We get this question often enough that it deserves a direct answer rather than a vague redirection, so here it is plainly. No, Al Maryah Island does not have villas or townhouses, and there is no meaningful supply of low rise, land based housing anywhere on the island. Every residential option on Al Maryah is an apartment in a high rise tower. If a villa or a house with its own plot of land is what you are looking for, Al Maryah Island is not the answer, no matter how it is described in a marketing brochure or by an agent trying to keep you interested in a listing that does not match what you asked for.
It helps to understand why this is the case rather than just accept it as a rule, because the reason tells you something useful about how to think about the island going forward. Al Maryah is Abu Dhabi's financial free zone, home to ADGM, and it was master planned from the outset as a dense, mixed use financial and commercial district, not a residential suburb. The land use plan prioritises tower footprints that maximise commercial and residential density around a compact, walkable core built around the Galleria, the Four Seasons, Cleveland Clinic and the ADGM courts and registration authority buildings. There was never a phase of the master plan that allocated land to villa plots, and the island's total land area is small enough that doing so would have meant sacrificing the density that makes the free zone model work financially in the first place.
This is structurally different from how Yas Island, Saadiyat Island or the mainland communities around Abu Dhabi were planned. Those areas were designed from the start with a mix of villa communities, townhouse clusters and apartment towers, because they had the land area to support that mix and the strategic goal was broad based residential development rather than a concentrated financial district. Al Maryah's total footprint is a fraction of Yas or Saadiyat, and effectively all of it is committed to towers, retail podiums, the hospital campus and the ADGM commercial buildings. There is no undeveloped land parcel on the island sitting in reserve for a future villa phase, because the master plan was never structured that way.
Buyers sometimes ask whether this could change over time as the island matures, and the honest answer is that it is extremely unlikely. Land on Al Maryah is scarce and valuable specifically because of its density and its proximity to the financial district amenities. Any remaining developable plots are far more likely to be built out as additional high rise towers, whether residential, commercial or hospitality, than converted to low rise villa use, because the economics of villa development do not come close to justifying the land cost on an island this central and this tightly held. If you are waiting for Al Maryah to eventually offer villas, you will be waiting indefinitely, and we would rather tell you that directly than let you hold out on a hope that has no real basis in the master plan.
None of this means Al Maryah is a lesser choice. It means it is a different kind of choice, built for a different kind of buyer, and understanding that distinction upfront saves everyone time. Al Maryah suits a buyer who wants to walk to work at an ADGM registered firm, who values being minutes from Cleveland Clinic, who wants five star hotel style amenities and services attached to their home through the Four Seasons and now Jumeirah branded towers, and who is comfortable with, or actively prefers, apartment living with a strong building management structure handling maintenance, security and common areas. That is a legitimate and increasingly common preference among senior professionals, empty nesters downsizing from larger homes, and international buyers who want a lock up and leave property they are not maintaining themselves.
If what you actually want is a villa or a townhouse in Abu Dhabi, the good news is that the city has strong options elsewhere, and we would rather point you toward them directly than sell you an apartment that does not meet your brief. Saadiyat Island offers villa communities like Saadiyat Beach Villas and Saadiyat Reserve, with direct beach access and a lower density, more suburban feel that is the closest thing Abu Dhabi has to a genuine villa lifestyle combined with cultural district proximity through the Louvre and Guggenheim developments. Yas Island offers a broader range of villa and townhouse communities across a range of price points, from more accessible options to premium waterfront villas, alongside its entertainment and leisure draw through the theme parks and Yas Marina Circuit. Both of these areas are worth a serious look if land, private outdoor space and a lower density environment matter more to you than walking distance to a financial district.
For buyers who are torn between the two lifestyles, it is worth being clear eyed about what you are actually optimising for, because Al Maryah and a villa community answer genuinely different questions. If your priority is minimising commute to ADGM or to Cleveland Clinic, or you want a fully serviced apartment lifestyle with hotel grade amenities and no garden or private pool to maintain, Al Maryah remains one of the strongest choices in Abu Dhabi and nothing about the villa question changes that. If your priority is private outdoor space, a garden for children or pets, more square footage per dirham, or a quieter, lower density residential feel, a villa community on Saadiyat or Yas will serve you far better than any apartment on Al Maryah, no matter how large the unit.
There is also a hybrid path some of our clients take, and it is worth mentioning because it resolves the tension for a specific kind of household. Some buyers hold an apartment on Al Maryah as a primary residence or investment tied to work in the financial district, while owning or renting a villa on Saadiyat or Yas for weekends and family time, particularly where children are young and benefit from garden space and proximity to beach clubs on those islands. This is not a budget solution and it will not suit every buyer, but for households with the means to support two properties it is a genuinely common pattern in the Abu Dhabi market and worth discussing with an advisor before assuming you must choose only one.
The bottom line is straightforward and we would rather give it to you plainly than let a listing agent waste your time. Al Maryah Island is apartments only, built around a financial free zone, a hospital and a luxury retail and hospitality core, and that is not changing because the land use does not support it. If that matches what you want from a home or an investment, the island offers some of the strongest fundamentals in Abu Dhabi, including the rental yields and the branded product now coming through Jumeirah Residences. If a villa is genuinely what you are after, save yourself the search time on Al Maryah and start with Saadiyat or Yas instead, where the product actually exists and the tradeoffs work in your favour rather than against you.