We Didn't Follow The Market. We Bet On What It Could Become

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) BNW Developments chairman speaks about RAK's advantage and timing a decision to the moment before a market's story is obvious to everyone

Published: Fri 13 Nov 2026, 9:30 AM

By: Dr (CA) Ankur Aggarwal | Partner Content

When we asked the Ras Al Khaimah government for a plot on Al Marjan Island in 2022, there wasn't much to point to. No skyline. No sales data to build a pricing model from. No proof that anyone outside the region would buy an apartment sight unseen. Just a government with a plan, a resort licence that had just been awarded, and a stretch of coastline waiting for the cranes.

We could have stayed in Dubai. The comparables exist, the demand is proven, the buyer psychology is understood. Building where everyone already wants to build is a rational decision. It's the safer trade.

We went to RAK because the absence of a playbook was the opportunity, not the risk. Today, BNW Developments has projects on Al Marjan Island, RAK Central, and Marjan Beach, making us RAK's largest private developer. But the number of projects isn't really the point. The point is what being the first ones in an untapped market actually teaches you.

Pricing a project in Dubai meant studying what similar buildings nearby have sold for. In RAK in 2022, there was nothing to study. You had to build a case from infrastructure plans, tourism forecasts, and government commitments. Not being able to copy a model enforces a different kind of discipline: you build from scratch and then live with whether it holds.

For the first couple of years, the story was mostly on paper: announced infrastructure, a resort still under construction, population forecasts. It was easy to seem confident about the market in an interview. It was harder to keep building through the stretch where the proof hadn't arrived yet.

But look at what happened over time. RAK pulled in a strong Dh39 billion across projects: more foreign direct investment in 2025 than any other emirate, and capital behind new economic licenses kept growing by over 15 per cent year-on-year basis in the first quarter alone. The scenario people feared, a genuine collapse in transactions, never showed in the numbers. What we got instead of a market breakdown was a market catching its breath.

That distinction matters more than it sounds like it should, because it's the difference between a hype cycle and a real one. Hype cycles don't survive the shock real ones absorb. Which is what RAK's underlying fundamentals were always going to do, no matter the geopolitical climate. The population is projected to grow from around 450,000 today to 650,000 by 2030. The roads connecting RAK to Dubai are being rebuilt to cut travel time by close to half. The airport and the port are both being expanded for a scale of activity the emirate hasn't seen before. None of that was contingent on six calm months.

RAK's advantage was about timing a decision to the moment before a market's story is obvious to everyone. That requires a different muscle than running a good real estate business in an already-proven location. It means underwriting a government's infrastructure promises instead of a competitor's sales figures. It means being comfortable being the only comparable in the market for a while, because eventually you become the reference point.

That's not really a real estate lesson. It applies to any market, any category, any decision about where to plant a flag before the evidence is in. Wait until the data is complete and you're paying a premium for certainty someone else already captured. Move early and correctly, and you get to write the numbers.

RAK's next chapter is still being written, with the Wynn resort now targeting an early 2027 opening along with a wave of infrastructure landing over the next few years. I would rather be the developer who was there before that chapter started than the one who arrived once everyone could see how it ends. Early conviction gets tested before it gets rewarded, and BNW Developments is building accordingly.

– Dr (CA) Ankur Aggarwal is Chairman and Founder of BNW Developments.

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