Ellington Properties Projects in Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah

The short answer

Ellington Properties is a private Dubai developer, founded in 2014, that builds design-focused apartment buildings and a few villa and office projects. It has completed buildings in JVC, MBR City, Downtown Dubai and Dubai Hills, and since late 2024 has built in Ras Al Khaimah too. The trade-off: it is building more at once than ever, and two current projects are past their first stated dates.

Track record

Robert Booth, a former chief executive of Emaar’s Dubai operations, and Joseph Thomas founded Ellington in 2014, backed by two private investors (The National, April 2016). Booth is managing director today, and Elie Naaman, the third co-founder, is chief executive (Ellington, checked October 2026).

Its first building was Belgravia, 181 homes in JVC (The National, April 2016), launched in 2015 and handed over in 2017, according to Ellington’s own timeline. The same timeline records handovers of DT1 in Downtown Dubai in 2021 and Wilton Terraces, 283 apartments in MBR City, in 2022 (Gulf News, March 2022).

Later handovers include Berkeley Place, 127 apartments in MBR City, in January 2025, and Ellington House in Dubai Hills during 2025 (Ellington, 2025). Ellington House II and Arbor View in Arjan followed in May 2026 (Khaleej Times, May 2026).

Two current projects are behind their first dates. UH by Ellington, 754 homes in JLT, was due in early 2026 at launch (Gulf News, January 2023). The Sanctuary, Ellington’s first villa community, was due in Q2 2026 when the main contract was awarded (Gulf News, December 2024). In Ellington’s own construction photos for August 2026, both were still being built.

The pace has changed too. Ellington’s timeline shows no more than three launches a year up to 2021; in 2024 it launched 14 (Forbes Middle East, April 2025). That is the reason to check each project’s progress rather than rely on the name.

What their homes are like

Most Ellington projects on this site are apartment buildings, studios to penthouses, inside master communities run by others: JVC, Mohammed Bin Rashid City, JLT, Business Bay and Dubai Hills Estate. MBR City has the largest share. Newer launches lean towards the water, on Dubai Islands, Palm Jumeirah, Jumeirah Islands and Al Marjan Island.

Villas and townhouses are rare: The Sanctuary and The Watercrest, both in MBR City. There is one office tower, Eaton Square, sold a whole floor at a time. Portside Square in Mina Rashid adds a business tower to its three residential towers.

Ellington’s awards list is long, and most of it is International Property Awards for architecture, kitchens, bathrooms and show homes (Ellington’s website, checked October 2026). Those awards judge the design, not handover dates or running costs.

Ellington hires outside main contractors. Aroma International, its partner for over seven years, holds AED 600M of contracts for The Sanctuary (Gulf News, December 2024). Ask who is building yours.

Who they suit, and who they don’t

Ellington suits a buyer who wants a 1- or 2-bedroom apartment in a design-focused building with large shared facilities. It also suits buyers who want to see a finished Ellington building first: Ellington House, Ellington House II and Wilton Park Residences 2 are ready to move in.

It suits less well if you need a firm handover date, for a lease that ends or a mortgage offer that expires; the two projects above show why. Nor does it build whole communities with their own schools: the area around an Ellington building belongs to the master developer.

What Diamond checks before recommending an Ellington project

• Registration and escrow. In Dubai, each off-plan project must be registered with the Dubai Land Department (DLD). Buyers’ payments go into an escrow account in the project’s name, used only to build it (Law No. 8 of 2007). Diamond confirms both in the DLD’s Dubai REST app before any payment.
• Ras Al Khaimah is different. Projects there, such as Soto Grande and Costa Mare, come under the emirate’s own Law No. 12 of 2023 and its regulator, RERA-RAK. Dubai’s escrow law and the DLD play no part. Diamond checks the project’s RERA-RAK registration and escrow trustee (see the Ras Al Khaimah guide).
• Who you are buying from. UH was developed with DMCC, and One River Point and Art Bay carry the Dutco Ellington name (Gulf News, February 2024). For these, she checks which company signs the sale contract.
• Progress against the plan. Ellington posts site photos for its projects most months. She compares them with the payment schedule and handover date, and reads the contract’s terms on late completion.
• The payment plan. Plans on this site run from 70/30 (Eltiera Views, Portside Square) to half paid on completion (Ellington Views I), per the developer’s plans. That decides how much cash you tie up before handover.
• Service charges. For a completed building, she checks the approved rate in the DLD’s service charge index. For an off-plan one, the figure is only an estimate.
• Rental-return offers. Where a launch comes with one, she reads who pays it, for how long, and what happens when it ends.

Message Diamond on WhatsApp with the Ellington project you are weighing, for her read on its registration, build progress and payment plan.