Villa vs Apartment in Oman: 2026 Prices, Fees and Residency
This guide sets out villa vs apartment in Oman using the entry prices, built-up sizes, service-charge rates, payment plans and handover dates published on our own listing pages as they stood on 16 October 2026, together with the official rules that apply to both home types. Prices are shown in Omani rials with US dollars in brackets, converted at the fixed peg of OMR 1 = $2.6008, and every figure that can change carries the date it was read. Where a listing is priced in dollars, the rial figure is a conversion made for this article.
By the end you will see how a villa and an apartment differ in the same project, in price per square metre, in annual service charges and in five-year holding cost; how payment plans and handover dates differ by home type; which entry units clear the OMR 200,000 line used for Golden Residency and which rely on the Owner Visa; and which taxes and fees apply to both. This is a comparison of published data, not a recommendation to buy either type.
Villa vs Apartment in Oman: The Short Version
Across the listings reviewed for this article, a villa vs apartment in Oman comparison comes down to a handful of measurable differences. The table gives the entry price for each home type, taken from the cheapest unit of that type on each listing page.
| Home type | Lowest entry price reviewed | Highest entry price reviewed | Typical built-up size at entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apartment | OMR 36,527 ($95,000), Plumeria, Sohar | OMR 184,251 ($479,200), Al Mina 1-bedroom | Studio and 1-bedroom 38 to 115 m²; 2-bedroom 88 to 165 m² |
| Townhouse | OMR 101,200 ($263,200), Hay Al Wafa | OMR 218,548 ($568,400), Luma Residence | 160 to 242 m² |
| Villa | OMR 75,000 ($195,100), Olive Farms, Jebel Sifah | OMR 903,320 ($2,349,355), Trump Golf Villas | 75 m² (Olive Farms) to 430 m² (Hay Al Wafa) |
| Penthouse | OMR 162,488 ($422,600), Uptown Muscat | OMR 718,317 ($1,868,200), Al Mina | 204 to 281 m² |
Four findings stand out, and each is worked through in the sections below.
- The entry villa costs between 1.9 and 8.7 times the entry apartment in the same project, so the gap is set by the project, not by the home type.
- A villa is not always cheaper per square metre. At Luma Residence, The Sustainable City – Yiti and Sarooj Oasis the villa has the lower rate per square metre; at Hay Al Wafa and Al Mina it has the higher rate.
- Service charges are billed per square metre at most projects, so a larger villa pays a larger bill even where its rate is lower.
- Villas reach the OMR 200,000 line more often than apartments, but only because they are larger; branded apartments in Al Mina clear it too.
How the Comparison Was Built
Every figure comes from one of three places: the live listing page on this site, an official or regulator publication, or a law-firm or press summary of a rule. Prices on our listing pages are entry prices for the cheapest published unit of each type, which means they are starting points, not averages. Built-up sizes are the developer figures shown on the listing page; developers usually quote gross areas that include balconies and sometimes common areas, so a price per square metre computed from them is an indicator, not an appraisal.
The calculations use one method throughout. A price in dollars is divided by 2.6008 to give rials. A price per square metre is the rial price divided by the built-up area in square metres. A service charge is the published rate per square metre multiplied by the built-up area. Where a listing publishes a rial figure that differs from the conversion by a few rials, this article uses the conversion so that every row follows the same rule. For wider context see our guides to Oman property prices per square metre and to what a given budget buys in Oman.
Developer handover dates are targets stated by the developer, and payment plans are the structures shown on the listing page; the sale and purchase agreement governs in each case. Nothing here is a statement that a particular unit is available today.
What the Four Home Types Mean in Oman
The labels villa, townhouse, apartment and penthouse are used loosely, so the first step is to define them as the listings use them.
Apartment
An apartment is a unit in a multi-storey building whose lobby, lifts, corridors and amenities are shared. Under Royal Decree 79/2025, which took effect in 2026, every project must have an owners association with its own legal personality that manages the common areas and represents the owners before the authorities, under the supervision of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning, according to law-firm summaries by BSA and Mondaq. Examples on our pages include the 32-apartment building at Alef Qurum Residence and the apartment blocks at Plumeria in Sohar.
Villa
A villa is a stand-alone house on its own plot, usually with a garden and parking. The label covers a very wide range. At Olive Farms in Jebel Sifah, a community developed by Muriya, a joint venture of Orascom Development (70%) and OMRAN Group (30%) according to OMRAN, the entry villa is a single-storey, one-bedroom house of 75 m² on a 260 m² plot. At Sarooj Oasis Villas the entry villa has 5 to 7 bedrooms and 214.3 m² built up, and at Hay Al Wafa it has five bedrooms over three floors and 430 m².
Townhouse and penthouse
A townhouse is an attached or terraced house on several floors with its own entrance. A penthouse is a top-floor apartment, usually larger than the apartments below it. Both are covered in their own section below because they sit between the two main types.
One consequence of the loose labels is that size, not type, drives most of the price. The 2-bedroom apartment at Hay Al Wafa measures 158 m², which is about 32% larger than the 120 m² three-bedroom villa at Olive Farms (158 divided by 120 is 1.32). Its entry price is OMR 65,595 ($170,600), against OMR 75,000 ($195,100) for the smallest Olive Farms villa. Comparing a villa vs apartment in Oman therefore needs the square metres next to the price every time.
Entry Prices: What a Villa Costs Over an Apartment in the Same Project
The cleanest way to compare types is inside one project, where location, developer and finishing standard are held constant. Five listings on our site publish both an apartment and a villa price: Sarooj Oasis (whose apartments have their own listing page), Hay Al Wafa, Luma Residence, The Sustainable City – Yiti and Al Mina.
| Project | Entry apartment | Entry villa | Villa as a multiple of the apartment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sarooj Oasis (Sultan Haitham City) | 1-bedroom, 52.7 m²: OMR 66,595 ($173,200) | 214.3 m²: OMR 172,178 ($447,800) | 2.6 times |
| Hay Al Wafa (Sultan Haitham City) | 2-bedroom, 158 m²: OMR 65,595 ($170,600) | 430 m²: OMR 242,002 ($629,400) | 3.7 times |
| Luma Residence (Muscat Bay) | 2-bedroom, 113 m²: OMR 115,541 ($300,500) | 3-bedroom, 278 m²: OMR 250,000 ($650,200) | 2.2 times |
| The Sustainable City – Yiti | 2-bedroom, 112 m²: OMR 127,922 ($332,700) | 255 m²: OMR 238,734 ($620,900) | 1.9 times |
| Al Mina, Barr Al Jissah | 1-bedroom, 115 m²: OMR 184,251 ($479,200) | Beachfront villa, 589 m²: OMR 1,608,351 ($4,183,000) | 8.7 times |
The multiples are not explained by type alone. At Sarooj Oasis the villa has 4.1 times the floor area of the 1-bedroom apartment (214.3 divided by 52.7) but costs 2.6 times as much, so the buyer pays less per square metre for the larger home. At Hay Al Wafa the villa has 2.7 times the area of the apartment (430 divided by 158) but costs 3.7 times as much. Al Mina’s beachfront villa has 5.1 times the area of the 1-bedroom (589 divided by 115) and costs 8.7 times as much, which reflects the beach frontage as well as the size.
At the other end of the market, villas can also be the cheapest entry. The Olive Farms entry villa at OMR 75,000 costs less than the entry 2-bedroom apartment at Telal Al Qurm (OMR 76,938, $200,100) and less than the 2-bedroom at Luma Residence (OMR 115,541). It is a one-bedroom house of 75 m², though, so the saving is partly a saving in size. Our comparison of Oman property payment plans shows how the same price behaves under different plan structures.
Villa vs Apartment in Oman by Price per Square Metre
Price per square metre removes the effect of size. The table lists the entry unit of each type on the listings reviewed, using the arithmetic described above.
| Project and unit | Built-up m² | Price in OMR | OMR per m² | USD per sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Al Ahlam District, villa (3 to 5 bedrooms) | 392 | 191,902 | 490 | 118 |
| Hay Al Wafa, 2-bedroom apartment | 158 | 65,595 | 415 | 100 |
| Hay Al Wafa, townhouse | 160 | 101,200 | 632 | 153 |
| Hay Al Wafa, villa | 430 | 242,002 | 563 | 136 |
| Sarooj Oasis, villa | 214.3 | 172,178 | 803 | 194 |
| Sarooj Oasis, 2-bedroom apartment | 107.7 | 91,933 | 854 | 206 |
| Sarooj Oasis, 1-bedroom apartment | 52.7 | 66,595 | 1,264 | 305 |
| Olive Farms, 1-bedroom villa | 75 | 75,000 | 1,000 | 242 |
| Telal Al Qurm, 4-bedroom townhouse | 212 | 171,409 | 809 | 195 |
| Telal Al Qurm, 2-bedroom apartment | 89 | 76,938 | 864 | 209 |
| Luma Residence, villa (3-bedroom) | 278 | 250,000 | 899 | 217 |
| Luma Residence, townhouse | 242 | 218,548 | 903 | 218 |
| Luma Residence, 2-bedroom apartment | 113 | 115,541 | 1,022 | 248 |
| The Sustainable City – Yiti, villa | 255 | 238,734 | 936 | 226 |
| The Sustainable City – Yiti, 2-bedroom apartment | 112 | 127,922 | 1,142 | 276 |
| The Sustainable City – Yiti, 3-bedroom apartment | 164 | 213,396 | 1,301 | 314 |
| Al Mina, 1-bedroom apartment | 115 | 184,251 | 1,602 | 387 |
| Al Mina, penthouse | 281 | 718,317 | 2,556 | 618 |
| Al Mina, beachfront villa | 589 | 1,608,351 | 2,731 | 660 |
| Fairway Villas AIDA, 4-bedroom (V33B) | 316 | 572,280 | 1,811 | 438 |
| Trump Golf Villas AIDA, 5-bedroom | 406 | 903,320 | 2,225 | 538 |
Reading the table project by project gives a split result. Villa vs apartment in Oman is a lower rate per square metre for the villa in three of the five projects that publish both types: at Sarooj Oasis the villa is OMR 803 per m² against OMR 854 for the 2-bedroom and OMR 1,264 for the 1-bedroom; at Luma Residence it is OMR 899 against OMR 1,022; and at The Sustainable City – Yiti it is OMR 936 against OMR 1,142 for the 2-bedroom. In the other two the villa is the dearer rate: OMR 563 against OMR 415 at Hay Al Wafa, and OMR 2,731 against OMR 1,602 for the 1-bedroom at Al Mina.
Within one project the smallest apartments carry the highest rate. The 1-bedroom at Sarooj Oasis costs 48% more per square metre than the 2-bedroom (1,264 divided by 854 is 1.48), and the studio at The Sustainable City – Yiti, at 531 sq ft (49 m²) for $182,000, works out to OMR 1,428 per m². Small units spread fixed costs such as kitchens and bathrooms over fewer square metres, which is a common pattern in residential pricing rather than anything specific to Oman.
The AIDA villas sit well above the rest: the entry Fairway Villas unit comes to OMR 1,811 per m² and the Trump Golf Villas unit to OMR 2,225 per m², according to the price lists reproduced on our Fairway Villas and Trump Golf Villas pages. The Trump Golf Villas are part of the Trump Villas at AIDA project announced in March 2024 by the Trump Organization and Dar Global, described by Gulf News as a $200 million gated community inside the Trump International Golf Club. Their rate per square metre is higher than that of every other villa in the table except Al Mina’s beachfront villa, which shows that location and brand set the price of a villa as much as the home type does.
Service Charges: How They Differ by Home Type
Service charges are the annual payment to the project’s management body for shared services. They are separate from the purchase price and from individual electricity and water bills. Our guide to service charges in Oman explains what they usually cover; this section uses the rates that individual listings publish.
| Project and unit | Published rate or basis | Annual charge in OMR | Share of entry price per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Al Mina, 1-bedroom (115 m²) | OMR 8 per m² per year, excluding balconies and terraces | 920 | 0.50% |
| Al Mina, 2-bedroom (165 m²) | OMR 8 per m² | 1,320 | 0.44% |
| Al Mina, 3-bedroom (218 m²) | OMR 8 per m² | 1,744 | 0.47% |
| Al Mina, penthouse (281 m²) | OMR 8 per m² | 2,248 | 0.31% |
| Al Mina, beachfront villa (589 m²) | OMR 8 per m² | 4,712 | 0.29% |
| Luma Residence, apartment (113 m²) | OMR 8.27 per m² per year | 935 | 0.81% |
| Luma Residence, villa (278 m²) | OMR 6.27 per m² per year | 1,743 | 0.70% |
| Telal Al Qurm, 2-bedroom (89 m²) | OMR 4.5 per m² per year | 401 | 0.52% |
| Telal Al Qurm, townhouse (212 m²) | OMR 4.5 per m² per year | 954 | 0.56% |
| Alef Qurum Residence, 2-bedroom Type A (88.25 m²) | OMR 5 per m² per year | 441 | 0.68% |
| Hay Al Wafa, all types | OMR 300 to 500 per year as published by the developer | 300 to 500 | 0.46% to 0.76% of the apartment; 0.12% to 0.21% of the villa |
| The Sustainable City – Yiti | Apartments: free for the first five years. Villas: no service charge | 0 for five years | 0% |
Three patterns appear. First, where the charge is a single rate per square metre, as at Al Mina and Telal Al Qurm, the annual bill rises in step with the floor area. The Al Mina villa pays OMR 4,712 a year, which is 5.1 times the 1-bedroom’s OMR 920, because it is 5.1 times larger. Second, the charge is a smaller share of the price for larger and dearer homes, because the price per square metre rises faster than the flat rate: at Al Mina it falls from 0.50% of the price for the 1-bedroom to 0.29% for the villa. Third, some projects set a different rate for each type. At Luma Residence the rate for apartments, OMR 8.27, is 32% higher than the villa rate of OMR 6.27 (8.27 divided by 6.27 is 1.32), so the villa pays 24% less per square metre, yet its bill is 1.9 times the apartment’s because the villa has 2.5 times the area (278 divided by 113).
The rates in this table are the ones published on the individual listings, and the figure that binds a buyer is the one for the specific project and unit, set out in the sale and purchase agreement and the owners association budget. Two further points matter for villas. At Olive Farms, our listing page states that both an Olive Farms charge and a Jebel Sifah master-community charge apply, each billed in rials per square metre per year, so a villa in a community with its own sub-association can carry two lines. And a villa that sits inside a gated community still pays for its roads, landscaping, security and common facilities even though it has no shared lobby or lifts.
Under Ministerial Decision 204/2024 of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning, owners associations follow a framework of seven chapters that includes a chapter on financial affairs covering budgeting, the collection of contributions and financial reporting, according to a Mondaq summary of the decision. Buyers who want to see how a charge is built can ask for the budget the association adopts under that framework.
Five-Year Ownership Arithmetic
A purchase price is not the whole cost of holding a home. The two projects below publish enough data for a worked example of what a villa and an apartment cost to buy and hold for five years. The example adds the purchase price, the 3% property transfer fee that our Telal Al Qurm, Plumeria and Uptown Muscat listing pages state for foreign buyers, and five years of service charges at the published rate. It leaves out furnishing, utilities, insurance, financing costs and any VAT, which is treated separately below.
| Item | Luma Residence apartment (113 m²) | Luma Residence villa (278 m²) | Telal Al Qurm apartment (89 m²) | Telal Al Qurm townhouse (212 m²) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase price | OMR 115,541 | OMR 250,000 | OMR 76,938 | OMR 171,409 |
| 3% transfer fee | OMR 3,466 | OMR 7,500 | OMR 2,308 | OMR 5,142 |
| Annual service charge | OMR 935 | OMR 1,743 | OMR 401 | OMR 954 |
| Five years of service charges | OMR 4,673 | OMR 8,715 | OMR 2,003 | OMR 4,770 |
| Total after five years | OMR 123,680 | OMR 266,215 | OMR 81,249 | OMR 181,321 |
| Extras as a share of price | 7.0% | 6.5% | 5.6% | 5.8% |
The arithmetic runs as follows for the Luma apartment. The price is $300,500 divided by 2.6008, or OMR 115,541. The transfer fee is 3% of that, OMR 3,466. The annual charge is 113 m² multiplied by OMR 8.27, or OMR 934.51, and five years is OMR 4,673. The total is 115,541 plus 3,466 plus 4,673, which is OMR 123,680. For the villa, 278 m² multiplied by OMR 6.27 is OMR 1,743.06 a year, five years is OMR 8,715, and the total is 250,000 plus 7,500 plus 8,715, which is OMR 266,215.
Two comparisons follow. The villa’s five-year service charges are OMR 4,042 higher than the apartment’s (8,715 minus 4,673, or about OMR 808 more a year). In proportion to price, though, the apartment carries the heavier load: its five-year charges equal 4.0% of the purchase price against 3.5% for the villa. For Telal Al Qurm the townhouse’s five-year charges are 2.8% of its price and the apartment’s are 2.6%.
The Sustainable City – Yiti changes the picture for the first five years. According to our listing page, apartments there carry no service charge for five years and villas carry none, so the holding-cost line is zero for the first five years; the rate after that period is not part of the arithmetic here. Uptown Muscat’s listing states that its service charge is waived for the first year, after which a rate per square foot applies.
VAT sits outside the table because the listing pages do not itemise it. Under the Tax Authority’s real estate guide, as summarised by Deloitte in 2021, the first supply of residential property from a developer is taxed at 5%, while later resales of the same unit are exempt. If 5% were charged on top of the prices above, it would add OMR 5,777 to the Luma apartment, OMR 12,500 to the Luma villa, OMR 3,847 to the Telal Al Qurm apartment and OMR 8,570 to the townhouse. The same Deloitte summary says residential service charges are generally taxed at 5% unless they form part of a single residential rental supply, so the annual figures above could carry VAT on top. Buyers should ask in writing whether the quoted price and charge include VAT and check the current position with the Oman Tax Authority.
Payment Plans and Handover: Villa vs Apartment in Oman
Payment structures are set by each developer, not by the home type, but the villa and apartment tiers of the same project are sometimes put on different terms. The table lists the plans stated on each listing page, with the developer’s target handover.
| Project and type | Payment plan on the listing page | Developer’s target handover |
|---|---|---|
| Olive Farms villas | 10% on booking, then 7.5% every three months for three years (12 instalments); 100% paid before handover | Q4 2028 |
| Sarooj Oasis villas | Down payment of 20%, 30%, 40% or 50%, then monthly instalments in months 2 to 36 | Q4 2029 |
| Sarooj Oasis apartments | Down payments of 20% to 50% followed by monthly instalments, as on the villas page | Q3 2028 |
| Al Ahlam District villas | Two-year or three-year schedule; 80% paid in instalments and 20% as the balance | Q1 2028 |
| Hay Al Wafa, all types | 20% on booking, 80% across 36 months in monthly, semi-annual or annual instalments | Q4 2027 |
| Luma Residence, all types | Eight instalments with 50% paid before handover and 50% on completion | Q1 2029 |
| Telal Al Qurm apartments and townhouses | Instalments over six months after handover | Q1 2028 |
| Alef Qurum Residence apartments | 20% down, 10 quarterly instalments of 6.5%, 15% on completion | Q2 2029 |
| Al Mina, all types | 20% plus OMR 10,000, then five instalments of 16%; 100% before handover | Q1 2027 |
| The Sustainable City – Yiti | 30% before handover, 70% on completion | December 2027 (The Plaza apartments) |
| Plumeria apartments | 25% down; up to seven years on the remaining 75% | Q2 2028 |
The arithmetic shows how plan design changes the monthly cash flow. At Hay Al Wafa the booking payment is 20% and the remaining 80% is spread over 36 months. For the apartment that is $34,120 (OMR 13,119) on booking and about $3,791 (OMR 1,458) a month; for the villa it is $125,880 (about OMR 48,400) on booking and about $13,987 (OMR 5,378) a month. The ratio between the two bills, 3.7, is the same as the ratio between the prices, because the plan is a fixed percentage. At Olive Farms the entry villa at OMR 75,000 is paid as OMR 7,500 on booking plus twelve instalments of OMR 5,625, which together equal OMR 75,000. At Al Ahlam District the 15% booking payment on the $499,100 entry villa is $74,865, a 10% instalment is $49,910 and the 20% balance is $99,820.
Payments made before handover are paid into the project escrow account under the real estate law. According to the BSA and Mondaq summaries of Royal Decree 79/2025, the developer must open a separate escrow account for each project, buyer payments go into it, and withdrawals are limited to approved construction phases. A plan that is 100% paid before handover, as at Olive Farms and Al Mina, means the buyer has paid the whole price before receiving the keys, whereas a plan that is 50% or 30% pre-handover, as at Luma and the Sustainable City, defers most of the cost to completion. Our guide to the escrow rules for off-plan buyers and the handover calendar set out what the law requires and when projects are due.
The handover dates do not show a consistent villa or apartment pattern. At Sarooj Oasis the apartments are targeted for Q3 2028 and the villas for Q4 2029, a gap of five quarters. At Hay Al Wafa all three types share one target, Q4 2027. At Al Mina the apartments, penthouses and villas share Q1 2027. Where the type matters, it is because villas are often built in later phases, so the date should always be read for the specific tier and phase.
Ownership Rules: Freehold, Owners Associations and Royal Decree 79/2025
Foreign buyers can hold freehold title to a villa or an apartment where the project is designated an Integrated Tourism Complex, or ITC. A CMS legal update on ownership by non-Omanis notes that, unless a property lies within an ITC, a non-Omani cannot own land or property; the listing pages reviewed here describe the units as freehold and open to all nationalities, with title registered in the buyer’s name. Our guide to freehold property in Oman covers the ITC framework in full.
Apartments also have a second route in some areas. An Oman Observer report of May 2022 on a Musandam decision cites Ministerial Decision 357/2020 as having allowed the sale of units in multi-storey commercial and residential buildings, and describes non-Omani buyers in Musandam ITCs holding units under the usufruct system for up to 99 years. This is a different form of title from freehold, which is why the tenure wording on each listing should be read for the exact unit and project.
Royal Decree 79/2025, issued on 10 September 2025 and published in Official Gazette issue 1613 on 14 September 2025, replaced three older instruments: the brokerage law (Royal Decree 78/86), the apartments and floors ownership system (Royal Decree 48/89) and the escrow system (Royal Decree 30/2018), according to the text on decree.om. It came into force 180 days after publication, which is March 2026. Its owners-association rule applies to every project, so villa communities and apartment buildings alike have a managing body; the difference is in what the body looks after. In an apartment building it maintains lifts, corridors, lobbies and the building envelope. In a villa community it maintains roads, landscaping, gates and shared amenities, while each owner maintains the villa itself.
That division of responsibility affects cost and effort. An apartment owner pays the association for structural and shared-system upkeep through the service charge, so a roof or lift repair is a shared cost. A villa owner who is outside a master-community arrangement carries the roof, the pool and the garden alone, which is why villa budgets need a maintenance line that the service charge does not cover. The Al Ahlam District listing, for example, states that an annual charge applies and that a written estimate is supplied per villa.
Residency: Which Entry Units Clear OMR 200,000
Golden Residency is a ten-year renewable residency based on a single property in an Integrated Tourism Complex worth at least OMR 200,000, with each application decided by the Royal Oman Police. The test is applied to one property, not to the sum of several units. The Owner Visa created by Royal Oman Police Decision 87/2026 has no minimum property value, is sponsor-free and is tied to ownership: according to the Oman Observer, visas for buyers of units with incomplete registration run from six months to one year and are renewable, a stay is limited to three months per entry, family members can include the spouse and first-degree relatives, and the permit ends if the unit’s title is transferred. Decision 87/2026 appeared in Official Gazette issue 1653 in June 2026. Our guide to Golden Residency and the Owner Visa compares the two routes in detail.
The table shows whether the entry price of each unit is above or below the OMR 200,000 line. The price test is only one of the conditions, because the property must also be in an ITC and the decision rests with the Royal Oman Police.
| Project and unit | Entry price in OMR | Difference from OMR 200,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Olive Farms, 1-bedroom villa | 75,000 | 125,000 below |
| Sarooj Oasis, villa | 172,178 | 27,822 below |
| Al Ahlam District, villa | 191,902 | 8,098 below |
| Hay Al Wafa, villa | 242,002 | 42,002 above |
| Hay Al Wafa, townhouse | 101,200 | 98,800 below |
| Luma Residence, villa | 250,000 | 50,000 above |
| Luma Residence, townhouse | 218,548 | 18,548 above |
| Luma Residence, 2-bedroom apartment | 115,541 | 84,459 below |
| The Sustainable City – Yiti, villa | 238,734 | 38,734 above |
| The Sustainable City – Yiti, 3-bedroom apartment | 213,396 | 13,396 above |
| The Sustainable City – Yiti, 2-bedroom apartment | 127,922 | 72,078 below |
| Telal Al Qurm, townhouse | 171,409 | 28,591 below |
| Al Mina, 1-bedroom apartment | 184,251 | 15,749 below |
| Al Mina, 2-bedroom apartment | 298,716 | 98,716 above |
| Uptown Muscat, penthouse | 162,488 | 37,512 below |
| Fairway Villas AIDA, lowest unit | 572,280 | 372,280 above |
| Trump Golf Villas AIDA, lowest unit | 903,320 | 703,320 above |
For a villa vs apartment in Oman buyer, the pattern is that size and brand, not home type, decide who clears the line. The Al Ahlam villa misses it by OMR 8,098, or 4.0% of the threshold (8,098 divided by 200,000). The Sarooj Oasis villa misses by OMR 27,822, or 13.9%. At Luma Residence the townhouse and villa clear it while the apartment does not, and at the Sustainable City the 3-bedroom apartment clears it by OMR 13,396 while the 2-bedroom does not. Buyers whose entry unit falls below the line are not left without a route, because the Owner Visa has no minimum value, but it is tied to ownership and ends on sale.
The listing pages for the AIDA villas note that their prices are above OMR 200,000; the ITC condition and the Royal Oman Police decision still apply to them as to every other project, so the table shows the price test only.
Taxes and Fees That Apply to Both Types
Most purchase costs do not depend on whether the buyer chooses a villa or an apartment. They depend on the price, so a villa, being dearer, usually carries the larger absolute figure.
- Transfer fee. Three of our listing pages state a property transfer fee of about 3% for foreign buyers. On a villa priced at OMR 250,000 that is OMR 7,500; on an apartment at OMR 115,541 it is OMR 3,466.
- VAT. Per the Tax Authority guide summarised by Deloitte in 2021, the first supply of a new residential property is taxed at 5%, and resales are exempt. Residential rent and undeveloped land are exempt. The first-supply rule applies to a developer-built villa and apartment alike.
- Income tax. Royal Decree 56/2025 introduces a personal income tax from 1 January 2028. KPMG reports a rate of 5% on annual gross income above OMR 42,000 ($109,234), lists income from immovable property among the items that may be taxable, and says capital gains on a primary residence are exempt; executive regulations were still to follow at the time of KPMG’s note. See our property tax guide for the current position.
- Annual property tax. The listing pages reviewed state that Oman levies no recurring property tax on freehold residential property.
The income-tax threshold is a reminder that rental income would add to other income from 2028. OMR 42,000 a year is OMR 3,500 a month, so the threshold is tested against the whole of a taxpayer’s gross income, not against the rent from one home. Whether a villa or an apartment produces the larger rent is a market question that the listing pages do not answer, which is why this guide does not give rent figures. Short-let rules are covered in our guide on whether you can let a property in Oman on Airbnb.
Who Each Type Fits: Villa vs Apartment in Oman for Families, Second Homes and Rentals
Different households weigh the same villa vs apartment in Oman data differently. The points below describe what the listings and public statistics show for each use, without ranking one type above the other.
Families
Space and parking are the main differences. The Hay Al Wafa villa has five bedrooms, 430 m² and four parking spaces, against two covered spaces for each apartment, according to the listing. The Sarooj Oasis villa has 5 to 7 bedrooms and parking for three cars, and the listing places Al Firdous Private School three minutes away by car. The Al Ahlam District listing gives a medical centre two minutes away, and the developer’s page cites three parks. Against that, the villas cost 2.2 to 3.7 times the entry apartment in the same project, as the earlier table shows. For the wider setting see our Sultan Haitham City guide.
The two Sultan Haitham City projects also differ in density. The Oman Observer, reporting Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning figures in July 2024, lists Dream Villa Development’s neighbourhood 6B (Al Ahlam) at 47 units on 33,579 m² of land and 20,005 m² of built-up area, and Al Siyabi International Group’s neighbourhood 10 (Hay Al Wafa) at 1,644 units on 770,137 m² and 415,860 m². That is about 714 m² of land and 426 m² of built-up area per unit at Al Ahlam, against about 468 m² and 253 m² per unit at Hay Al Wafa (33,579 divided by 47; 770,137 divided by 1,644).
Second homes
For a home that stands empty for part of the year, the management model matters. An apartment building usually offers a staffed lobby, security and shared facilities; the Alef Qurum Residence listing lists an indoor pool, a gym, 24-hour security and a staffed lobby, covered by a charge of OMR 5 per m² a year. A villa in a managed resort community can offer similar services through the master association, but its owner remains responsible for the house, garden and any pool. The Sustainable City – Yiti listing shows the other end of the range, with no service charge on villas and a five-year waiver on apartments.
Rental use
The rules that apply to rental are the same for both types: residential rent is VAT-exempt under the guide summarised by Deloitte, and from 2028 rent is among the income categories under the personal income tax. The service charge and any VAT on it are a cost to the landlord. The five-year table shows that the charge takes a larger share of the price for an apartment at Luma Residence than for a villa, 4.0% against 3.5% over five years. The listing pages do not publish rents, so no rental return is stated here.
Census context
The housing mix in Muscat Governorate shows how common each type is. According to Times of Oman, citing the 2020 e-census of the National Centre for Statistics and Information, apartment buildings hold 42.6% of the governorate’s housing units and villas about 32.1%, out of 412,033 units. Applied to that total, the shares are roughly 175,500 apartments and 132,300 villas. The same report counts 77,233 vacant units in the capital, which is about 18.7% of the stock (77,233 divided by 412,033).
Townhouses and Penthouses: The In-Between Types
Townhouses and penthouses are the two types that sit between the two ends of the villa vs apartment in Oman question.
Among the listings reviewed, the townhouse is the one type whose entry price starts above the cheapest villa. The entry townhouse at Hay Al Wafa costs OMR 101,200 ($263,200) for 160 m², above the OMR 75,000 Olive Farms villa but far below the Hay Al Wafa villa at OMR 242,002. At Hay Al Wafa the townhouse costs OMR 632 per m² against OMR 563 for the villa, a premium of 12% (632 divided by 563 is 1.12). At Luma Residence the townhouse is OMR 903 per m² and the villa OMR 899, so the two are effectively level, and at Telal Al Qurm the 4-bedroom townhouse at OMR 809 per m² is cheaper per square metre than the 2-bedroom apartment at OMR 864. The townhouse can therefore be read as a house at an apartment-like rate, although the exact relationship changes from project to project. The Telal Al Qurm page and Luma Residence page hold the full unit tables.
Penthouses follow a different logic. At Al Mina the penthouse is OMR 2,556 per m², 60% above the 1-bedroom’s OMR 1,602 (2,556 divided by 1,602 is 1.60) and 6% below the beachfront villa’s OMR 2,731. Its service charge is OMR 2,248 a year, against OMR 4,712 for the villa. At Uptown Muscat the penthouse reverses the usual pattern: at 2,197 sq ft (204 m²) for $422,600 it comes to OMR 797 per m², which is 26% below the studio’s OMR 1,082 (797 divided by 1,082 is 0.74). The developer’s price list also shows a 4-bedroom duplex of 346 m² at OMR 303,714.
A Comparison Checklist
The following steps turn the data above into a repeatable check on any listing.
- Write down the built-up area in square metres for the exact unit, and confirm whether balconies and terraces are included.
- Divide the rial price by the area to get the rate per square metre, then compare it with other types in the same project.
- Multiply the published service-charge rate by the area, and ask whether the rate is annual or monthly.
- Add the 3% transfer fee and ask in writing whether VAT is included in the price and in the service charge.
- Compare the pre-handover share of the price with the handover date for the specific phase.
- Check the price against OMR 200,000, then confirm the ITC position of the unit.
- Ask for the owners association budget, the reserve-fund position and the amount of any master-community charge.
- Check the developer in our Oman developer directory and the escrow arrangements under the real estate law.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a villa cheaper than an apartment in Oman?
Not by type alone. In the listings reviewed, the entry villa costs 1.9 to 8.7 times the entry apartment in the same project, because a villa is larger. Per square metre, the villa has the lower rate at Sarooj Oasis, Luma Residence and The Sustainable City – Yiti, and the higher rate at Hay Al Wafa and Al Mina. A villa vs apartment in Oman comparison is therefore made project by project.
What are the cheapest villa and apartment among the listings reviewed?
On 16 October 2026 the cheapest villa among those listings is the Olive Farms entry villa at OMR 75,000 ($195,100), a one-bedroom house of 75 m², and the cheapest apartment is Plumeria in Sohar at OMR 36,527 ($95,000). Prices change with availability, so the listing pages show the current figure.
Which has higher service charges, a villa or an apartment?
Where charges are billed per square metre, the larger home pays more in total. At Luma Residence the apartment rate is OMR 8.27 per m² and the villa rate OMR 6.27, so the villa pays less per square metre but its annual bill of OMR 1,743 is about 1.9 times the apartment’s OMR 935. As a share of price the charge is smaller for the villa.
Does buying a villa give residency in Oman?
A purchase does not by itself give residency. Golden Residency needs a single Integrated Tourism Complex property worth at least OMR 200,000, and the Royal Oman Police decides each application. The Owner Visa under Decision 87/2026 has no minimum value, is sponsor-free and is tied to ownership. Villa vs apartment in Oman matters only through the price of the unit.
Can a foreigner buy an apartment or a villa freehold?
Yes, inside an Integrated Tourism Complex, and the listing pages reviewed describe the units as freehold and open to all nationalities. Outside an ITC a non-Omani generally cannot own property, according to CMS, although a 2022 Oman Observer report cites a decision allowing sales of units in multi-storey buildings under usufruct in some areas.
How are payments protected when buying off plan?
Under Royal Decree 79/2025, developers must hold buyer payments in a separate escrow account for each project, with withdrawals tied to approved construction phases, according to BSA and Mondaq. The rule applies to villa and apartment projects alike.
Do villas take longer to build than apartments?
The listings show no fixed pattern. Sarooj Oasis targets Q3 2028 for apartments and Q4 2029 for villas, while Hay Al Wafa and Al Mina give one date for every type. Check the target for the specific phase.
Is a townhouse closer to a villa or an apartment on price?
It depends on the project. At Hay Al Wafa the townhouse is 12% dearer per square metre than the villa, at Luma Residence the two are level, and at Telal Al Qurm the townhouse is cheaper per square metre than the apartment.
What taxes apply when comparing a villa vs apartment in Oman?
The same rules apply to both. A 3% transfer fee for foreign buyers is stated on several listing pages, the first supply of new residential property is subject to 5% VAT under the Tax Authority guide as summarised by Deloitte, and a personal income tax of 5% above OMR 42,000 of annual gross income starts on 1 January 2028 under Royal Decree 56/2025.
How common are villas and apartments in Muscat?
According to Times of Oman citing the 2020 e-census, apartment buildings hold 42.6% of Muscat Governorate’s housing units and villas about 32.1%.
Last checked: 16 October 2026. Sources: Oman Observer on ROP Decision 87/2026; Muscat Daily on the sponsor-free owner residency; decree.om, Royal Decree 79/2025; BSA Law on the Real Estate Regulation Law; Mondaq on Royal Decree 79/2025; Mondaq on Ministerial Decision 204/2024; Deloitte on the Oman Tax Authority real estate VAT guide; KPMG on Oman personal income tax; Times of Oman on Muscat housing units; CMS on ownership by non-Omanis; Oman Observer on Musandam ITC ownership; Gulf News on Trump Villas at AIDA; Oman Observer on Sultan Haitham City units; OMRAN on Jebel Sifah; the developer figures are taken from the listing pages linked above.
