Sobha Orbis Tower A

The first of three Sobha towers in Motor City, 36 storeys. The complex launched all at once, and the materials cover all three buildings together.

What kind of building this is

Sobha Orbis Tower A is a 36-storey residential skyscraper in Motor City, developed by Sobha Realty, currently under construction. It's the first building in a complex of three towers launched at the same time.

Our renders cover the complex as a whole rather than Tower A specifically — that's how they were issued at launch. Worth keeping in mind: the render shows all three buildings and the shared grounds, but you're buying one specific tower.

Sobha builds with its own resources, without a main contractor. In practice that's the company's central selling point, and it's something to check against its own completed projects in other districts rather than take on faith.

What Motor City means

Motor City is a district in the south of the city, built up along the racetrack it grew around. The area is already established: mid-segment residential blocks, schools, a shopping centre, and a lot of greenery by Dubai standards.

For a tenant the district works well with a car and poorly without one — there's no metro within walking distance. Demand comes from families who value space and don't mind commuting.

The arrival of three Sobha towers changes the picture for the district: this is a noticeably higher class of development than what was there before. For early buyers that's an opportunity; for estimating the rental rate, it's a risk, because there are no comparable buildings in the district yet.

What to check

First, exactly which tower and which direction the apartment faces. In a complex of three buildings, some windows inevitably look straight at the neighbouring block, and the master plan shows that in advance.

Second, the handover order. The towers don't complete at the same time, and moving into the first one means living next to construction on the rest.

Third, the rental benchmark. Calculating yield off current Motor City rates isn't accurate — there are no buildings of this class there yet. It's more sensible to use the lower end of comparable-class buildings in neighbouring districts and verify it after handover.

The propsearch building factsheet (storey count, district, construction stage) and developer renders from the sales-launch materials for the three-tower complex.