When a client asks me about ORLA, the question is rarely whether it is a beautiful building. It is whether the price per square foot holds up, and what the registered sales actually show now that the residence is close to completion. The Dubai Land Department record is unusually clear on this one, so it is worth reading carefully.
What ORLA is
ORLA is OMNIYAT's Dorchester Collection residence on Palm Jumeirah, designed by Foster + Partners, with interiors by YODEZEEN, landscape by ZED Collective and beach mansions by SAOTA. It is the portfolio's broadest offer: 92 homes running from two-bedroom residences to mansions of more than 50,000 sq ft, including 32 duplexes on floors 2 to 11, two super penthouses and a Sky Palace. Completion is scheduled for 2026, and bespoke furnishing is available on request through OMNIYAT Atelier.
That range matters when you read the data. A building where a three-bedroom simplex and a beachfront mansion sit in the same register will always produce headline medians that move with the mix, so I look at price per square foot first and the medians second.
Four years of registered sales
Since the first registrations in 2022, ORLA has recorded 89 sales. The pattern is the familiar one for a prime launch on the Palm:
- 2022: 8 sales, at a median of AED 7,057 per sq ft.
- 2023: 48 sales, the main release year, at AED 6,934 per sq ft.
- 2024: 19 sales, at AED 7,038 per sq ft.
- 2025: 9 sales, at AED 6,908 per sq ft.
- 2026 to date: 5 sales, at AED 7,001 per sq ft.
What stands out is how little the price per square foot has moved. Across four and a half years and very different volumes, the yearly median has stayed between AED 6,908 and AED 7,057 per sq ft. Over the last twelve months the five registered sales came to a combined AED 212.8 million, with a median of AED 7,000 per sq ft. Five deals is a thin sample, and I would not read a trend into any single year, but the consistency over the full period is itself the finding.
From allocation to resale
The more interesting change is who is selling. Of the 89 sales, 79 were primary allocations from OMNIYAT and 10 were resales. Resales first appeared in 2024, with 3 that year, 3 in 2025 and 4 so far in 2026, at yearly medians of AED 7,172, AED 6,793 and AED 6,949 per sq ft. This year, four of the five registered sales have been resales.
In practice, that means the developer's inventory has largely been placed and the building now trades between owners, which is what I would expect at this stage of construction. For a buyer, the conversation changes from choosing a floor plan from a release to finding the right residence among a small number of owners willing to sell. For an owner, it means the comparable evidence is now set by resales rather than by launch pricing.
The premium the Palm has been closing
The context around ORLA has moved more than ORLA itself. Across all registered sales on Palm Jumeirah, the median price per square foot rose from AED 2,764 in 2022 to AED 3,547 in 2026 to date. Over the last twelve months, Palm apartments alone recorded a median of AED 3,400 per sq ft, up 14.22% on the year before.
Put simply, ORLA's yearly median was about two and a half times the Palm-wide figure in 2022, and is a little under twice it in 2026. The building has held its level while the island has risen towards it. I would be careful about reading that as either a bargain or a warning: the Palm median is an average across very different stock, from older towers to new launches, and ORLA's own figures are a small number of large homes. What it does tell you is that the gap between a branded, Foster-designed Palm residence and the wider island is narrower today than when ORLA launched.
How I read it
For someone considering ORLA, I would weigh three things. First, the price per square foot has been stable for four years, so the useful question is which residence, not which moment. Second, resales are now the market, so the evidence that matters is the last handful of owner-to-owner sales in the same bedroom type. Third, completion changes the picture: once residents move in, the rental record starts, as it did at One at Palm, which you can follow in our Rental Index.
If you would like the registered evidence for a specific ORLA residence, or to hear quietly about what may be available, send me a private enquiry.
Figures: DXB Interact, aggregates of Dubai Land Department registered sales, data as of 3 November 2026. ORLA: yearly sales volumes and median price per sq ft, 2022 to 2026 year to date, split primary and resale; trailing twelve months for the combined value and median. Palm Jumeirah: median price per sq ft of all registered sales by year, and apartments over the trailing twelve months. Building details from OMNIYAT and alihmoud.com. Medians only, and where fewer than ten sales are involved the figures are indicative. Past prices are not a forecast.