Land from the sea: reclaimed districts and artificial islands, and what a buyer actually gets

Land made from the sea is one of the few places where property records are still being set, and also one of the places where the fine print matters most. This article puts six reclaimed or artificial-island stories side by side, each with the source and date we found, and then asks what a buyer actually gets. It reuses what we published in our country articles and adds nothing that we could not trace. None of these properties is offered through us, prices change, and several figures are reports or developer claims, not registered facts.

Six places, six very different claims

• Monaco, Mareterra. The new district built into the sea was reported inaugurated at the end of 2024, with 136 of its 140 apartments sold by mid-2022 (Monaco Life). Prices are disputed: Knight Frank's 2025 report, as summarised in search results, said some units passed 100,000 euros per square metre, unofficial estimates run from 100,000 to 130,000, and the official average for the district is lower. Monaco Tribune reported on 24 April 2026, citing documents seen by Bloomberg Businessweek, that an apartment in the Le Renzo building there changed hands for 471 million euros. The parties did not confirm it, we name nobody and we state no year. See Monaco.
• Dubai, the Palm and The World. Khaleej Times reported a beachfront villa at Six Senses Palm Jumeirah sold for AED 130 million in 2024. Gulf News reported a villa on Amali Island, part of The World archipelago, sold for AED 220 million; the developer says the sale closed in March 2026 and gives its own plot and floor-area figures, which differ slightly from the registry app figures Gulf News used. We found no reliable source on what a foreign buyer may own on The World islands or on the delivery status of each project there. See the UAE.
• Bahrain. Reef Island, Durrat Al Bahrain, Amwaj Islands, Diyar Al Muharraq and Bahrain Bay are master-planned developments, mostly on reclaimed land, not private islands. We found no verified record for a single sale there. See Bahrain.
• The Maldives, Hulhumale and the floating city. Market guides describe Hulhumale as an artificial island and an extension of the capital. The Maldives Floating City, a Dutch Docklands project with the government, was described as about 5,000 homes for about 20,000 residents at a cost of about 1 billion dollars with completion in 2027; prices from 150,000 dollars were reported by Business Insider citing CNN, and a 2022 report said the project had been remodelled into an integrated tourism project. We found no newer pricing. See the Maldives.
• Azerbaijan, the Khazar Islands. A planned archipelago off Baku with a cost that sources give as 60 to 100 billion dollars and completion planned for between 2020 and 2025. Wikipedia says progress seemed to have halted as of 2023 and the flagship tower was never built. We found no 2026 news and no sale of apartments. See Azerbaijan.
• Saudi Arabia, Sindalah. The first NEOM destination opened in October 2024 with 440 rooms, 88 villas and 218 hotel suites according to trade reports. We found no source saying the villas are sold to individuals, so we read it as a hospitality island. See Saudi Arabia.

What the buyer actually gets

The label "island" says nothing about the title. In practice the same word covers very different rights:

• Freehold in designated zones. In Bahrain, Trowers wrote in April 2026 that non-GCC nationals can hold freehold in designated zones and that outside them acquisition is generally not permitted, though leasehold or usufruct may be available. Commercial lists of zones differ, so the reference is the land registry's own map. Dubai works on a similar zone logic: freehold only in designated areas.
• Leasehold. In the Maldives the state owns the land. Three commercial sources disagree on the terms, from 30 to 50 years to 50 or 99 years, and we did not open the Constitution or the Land Act. The Housing Development Corporation's buying guide, as seen in a search summary, advises confirming that a developer is authorised by the corporation before paying anything beyond a small booking fee.
• A project, not a title. The Khazar Islands and parts of The World are offers of a plan. If delivery is stalled or unclear, you are lending the developer money.
• Hospitality, not ownership. A Sindalah stay is a booking.

The ground under it

Reclaimed land is built, not found, so the technical file matters. A student paper in a Memorial University journal describes Palm Jumeirah as dredged sand fill compacted by vibrocompaction. One video summary says engineers allowed for a 50 centimetre rise in sea level, which we could not check against a design document. A survey company was reported to have measured settlement of about 5 millimetres a year there, and the state-owned developer rejected the figure. We found no independent study of long-term settlement or maintenance cost, so treat the question as unresolved. It is a reason to ask for the geotechnical report, the sea-defence arrangements and the service charge, and to price insurance, not a reason to draw conclusions.

What this means for a normal buyer

• Start with the tenure. Ask in writing whether you would hold freehold, leasehold or only a right to use, for how long, and who owns the land under it.
• Check the plot against the official map, not the brochure. A project name does not prove the plot lies in a freehold zone.
• Treat off-plan as a loan. Check the developer, the escrow account and the permit before you pay: developer verification and escrow checklist and off-plan investment risks.
• Do not take a record as a price signal. A headline sale of an island villa is one deal, often a developer announcement.
• Ask for the technical and running-cost file: ground report, sea defences, service charges, insurance.
• Plan the exit. Resale pools are thin, and many buyers are foreigners who need the same permits you do. More background: island real estate, property in the Maldives for foreigners and buying property in Bahrain as a foreigner.

If you are weighing a property on new land, an independent buyer-side adviser such as D.H. Realting, based in Warsaw, can help compare options and bring in local lawyers who have been checked first.