The Crestmark by Ellington, Business Bay: Facts, Costs and Status

The Crestmark by Ellington is a residential building in Business Bay, Dubai, developed by Ellington Properties, which describes it as 189 design-led units made up of studios, one- to three-bedroom apartments and penthouses. This description was checked on 28 October 2026 against Ellington’s own project and construction-update pages, the Dubai Land Department (DLD), the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (GDRFA), the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security (ICP), the Central Bank of the UAE rulebook, Dubai legislation, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) station map and OpenStreetMap routing data. Prices are quoted in dirhams with US dollars in brackets at the fixed rate of 3.6725 dirhams per dollar.

The sections below set out what the developer states about The Crestmark by Ellington, what DLD inspection data republished by property portals say about construction progress and the handover date, how far the building is from the metro, malls and airports on a map, what the price field on our listing page says, and how a purchase is registered and financed in Dubai. They include a worked cost example on a stated hypothetical price, the residency thresholds that officials publish by property value, and the checks buyers make on service charges, escrow and title before signing.

The Crestmark by Ellington at a glance

The table gathers the facts that can be traced to the developer, to registry-based data or to the fields on our own listing page. Where a figure comes from a property portal that republishes DLD data, the source column says so, and the same quantity is shown from the developer’s page where the two differ.

Other Ellington projects in Business Bay and elsewhere in Dubai are described on the Ellington Properties developer profile. The neighbouring Business Bay project from the same developer has its own page for The Quayside by Ellington, and a completed building from the same developer elsewhere in the city is described on the page for Ellington House in Dubai Hills Estate.

Building, units and floors of The Crestmark by Ellington

Ellington’s project page presents The Crestmark by Ellington as 189 design-led units: elegant studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, and penthouses. The architecture is described as bold but refined, with plants and natural finishes meant to give a calm feel. Ellington’s dedicated project site describes the building as overlooking the Dubai Water Canal and Business Bay Marina, with views of floating villas and direct access to the Dubai Water Canal Boardwalk, and says that finishes are of a high standard with appliances and fixtures from European brands.

The two numbers for the total, 189 from the developer and 191 from the registry-based tally, are not the same quantity. The developer’s figure counts residential units in its description, while the portal’s DLD-registered list also contains one commercial unit and counts studios through four-bedroom homes, so a buyer reading a title deed or a sales-and-purchase agreement relies on the unit’s registered number and area, not on a headline count. The registered mix below is as republished by Homesearch from DLD records; the floor-plan ranges are from Property Finder’s project page, which lists the developer’s unit types.

The sales counts in the last column are transaction counts on the portal and differ slightly from the registered unit counts in both directions (for example 16 sales against 17 studios and 68 sales against 65 one-bedroom units). The listing page for this property gives a size range of 496.75 to 6,104.86 square feet, which is 46.1 to 567.2 square metres using the factor of 0.092903 square metres per square foot; the span corresponds to the smallest studio and the largest penthouse in the registered mix.

Floors, lifts and parking

Bayut’s building page gives the structure as ground floor plus three podium levels plus 18 floors, with four high-speed passenger lifts and one service lift, covered parking with one or two reserved spaces depending on the apartment type, separate visitor parking, bicycle parking and an electric-vehicle charging station. Homesearch gives the same 22 storeys and five lifts. OpenStreetMap’s record of the building site shows 22 levels and an 88 m height, which is consistent with the 22 storeys. Ellington’s project site places the resort-style pool, a children’s pool and a play area on the fourth floor, which matches a three-level podium below the first residential level.

Amenities and interiors at The Crestmark by Ellington

Ellington’s project page lists ten amenities, shown in the first column below. Its dedicated project site names several of the same facilities in different words and adds a barbecue area, and Bayut’s building page, which describes the building’s facilities in more detail, lists extra fitness-related spaces. The table keeps the three lists separate so that each facility is attributed to the page that names it.

The facilities are shared parts of a jointly owned building, which means they are maintained from the annual service charge discussed near the end of this description. A buyer comparing apartments in different towers can ask the building’s management entity for the list of facilities that are open and the charge schedule that covers them, because a brochure list describes the design, not what is in operation on a given date.

Construction and handover status of The Crestmark by Ellington

The old text of this page repeated a handover date of Q1 2026 from Property Finder. That date is a sales-stage expectation: Property Finder records the sale start on 26 September 2023, the start of construction on 27 September 2023 and an expected completion on 1 March 2026. The registry-based tracking pages that republish DLD project inspections show a different position, as the timeline below sets out.

Read together, these entries describe The Crestmark by Ellington as a building under construction on the dates shown, with inspection progress of about 61% in August and September 2026. The Q1 2026 date from the sales stage therefore precedes the inspection figures, and a buyer asking when handover is expected obtains the current programme from the developer’s sales documents and from the DLD project record. Ellington has published handover announcements for other projects: its news item of 21 May 2026 states that it commenced handover of Ellington House II and Arbor View, and the developer profile on this site lists the projects concerned. The developer’s news page does not carry an equivalent announcement for The Crestmark by Ellington at the time of this check.

The status matters for the legal route of a purchase. A unit in a building that is not complete is registered in the DLD’s provisional register through the Oqood system, and the buyer holds a provisional registration e-certificate; once the building is completed and the unit handed over, the title deed is issued. The DLD’s initial-sale page states that the developer registers the sale on the Oqood portal and that the contract must be registered within 90 days of signing. A resale of such a unit between two private parties goes through the developer’s no-objection process, which the DLD describes for provisional-sale properties as an electronic no-objection certificate (e-NOC) obtained through the Dubai REST app.

Payment plan and recorded sales at The Crestmark by Ellington

Ellington’s dedicated project site publishes the developer’s payment plan, and Property Finder summarises it as 20% at the sales launch, 50% in eight instalments during construction and 30% on handover. The two descriptions agree once the instalments are added up. The schedule below is the developer’s original plan for a primary purchase; a buyer who purchases from a previous owner assumes whatever instalments remain under that owner’s contract, and the remaining schedule is read from the sales-and-purchase agreement and the developer’s statement of account.

The arithmetic of the plan is 20 + 10 + 10 + 5 + 5 = 50% by 240 days, then 4 x 5 = 20% at the construction milestones, then 30% on completion, which gives 100%. The eight construction-period instalments after the booking payment are the 10%, 10%, 5%, 5% and four 5% payments, which sum to 50% as Property Finder states. With inspection progress at 61% in August 2026, the milestone instalments at 30%, 40%, 50% and 60% completion correspond to completion stages below the 61% inspection figure, whereas the 30% payment due on completion relates to a stage above it.

The DLD-registered sales data republished by Homesearch record 191 sales for the project, all of them off-plan, with a median price of AED 3.0 million ($816,882) and a median price of about AED 3,000 per square foot ($817). The same page puts the Business Bay median at about AED 2,000 per square foot and describes the project as 60% above it. These are recorded transaction prices on a third-party page and not asking prices, and they do not forecast a future price.

Business Bay and the Dubai Water Canal around The Crestmark by Ellington

Ellington’s Business Bay community page describes the district as a mixed-use area that combines a business sector with urban amenities, next to Downtown Dubai and along the Dubai Canal, with proximity to Downtown Dubai, the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and Dubai International Airport, and with Sheikh Zayed Road and an upgraded Al Khail Road nearby. The page lists a canal-side promenade, dining, cafes, gyms and retail, including Bay Avenue Mall. The page gives no distances, so the distances in the next section come from map data.

The Dubai Water Canal, which the building’s amenities name, is described by Khaleej Times in its report of 9 November 2016, the day the canal was inaugurated, as 3.2 km long with a 6.4 km waterfront. It starts at Business Bay, runs past Safa Park, Al Wasl Road and Jumeirah and ends in the Arabian Gulf at Jumeirah Beach Park. The same article reports five pedestrian bridges and an eight-lane Sheikh Zayed Road bridge across it. A canal-facing apartment in the building is therefore on the Business Bay end of that waterway.

Distances from The Crestmark by Ellington to the metro, malls and airports

The RTA’s Dubai Metro station map lists the Red Line stations R25 Burj Khalifa / Dubai Mall and R26 Business Bay. To measure the distances from the building, the table uses the position of the building site recorded in OpenStreetMap (25.18701 N, 55.28388 E, mapped as an apartment building under construction) and routing on OpenStreetMap data through the public OSM routing service. Walking times use the foot profile at ordinary walking speed and driving times use the car profile with free-flow speeds, so rush-hour trips take longer. Straight-line distances are calculated with the haversine formula from the same coordinates.

The result is that the nearest Red Line stations are 2.2 to 2.4 km away in a straight line and 2.9 to 3.7 km by foot routes, which is a walk of roughly 39 to 50 minutes on those routes, or a drive of 5.5 to 7.1 minutes. Marketing copy elsewhere may describe shorter times that assume a feeder bus, a taxi or a different reference point inside the building’s block; the table is a reproducible map calculation from one stated point, and a buyer can repeat it from the specific apartment entrance. The Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa are reachable on foot in about 25 minutes along the routes the data contain.

Price information for The Crestmark by Ellington

Per our listing page for this property, as of 28 October 2026, the price field reads “Starting from $388,000”. At 3.6725 dirhams per dollar, the rate in the Central Bank of the UAE’s exchange-rate publication, that corresponds to AED 1,424,930 ($388,000), calculated as 388,000 x 3.6725 = 1,424,930. The page states the price in dollars, so the dirham figure is a conversion, not a figure quoted by a seller in dirhams. On the smallest size on the same page, 496.75 square feet, the starting price works out at about AED 2,869 per square foot (1,424,930 / 496.75), which is a descriptive ratio for the smallest unit type, not a price list for the building.

A starting price describes the lowest-priced unit type in a range and does not describe the apartments or penthouses at the top of the size range. The recorded sales on the Homesearch page, which cite the DLD, show average prices by unit type that are higher than the starting price for every type except the studio, whose recorded average of about AED 1.4 million is close to it. The listing page shows no payment plan, bathroom count or service charge, so those items are taken from the developer’s pages and the registry sources above. For comparison across the market, the guides on this site on how much an apartment costs in Dubai and on apartment prices per square metre by area set out the cost structure used in the sections below.

Freehold ownership and registration costs for The Crestmark by Ellington

Under Law No. 7 of 2006 on real property registration, the right to own real property in Dubai is restricted to UAE nationals, with non-UAE nationals able to hold freehold ownership without time limit, or usufruct or leasehold rights of up to 99 years, in areas determined by the Ruler. The UAE government portal repeats that foreign ownership is allowed in areas designated as freehold and refers to Article 3 of Regulation No. 3 of 2006, whose list names 23 areas by plot, including Dubai Marina, Emirates Hills, Palm Jumeirah and Jebel Ali. The 2006 list does not name Business Bay, and later resolutions have added land to the designated areas, so the tenure of one particular unit is read from its title deed or e-Certificate of Title and from the DLD register, not from a brochure. Property Finder’s project page shows the ownership type of The Crestmark by Ellington as freehold, and our listing page labels the apartments as freehold. The site’s guide to freehold versus leasehold in Dubai compares the two tenures, and can foreigners buy apartments in Dubai covers who may buy.

The DLD publishes the fees of its sale-registration service. The transfer fee is 2% of the sale value payable by the seller and 2% by the buyer, which together are the 4% usually called the DLD fee. The page lists a title-deed issuance fee of AED 250 ($68), a knowledge fee of AED 10 ($3) and an innovation fee of AED 10 ($3), and service-partner (trustee centre) fees of AED 4,000 plus VAT for a sale value of AED 500,000 or more and AED 2,000 plus VAT below that. The UAE government portal states that VAT is 5% on goods and services, which makes the service-partner fee AED 4,200 ($1,144) on a sale of AED 500,000 or more. The seller and buyer identify themselves with Emirates ID or, for non-resident foreigners, a passport, and the developer’s e-NOC is required in freehold areas. Accepted payment methods are ePay, Dubai Pay, Noqodi Wallet and manager’s cheque.

The pages do not set out who bears each fee beyond the 2% and 2% split of the transfer fee, so the allocation in a given deal is a matter of the sale contract. Costs outside the schedule, such as broker commission, lender valuation and arrangement charges, furnishing and the first year’s service charge, vary by transaction and are not in the arithmetic that follows. The step-by-step sequence of a Dubai purchase is covered in the guide on buying property in Dubai with little cash up front, and the comparison of completed and off-plan purchases is in the off-plan buyer’s guide.

Mortgage limits and a worked cost example for The Crestmark by Ellington

The Central Bank of the UAE sets maximum loan-to-value (LTV) ratios in its mortgage regulations. The current Article 3 text on the Central Bank rulebook, together with Khaleej Times’ report of 22 February 2026 that quotes Notice 226/2013, gives the following ceilings for expatriates. They are maximums, and the rulebook tells lenders to use lower ratios where risks are higher.

Khaleej Times’ explainer on expatriate mortgages (updated 25 November 2024) adds a debt burden ratio of at most 50% of gross income, a maximum tenor of 25 years and borrowing capped at seven times annual income, and reports a minimum borrower age of 21 and a common bank minimum salary of AED 15,000 a month; the last two are bank practice rather than Central Bank rules. Because the building is still under construction on the inspection data, the 50% off-plan ceiling is the figure that applies to a mortgage on a unit whose title deed has not yet been issued, and the 80%, 70% and 60% ceilings apply to completed property. The site’s guide to mortgages in Dubai for foreigners describes lender requirements in more detail.

Worked example on a hypothetical price

The example below is an illustration on a stated hypothetical price of AED 3,000,000 ($816,882), which is the median recorded price on the Homesearch page and is not a price for any particular unit. It applies the DLD fees and Central Bank ceilings above. The column for a provisional (Oqood) unit assumes the same 4% transfer fee and AED 20 of knowledge and innovation fees, which is an assumption for the illustration, and the DLD’s AED 5,000 plus VAT service-partner fee for a mortgage on a provisional sale.

Arithmetic for the fees on a completed unit: transfer fee 4% x 3,000,000 = 120,000; title deed 250 + knowledge 10 + innovation 10 = 270; service-partner fee 4,000 + 5% VAT of 200 = 4,200; sale-registration costs 120,000 + 270 + 4,200 = 124,470. For the 80% mortgage: loan 0.80 x 3,000,000 = 2,400,000; down payment 600,000; mortgage registration 0.25% x 2,400,000 = 6,000, plus 270 and 4,200, giving 10,470. For the 60% mortgage: loan 1,800,000; down payment 1,200,000; registration 4,500 + 270 + 4,200 = 8,970. For the 50% provisional mortgage: loan 1,500,000; down payment 1,500,000; registration 3,750 + 270 + 5,000 + 5% VAT of 250 = 9,270.

Two readings of the table follow. The sale-registration costs equal 4.15% of the price (124,470 / 3,000,000), of which 4.00 percentage points are the transfer fee. If the 2% and 2% split of the DLD schedule applies as written, the buyer’s share of the transfer fee is 60,000 and the other 60,000 is the seller’s, which lowers the buyer’s cost line by 60,000 in every column. The income test gives a second check: a loan of AED 2,400,000 divided by seven requires gross annual income of AED 342,857 ($93,359), or AED 28,571 ($7,780) a month, so a borrower with lower income is limited by the multiple and not by the 80% ceiling.

Residency thresholds by property value for buyers of The Crestmark by Ellington

A property purchase does not itself grant a residence permit. The permits below are separate applications, each with the property-value condition that its official page states. The thresholds come from the DLD, the GDRFA and the ICP service pages, and the AED 2,000,000 figure is the one the Dubai Golden Visa guide on this site states.

The DLD lists the government cost of the 10-year Golden Visa through its service at AED 9,884.75 ($2,692), made up of a medical examination (AED 700), Emirates ID (AED 1,153), residency permit confirmation (AED 2,856.75), DLD fees (AED 4,020) and administrative fees (AED 1,155), with a processing time of 7 to 10 business days and a validity of 10 years. The two-year investor residence is listed at AED 10,212.50. The GDRFA page states that the property may not be disposed of during the permit’s validity, and the ICP page adds that the holder needs valid health insurance throughout the residency.

Arithmetic against the price field of our listing page: the converted starting price of AED 1,424,930 is AED 575,070 ($156,588) below the AED 2,000,000 threshold, so a single unit at the starting price does not reach it on its own, whereas the hypothetical AED 3,000,000 price in the example above is AED 1,000,000 ($272,294) above it. Because the DLD measures the value at the time of purchase, the figure that counts is the registered purchase price. The site’s guide to the Dubai Golden Visa sets out the property rules, costs and steps in full.

Service charges, escrow and checks before buying The Crestmark by Ellington

Under Dubai Law No. 6 of 2019 on jointly owned real property, each owner pays a share of the annual service charge calculated from the ratio of the unit’s area, as recorded in the real property register, to the total area of the property (Article 25). The management entity cannot charge or collect service charges without RERA’s approval, and RERA cannot approve a budget unless a RERA-recognised audit firm has approved it first (Article 27). The charges are paid into a separate account for each project with a RERA-recognised bank, deposited within seven working days, and a separate cash reserve account is held for emergencies and replacement of equipment (Article 30). The management entity holds a lien on a unit for unpaid charges (Article 32).

The DLD’s Service Charge Index lets an owner or prospective buyer look up the approved service fees of a jointly owned project. The page describes a free service available through the Land Department website, via the Mollak system, and through the Dubai REST app: the user logs in, chooses the project name, the use and the year, and views the result. The page does not publish rates itself, and the rate for The Crestmark by Ellington is the figure the index shows for that project and year.

Escrow and the provisional register

Dubai Law No. 8 of 2007 on escrow accounts for real estate development requires payments from off-plan buyers to be paid into an escrow account dedicated exclusively to the construction of that project, separate for each project, with the funds protected from attachment by the developer’s creditors (Article 9). The escrow agent reports revenue and expenditure to the authority at regular intervals (Article 11), and after the completion certificate the agent retains 5% of the account’s total value until one year after units are registered in the buyers’ names (Article 14). Homesearch lists the project’s escrow bank as Commercial Bank of Dubai. The guide on how buyer protection works in Dubai explains how these mechanisms fit together.

Checklist of verifiable items

1. The unit number, registered area and floor in the sales-and-purchase agreement or title document, compared with the figures in the registered mix above.
2. The unit’s status in the DLD record: provisional registration through Oqood while the building is unfinished, title deed after handover.
3. The developer’s e-NOC for a resale, which the DLD requires in freehold areas and for provisional-sale properties.
4. The developer’s statement of account showing which instalments of the payment plan have been paid and which remain.
5. The inspection progress and handover programme in the DLD project record and in Ellington’s monthly construction updates.
6. The approved service charge for the project and year in the DLD Service Charge Index once it is published.
7. The fees in the DLD schedule, confirmed with the trustee centre before payment.

Readers weighing the wider market context can read the guides on the Dubai real estate market and on what 2008 to 2026 data shows about Dubai property cycles, and the UAE country page lists the other markets and projects on this site.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Crestmark by Ellington?

The Crestmark by Ellington is a residential building in Business Bay, Dubai, developed by Ellington Properties. The developer describes 189 design-led units: studios, one- to three-bedroom apartments and penthouses, with 10 amenities that include Dubai Water Canal access and a leisure pool.

Is The Crestmark by Ellington completed?

For The Crestmark by Ellington, DLD inspection data republished by Homesearch show 61% completion on 7 August 2026, and Lankea shows the status “under construction” with 61.18% on 22 September 2026. The Q1 2026 completion date shown on Property Finder is the date expected at the sales stage.

How many floors and units does The Crestmark by Ellington have?

The Crestmark by Ellington has 22 storeys according to Bayut and Homesearch: ground floor, three podium levels and 18 floors. Ellington states 189 units, and the DLD-registered mix republished by Homesearch lists 191 homes including one commercial unit.

How much does The Crestmark by Ellington cost?

Per our listing page for The Crestmark by Ellington, as of 28 October 2026, the price field reads “Starting from $388,000”, which converts to AED 1,424,930 at 3.6725. DLD-registered sales republished by Homesearch show a median recorded price of AED 3.0 million, and the price of a specific unit is the one agreed at transfer.

What payment plan did the developer publish for The Crestmark by Ellington?

Ellington’s project site shows 20% at booking, further instalments of 10%, 10%, 5% and 5% in the first 240 days, four instalments of 5% at 30%, 40%, 50% and 60% construction completion, and 30% on completion. Property Finder summarises it as 20%, 50% and 30%.

How far is The Crestmark by Ellington from the metro?

Using the OpenStreetMap position of the building, The Crestmark by Ellington is 2.41 km in a straight line from Business Bay Metro Station (R26) and 2.16 km from Burj Khalifa / Dubai Mall Metro Station (R25). Walking routes are 3.70 km and 2.89 km, and the drives take 5.5 and 7.1 minutes in free-flow conditions.

What fees apply when buying a unit in The Crestmark by Ellington?

The DLD lists a transfer fee of 2% payable by the seller and 2% by the buyer, a title-deed fee of AED 250, knowledge and innovation fees of AED 10 each and a service-partner fee of AED 4,000 plus VAT for sales of AED 500,000 or more. On a hypothetical AED 3,000,000 purchase these come to AED 124,470 when the full 4% is counted.

What mortgage limits apply to a unit in The Crestmark by Ellington?

The Central Bank caps loans at 80% of value for an expatriate’s first home below AED 5 million, 60% for a second or investment property and 50% for property bought off-plan. For a hypothetical AED 3,000,000 unit, these caps mean minimum down payments of AED 600,000, AED 1,200,000 and AED 1,500,000.

Does buying in The Crestmark by Ellington lead to a Golden Visa?

A purchase in The Crestmark by Ellington is not a visa. The DLD states that the real estate Golden Visa applicant must own one or more properties worth at least AED 2,000,000 ($544,588) at the time of purchase, and the starting price on our listing page converts to AED 1,424,930, which is below that figure for a single unit at that price.

How is the service charge for The Crestmark by Ellington found?

Use the DLD Service Charge Index on the Land Department website or the Dubai REST app, choose the project name, the use and the year, and read the approved fee. Under Dubai Law No. 6 of 2019 the charge is allocated by the ratio of a unit’s area to the total area and requires RERA approval.

Last checked: 28 October 2026. Sources: Ellington Properties – The Crestmark project page; Ellington Properties – The Crestmark project site; Ellington Properties – The Crestmark construction updates; Ellington Properties – Business Bay community page; Ellington Properties – Ellington House II and Arbor View handover news (21 May 2026); Homesearch – The Crestmark (DLD inspection and sales data); Lankea – The Crestmark; Property Finder – The Crestmark; Bayut – The Crestmark building page; OpenStreetMap – The Crestmark building site; RTA – Metro and tram stations map; Khaleej Times – Dubai Water Canal (9 November 2016); Dubai Land Department – property sale registration; Dubai Land Department – initial sale registration (Oqood); Dubai Land Department – mortgage registration; Dubai Land Department – Service Charge Index; Dubai Land Department – Golden Visa (investor); Dubai Land Department – investor residence; GDRFA Dubai – golden residence for investors; ICP – UAE Golden Residency; UAE government portal – expatriates buying property; UAE government portal – taxation; Dubai Law No. 7 of 2006; Dubai Regulation No. 3 of 2006; Dubai Law No. 6 of 2019; Dubai Law No. 8 of 2007; Central Bank of the UAE – Mortgage Regulations, Article 3; Khaleej Times – financing and LTV (22 February 2026); Khaleej Times – expat mortgages; Central Bank of the UAE – exchange rate table (3.6725); OpenStreetMap routing service (routing.openstreetmap.de).