- 2 months ago
Oman’s new $2.6 billion megacity is attracting attention as one of the Gulf region’s most ambitious urban development projects.
It reflects a broader shift in Oman’s national strategy, where economic diversification, sustainability, and modern infrastructure are becoming central priorities.
For investors, residents, policymakers, and urban development observers, this project represents far more than a real estate expansion.
It reflects a broader shift in Oman’s national strategy, where economic diversification, sustainability, and modern infrastructure are becoming central priorities.
For investors, residents, policymakers, and urban development observers, this project represents far more than a real estate expansion.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00We are flying to a place most people never mention when speaking of megacities.
00:04Welcome to Sultan Haytham City, where over $2 billion was poured into a stretch of coastal
00:08desert with the entire brand new city from scratch. And by the end of this video,
00:13you might just want to buy a villa there. The Sultan's $2.6 billion gamble.
00:19Now here is the twist. Sultan Haytham City is not deep in the desert. Everybody hears the words
00:23desert megacity and pictures a shiny tower rising out of nothing but sand. Not this one.
00:28This city sits on the western edge of Muscat in the Sib area, right along the coast facing the Gulf
00:32of Oman. So the sand is real. The desert climate is real. But there are also sea breezes, existing
00:37highways, and a proper international airport just a short drive away. That location choice was not
00:42random. Oman has spent years watching Saudi Arabia and the UAE promise wild inland cities that keep
00:47getting delayed. So instead of trying to plant a whole city in the middle of nowhere, Oman picked
00:52a spot next to its capital, next to its main port, and next to its main airport. It was practical,
00:56it was smart, and it made the whole project easier to actually finish. The city is named
01:00after Sultan Haytham bin Tariq Al said. He took over the throne in early 2020 after his cousin
01:05Sultan Kabuz passed away. Sultan Kabuz had been running Oman for 50 years, so Sultan Haytham
01:10had huge shoes to fill. And instead of easing into the job, he launched something called Oman
01:14Vision 2040, a national plan to transform the country's future, cut oil dependence, boost tourism,
01:20grow tech, make jobs, and build a country that could keep going strong long after the oil profits
01:25slowed down. Sultan Haytham city is the physical face of that vision. It is what happens when a
01:30whole country's future plan gets turned into concrete, glass, and imported palm trees. And
01:34the branding is not shy. The city carries the ruler's name, so every villa sold, every road
01:39built, and every park opened is tied directly to his legacy. That is one way to make sure
01:43the project actually gets finished on time. The total site covers about 14.8 million square
01:48meters. That works out to roughly 3,650 acres. To make that easier to picture, imagine a piece of
01:54land big enough to hold small towns several times over. Now imagine that whole piece of
01:58land carefully planned, block by block, park by park, and neighborhood by neighborhood.
02:02That is the scale we are talking about. To make sure the master plan actually looked
02:06world class, Oman brought in Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the American architecture firm that
02:11helped design the Burj Khalifa and the original World Trade Center. This is the same team that
02:15has drawn some of the tallest and most famous buildings on earth. And Oman handed them the
02:19whole master plan. That alone tells you how seriously the government is taking this project.
02:23The plan is broken into 19 integrated neighborhoods, each with its own personality,
02:27its own housing mix, and its own public spaces. All connected by boulevards, walking paths,
02:32and green spines. When the whole thing is finished, it is designed to hold 100,000 residents in 20,000
02:37housing units. That is a full city. Not a suburb. Not a resort. A living, breathing city.
02:42The full price tag lands at about 2.6 billion US dollars across all phases. That covers everything.
02:47The land work, the underground services, the buildings, the parks, the schools,
02:51the hospitals, the shopping, all of it. And that number is spread over about two decades of
02:55construction, so it is not one giant lump payment. It is a carefully phased investment.
02:59Phase 1 alone covers the core city center, about 5 square kilometers. This is the first bite of
03:05the elephant. It includes 6,743 residential units, the central park, the main roads, the first set of
03:11schools, and the primary utilities. Construction on Phase 1 officially kicked off in February of 2024,
03:17following a formal inauguration ceremony in 2023. And here is where things get really interesting.
03:23By early 2025, more than 70% of Phase 1 residential units were already sold or reserved. Let that sink
03:29in. Buyers looked at floor plans, saw a construction site, and wrote checks based on trust. That kind of
03:34demand does not happen unless people believe the project will actually get built. It also does not
03:38happen unless the pricing and location feel right for the market. The remaining phases will roll out on a
03:43schedule. Phase 2 is planned for 2028 to 2034. Phase 3 follows from 2033 to 2040. And Phase 4 wraps
03:50everything up between 2038 and 2045. So the whole city is designed to finish in about 21 years from
03:55when construction started. Compared to some other golf projects with vague deadlines and endless delays,
04:00that timeline actually looks reasonable. Now the location deserves one more mention.
04:05Sib is not just picked at random. It sits about 15 to 30 kilometers west of downtown Muscat,
04:10and it links straight into the Muscat Highway and Sultan Kabu's Road. That gives easy access to
04:14the capital, the airport, the port, and the wider Gulf Coast. Plus, the coastal position brings sea
04:19breezes that soften the hot desert climate. So residents get the arid, sunny weather Oman is
04:24known for, but with cooler air rolling in from the water most days. Even the ground itself was chosen
04:29with care. Part of the site is a dry riverbed, called a wadi in Arabic. Rather than filling it in
04:34and
04:34pretending it was not there, the master plan turns that wadi into the signature feature of the entire city.
04:39We will get to that in a moment. The point is that Sultan Haytham City was not slapped together
04:44as a fantasy. It was planned like a serious national project. Real architects, real deadlines,
04:48real phases, real money, real buyers, and a real Sultan's name on the front door. That mix,
04:53boring as it sounds compared to the giant hype videos coming out of Saudi Arabia,
04:57is exactly why this project keeps making steady progress while its neighbors keep making headlines
05:01about delays. But steady is one thing. Making it feel like a lifestyle worth paying millions for
05:07is another thing entirely. And that is where the design starts working overtime.
05:11The Country Club Dressed as a City
05:14Every desert megacity brags about being smart. Every one of them claims to be green. Every single
05:19project in the Gulf gets on stage and swears they are building the future. Sultan Haytham City
05:24actually shows up with a checklist. The plan is built around 12 core attributes that guide every
05:29design decision. Inclusive, affordable, safe, compact, accessible, comfortable, robust, efficient,
05:34circular, healthy, smart, and in a rare moment of poetry from a government document, lovable.
05:39Yes, lovable is a listed goal. That word alone tells you what kind of place this city wants to be.
05:43The star of the whole design is that dry riverbed we mentioned earlier. That wadi was reborn as a
05:487.5 km green park running straight through the heart of the city. It is the central spine of the
05:53master plan. And it also happens to be the largest park in the entire Muscat Governorate.
05:58The wadi park does not exist just to look pretty. It has jobs. It catches rainwater and holds it.
06:02It cools the air. It irrigates the plants. It gives kids somewhere to run. And most importantly
06:07for a hot coastal city that sees seasonal flooding, it works as a natural flood buffer.
06:11What used to be a risk is now the star feature. Only real estate developers could turn a hazard
06:16into a headline. Around this main park, four green pedestrian spines shoot out in different
06:20directions. These paths link every single neighborhood back to the central green heart.
06:24So no matter where you live in the city, you are always a short walk from open space. And once
06:28you add
06:28up all the parks, gardens, plazas, and pedestrian streets, you get about 2.9 million square meters
06:33of green area. That is nearly 20% of the whole site. In the desert, let that sink in one
06:38more time.
06:38Building footprints meanwhile, only take up about 15% of the total site. That is a shocking number
06:43for city planners. Most projects of this scale would fill 40 or 50% with buildings. Sultan Haytham
06:48City is going the other way, choosing space, air, and sunlight over stacked concrete. That is the luxury
06:53tell, right there. Now let us walk through the housing, because this is where the sarcasm writes
06:58itself. Sultan Haytham City does not just sell homes, it sells packages. And each package has a
07:03name that sounds like a piece of jewelry. Odd, Althuria, Wadi Zaha, Asia. Even the collection
07:08names are designed to make you feel richer just by saying them out loud. Start with the odd villas.
07:13These are the entry-level luxury villas, if you can even use the word entry-level next to prices
07:18that start at 188,500 Omani Riyals. That comes out to roughly 490,000 US dollars just to walk in
07:26the door. And that is the cheap option. Next up are the Althuria Villas. This is where the plot
07:30thickens. Prices start at 430,000 Omani Riyals, which comes out to over 1.1 million US dollars,
07:36and that is the starting price. From there, you can go bigger, wider, and yes, way more expensive.
07:41Althuria Villas were designed for people who want the master suite to feel like a hotel suite,
07:45and the outdoor terrace to feel like a private resort. Then there is Wadi Zaha. This one is a
07:49gated community inside the bigger city. So you first pass through the outer city,
07:53then you pass through another set of gates, and then you finally reach your villa.
07:56It is a Russian doll of exclusivity. Prices for 2-4 bedroom villas start at 110,500 Omani Riyals
08:02with 5-year payment plans available. Because at that price point, even wealthy people appreciate
08:07a payment plan. Townhouses and apartments round out the mix. Some townhouse projects start at
08:1150,000 Omani Riyals for the smaller units. That is more accessible on paper, though still very much
08:16premium in local terms. And every single unit no matter which tier is dropped into a neighborhood
08:21that faces a park, a wadi view, a plaza, or a green corridor. There are no bad views. That is
08:25not a
08:26marketing slogan. That is architectural policy. Phase 1 alone delivers 6,743 units. That includes 608
08:33detached villas, 872 semi-detached villas, 1,156 townhouses, and 4,107 apartments. There is a range
08:41from big fancy houses to sensible flats. But the range moves upward in feel and finish,
08:46not just square footage. The government even set aside 25% of the units for non-Omanis.
08:51That is a huge signal. Oman wants foreign money and foreign talent, and they built a legal doorway for
08:56both. Expatriates, Gulf investors, and international buyers are lining up to grab a piece of this new city.
09:01Amenities are premium across the board. The city plans to include 39 schools, broken down as 30
09:06public schools and 9 private ones. There is a full university. There is a reference hospital
09:11designed for 1,200 beds, plus multiple Class A and Class B health centers, a private hospital,
09:17and a care center for the elderly and people with disabilities. There are 25 mosques and prayer
09:21sites planned across the city. There are shopping malls, gyms, cinemas, and office precincts. There are
09:26cultural centers, small markets, and community halls. All of it is spaced so that residents can walk to
09:31their daily needs. The rule of thumb is that no home should be more than a few minutes from a
09:35school,
09:35a park, a shop, or a clinic. The mobility plan is also thoughtful. There are more than 23 access
09:40points that connect the city to the Muscat Highway and Sultan Kabuz Road. Inside, roads are designed as
09:45elegant boulevards rather than busy commuter runs. There are more than 150 kilometers of neighborhood
09:50streets. There are 25 kilometers of paths built for walking, cycling, and running. And there are dedicated
09:55corridors set aside for future light rail and trams. The plan even includes little e-bike and scooter
10:01similar to what you find in European cities. So instead of firing up a giant SUV in 100-degree
10:06heat just to grab bread, residents can hop on a small electric bike and glide down a shaded path.
10:11Whether people actually do that in the summer is a whole other conversation. But the option is there.
10:15The buildings themselves are being designed with what Soam calls passive bioclimatic principles.
10:20Fancy words for a simple idea. Point the building the right way, block the harsh sun, catch the good
10:24breezes, and let the shape of the building do half the cooling for you. Add high-performance glazing,
10:29thick shade structures, urban forests, and green roofs, and suddenly you are burning way less
10:33electricity to survive the summer. Solar power gets integrated across the site,
10:37streetlights adjust themselves based on daylight, real-time sensors monitor the air quality,
10:42traffic gets tracked and managed automatically, and every single building sits inside a much
10:46bigger system that acts like a digital twin, constantly checking itself for problems.
10:51The city is being wired to think. To top it all off, all this smart tech comes wrapped in
10:55traditional Omani design, courtyards, arches, earth-toned facades, references to old fishing
11:00villages and mountain towns. So it does not look like a spaceship landed in Muscat. It looks like
11:05a modern Omani neighborhood grew up in fast forward. That is the trick of Sultan Haytham City. It is the
11:10country club dressed up as a smart city, priced like a status symbol, and finished in a way that still
11:15feels distinctly Omani. Which raises one huge question. Who is actually paying for all of this?
11:21Oman versus the rest of the desert. Let us follow the money, because the finance play behind Sultan
11:27Haytham City is the part of the story that most people miss. They see the villas, they see the
11:31parks, but they never really zoom in on how Oman is pulling this off. The total project value sits at
11:36about 2.6 billion US dollars. In Omani rials, that comes out to just under 10 million rials of total
11:42project value across all phases, and that number is not for one building. It is for the whole city,
11:47all four phases, every road, every school, every hospital. Phase one carries most of the early
11:52weight. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning has already signed more than 35 development
11:56agreements worth over 2.5 billion US dollars for phase one alone. Each agreement covers a specific
12:01piece of the puzzle. Contracts for infrastructure, contracts for housing construction, contracts for
12:06schools, contracts for hospitals, contracts for public amenities. Every big ticket line item has its
12:11own delivery team and its own timeline. Inside phase one, there is a 590 million dollar package
12:17specifically for infrastructure. This covers the water lines, the sewer network, the electrical grid,
12:22the roads, and the public utilities. That is the invisible city that has to work before the visible
12:26city can even function. Then there are the residential development deals. Some of the biggest ones cross
12:32320 million Omani rials in value, including an Omani-Saudi partnership focused on residential
12:38neighborhoods. That means Saudi money is quietly flowing into Omani real estate, which is a pretty
12:43telling signal in a region where every kingdom is trying to build its own mega project. There are also
12:47newer contracts still being awarded. A 104 million dollar package was recently signed for roads and
12:53parks. More tenders are being released for multi-package infrastructure, all designed to keep quality high
12:58while keeping timelines on track. This is not a project that gave one contractor everything. This is a
13:02project that split the work into pieces, so no single mistake can drag the whole thing down.
13:07Where is all this money actually coming from? A few sources. The biggest one is the Omani government.
13:12Oman treats Sultan Haytham City as a strategic national project, so state funding flows through
13:17the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning. Public money handles the master plan, the land work,
13:22and the big infrastructure. Then private partners come in for the buildings, the neighborhoods,
13:26and the sales. Behind all of that sits the Oman Future Fund. This is a 5.2 billion dollar public
13:31fund that was approved in 2023 to support long-term development in the country. Sultan Haytham City is
13:37one of the fund's flagship projects. So while the city is not entirely funded by the Future Fund,
13:42it draws on it and it fits neatly into the fund's mission. Private developers also bring their own
13:47capital. Local Omani firms and international partners have signed deals to develop neighborhoods,
13:52build villas, and sell units. When they sell those units, that cash flows back into the project,
13:56which pays for more construction. It is a self-feeding cycle, at least in theory. Then there is the buyer's
14:01money. Over 70% of Phase 1 units were sold or reserved by early 2025. That means real cash from
14:08real buyers is already funding the current phase. Oman was smart enough to structure this so that
14:12the city partly builds itself as it sells. Foreign buyers make up a big part of that. With 25%
14:18of
14:18Phase 1 units set aside for non-Omanis, the country is actively pulling in cash from Gulf investors,
14:23from South Asian professionals, and from international buyers who want a Middle Eastern base. It is a strategy
14:28that Dubai wrote the book on, and Oman is now running its own version. The result is a funding
14:33model that is conservative by regional standards. No heavy foreign debt. No wild borrowing bets. No
14:38promises to build a spaceport or a linear city that violates the laws of physics. Just phased,
14:44contracted, government-backed development, with real buyers pushing real money through the system.
14:48Now for the awkward part, because if we are going to talk about a $2.6 billion desert megacity,
14:53we cannot pretend it exists in a vacuum. There are two very famous, very expensive,
14:58and very controversial neighbors in the region that Sultan Haytham City keeps getting compared to.
15:02Time to line them up side by side. First, Mastar City in the UAE. This project was launched almost
15:0720 years ago with a mission to become the world's first zero-carbon city. The original budget was
15:12about $22 billion US dollars. That is not a typo. $22 billion. And the target completion year was
15:172016. That deadline came. That deadline went. And as of today, Mastar City has only built about a third
15:22of what it originally promised. The population sits somewhere between 4,000 and 15,000 residents,
15:28depending on the report. So it is a fraction of the original 100,000 goal. Roughly 8 to 10 billion
15:33has already been spent. And the city continues to slowly grow, one small phase at a time.
15:38Now, NEOM's the line in Saudi Arabia. This one is the big brother of desert megacity dreams.
15:44A 170-kilometer-long linear city, made of two giant mirrored walls, supposed to house 9 million
15:49people someday. Total NEOM budget estimates range from $1 trillion to $5 trillion, depending on who
15:55you believe. The line specifically has quietly been scaled back in real construction to a small
16:00stub near the coast. Actual current residents number somewhere under 5,000. And most of the
16:05world now treats it as a visionary concept, rather than a functioning city. Then there is Sultan
16:10Haitham City. $2.6 billion on schedule. Phase 1 selling out. Full build target of 2045 only 21 years
16:17after ground broke. This is the modest one. This is the boring one. This is the one nobody made a
16:21slick science fiction trailer for. And it is the one actually getting done. That is the punchline.
16:26Oman never tried to sell the world a fantasy. Oman just quietly wrote a plan, hired serious
16:31architects, phased the work, secured the money, and started building. There is no billionaire showman.
16:36There is no jaw-dropping promotional video. There is just a real city rising in the sand.
16:40The design has been picking up serious industry recognition too. Sultan Haitham City has won awards
16:45from the Architizer A Plus Awards and the AIA Middle East Design Awards. It has been covered
16:50by Dezin, by SOM's own project catalog, and by regional development bodies like the Arab
16:54Urban Development Institute. This is not a project that architects laugh at. This is a project that
16:59architects study. On sustainability, it is also a serious contender. Nearly 20% of the site is green
17:04space. The Wadi Park pulls double duty as flood defense and public heart. Buildings are aligned for
17:09passive cooling. Solar is baked into the infrastructure. Wastewater is recycled. Waste is converted to energy.
17:14And the whole city is being wired with sensors that support real-time monitoring. Oman is aiming
17:19for net zero carbon by 2050. And Sultan Haitham City is the flagship building block. As of mid-2026,
17:25the project is described as rapidly taking shape. Infrastructure is going in. Villas are being handed
17:30over. Buyers are moving in. There are no reports of major delays. There are no reports of major cost
17:35overruns. There are no reports of public scandals. In Middle East megaproject terms, that is practically a
17:40miracle. So here is the verdict on Oman's quietly ambitious desert city. Sultan Haitham City is not
17:46the biggest desert megaproject in the Gulf. It is not the flashiest. It is not the most futuristic.
17:50And it will never generate the same social media buzz as a mile-high skyscraper or a linear glass
17:55tunnel. But it might be the smartest bet of the bunch. Because while its neighbors are still trying
17:59to convince the world that flying taxis will save cities, Oman is quietly moving families into finished
18:05houses, planting real trees in real parks, and building a real city under a real sultan's name.
18:10$2.6 billion, 100,000 future residents, 21 years of phased construction, and a whole country betting
18:17that being modest, methodical and on schedule will beat being a headline. In the desert megacity race
18:21everyone else is sprinting, Oman is jogging. And somewhere around 2045, when the finish line finally
18:27shows up, the jogger just might be the one still standing. There we have it. Thanks for staying tuned
18:31folks, it's bye for now. Be sure to click on the card showing on the screen for more.