Aldar Properties

Two engines that do not move together

Aldar runs an Abu Dhabi property platform with two distinct halves. Aldar Development sells its own projects in the UAE, SODIC in Egypt and London Square in the United Kingdom, and separately manages a large portfolio of government housing and infrastructure projects. Aldar Investment owns and operates commercial, residential, retail and industrial-logistics property, hotels, schools, and the Aldar Estates property and facilities management business.

The distinction matters because the two halves respond to different things. Development economics turn on launches, sales, collections, cancellations, construction progress, handovers, land cost and the remaining cost to complete. Investment economics turn on net operating income, occupancy, rent, the weighted average unexpired lease term, tenant concentration, gross asset value, capital expenditure and asset-level debt.

What the FY2025 and H1 2026 numbers actually say

For FY2025 Aldar Development reported sales of AED 40.6 billion and a development backlog of AED 71.7 billion. Within the separate Aldar Investment platform, the Investment Properties segment reported net operating income of AED 2.232 billion, while total Aldar Investment net operating income was AED 3.736 billion across its wider recurring-income perimeter. Aldar Investment gross asset value was AED 31.936 billion. These are different operating perimeters and are not additive. The first half of 2026 then split in two directions: group sales fell 34% and UAE sales 46%, while the backlog held at AED 71.6 billion, development revenue rose 10% and Aldar Investment adjusted EBITDA rose 18%.

Read together, that is a slowdown in new sales alongside continued conversion of work already sold. It is an open question, not a demonstrated collapse in earnings — and the two halves of the business are the reason a single headline number cannot answer it.

Three places where a figure can be misread

The project management backlog is not owned presales. Aldar executes large government housing and infrastructure projects, and that platform's backlog is neither a consolidated revenue forecast nor a claim on the group's own margin.

Presales become accounting revenue only under recognition rules. A backlog figure is neither profit nor cash, and the conversion path is not disclosed project by project.

Assets under management and gross asset value use a different perimeter from the IFRS investment property carrying amount. The two numbers are both correct and not interchangeable.

Where the evidence stops

Acquisitions, land and joint-venture transactions, related-party dealings, escrow definitions, hybrid instruments and non-controlling interests all sit between consolidated growth and what reaches the parent. Per-project backlog conversion and a parent-level net debt bridge are not in public disclosure. This page carries no price, no fair value and no investment conclusion.