of purchase towards how a home can be reshaped, and ultimately repositioned, over time.
Why the location mattered most
For this buyer, location was the deciding factor above all else. The strength of this particular position was underlined only last year, when a villa just a few doors away sold through Dubai Sotheby's International Realty for AED 425 million, a figure that speaks to the long-term potential this address continues to hold.
That kind of benchmark matters in a community like Emirates Hills, where no further land is available and every villa sits on a mature, fully landscaped plot. With no new supply able to enter the market, each transaction effectively becomes a fresh data point for the value of an address that cannot be replicated elsewhere in Dubai.
A record-setting summer season
Leigh Borg, who collaborated on this transaction and helped bring it to a close, has been operating in Emirates Hills for over 11 years and knows the community well enough to recognise each blade of grass on the golf course. This represented his fourth successful transfer in Emirates Hills within a period of roughly six weeks. It was also the highest-value sale completed by Peter Blenman to date, and his first finalised transaction within Emirates Hills specifically, a milestone that reflects the deepening relationships our team continues to build within this community.
The enduring story of Emirates Hills
Emirates Hills has long been regarded as Dubai's classic mansion address, prized for its mature landscaping, its privacy and its position around the Montgomerie Golf Course. Because the community was completed years ago and no further plots remain, every villa that comes to market represents a genuinely finite opportunity, one that continues to draw buyers who are prepared to wait, sometimes for years, for the right property to become available.
That scarcity is increasingly reflected in the numbers. Villas across Emirates Hills now change hands from around AED 35 million for older, unrenovated homes up to AED 150 million or more for fully refurbished mansions, with select off-market transactions on the strongest plots reported to have exceeded AED 250 million.
A snapshot: super-prime real estate in 2026
The wider ultra-prime market tells a similar story: recent industry figures show that Dubai recorded 296 residential transactions above USD 10 million in the first half of 2026, a 14 per cent increase in combined value and a 16 per cent rise in transaction volume year-on-year, figures that place the emirate among the strongest ultra-luxury markets anywhere in the world. Dubai Land Department data for the same period points in the same direction, with luxury real estate investment up 26 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter alone.
Growth across Dubai's broader residential market has moderated somewhat this year, which most analysts read as a natural and welcome maturing of a cycle that saw exceptional gains between 2023 and 2025, rather than any loss of momentum. The impact of regional instability, which was initially feared to be significant and potentially damaging for the market, has been markedly minimal and in line with the market’s natural trajectory. Within that wider picture, the ultra-prime segment, and Emirates Hills in particular, continues to perform strongly, insulated by a simple fact: there is no more land left to build on, and the buyers who want a place here are not inclined to wait for a discount.
For a buyer now embarking on a full renovation of one of the community's finest plots, that backdrop offers real reassurance. Few addresses in Dubai combine such enduring scarcity with such consistent demand, and fewer still reward the kind of patient, considered investment this project represents.
