The Pearl Muscat Hills — Freehold Retail Shops in Oman

The Pearl Muscat Hills is a freehold retail investment inside a 298-apartment residential tower on Muscat Hills Boulevard, developed by Al Osool Properties, the development and ventures arm of MJS Group of Companies. This listing covers the ground-floor commercial component — 37 shop units across roughly 4,000 square metres — sold on full freehold title to buyers of any nationality, with the residential community above the gallery and the wider Muscat Hills golf-course district around it.

About The Pearl Muscat Hills

The Pearl combines 298 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments with a ground-floor retail gallery of 37 shops spanning approximately 4,000 square metres. The Oman Observer’s launch coverage in July 2018 describes the commercial area as intended to become a dining and shopping destination for the wider Muscat Hills community. A 366-space basement car park serves both the residential and commercial components, providing dedicated customer and tenant parking for the retail units alongside street-level access.

Commercial Shops Compared with Residential Units

A commercial freehold shop differs from the apartment and villa freehold units offered elsewhere in Oman’s ITC market. A shop at The Pearl is bought and let to a business tenant — a café, salon, convenience store, pharmacy or similar — typically on a longer commercial lease than a residential tenancy, with the tenant responsible for fitting out the space to their own specification. The shop units suit buyers who prefer a landlord relationship with a business tenant to a residential tenancy, and who are comfortable with the commercial lease process described further down this page.

Location: Muscat Hills Boulevard

The Pearl sits on Muscat Hills Boulevard, within the wider Muscat Hills masterplan — an Integrated Tourism Complex built around an 18-hole golf course alongside residential apartments, villas and retail. The Oman Observer’s 2018 report places the project in Madinat Al Irfan, the district that Gulf Construction Online describes as the New Downtown area of Muscat Hills. The shop units are within walking distance of Golf Hills and the rest of the Muscat Hills residential community, which places the gallery near residents and golf-course visitors as well as passing vehicle traffic.

Residents Above the Retail Gallery

The Pearl’s 37 shops sit directly beneath 298 apartments, so the ground-floor gallery has a residential community living immediately above it, in addition to the wider Muscat Hills community nearby. This vertical mixed-use structure — retail below, residential above — is a common model in commercial real estate.

The 37 Shops in Numbers

The figures on this page describe the gallery as a whole rather than shop by shop. There are 37 shop units across approximately 4,000 square metres, which is about 43,056 square feet. If that area were divided evenly, an average shop would measure about 108 square metres (about 1,164 square feet); this is simple arithmetic, because individual units differ in size, frontage and position, and the sales team quotes the size of each unit separately. The building also holds 298 apartments, and the 366-space basement car park serves the apartments, the shops, their customers and their staff.

Shop prices are quoted per unit, so the price of a particular shop is set by its size, frontage, corner position and proximity to the main entrances and car park access points. For reference on the residential side, the 2018 launch coverage gave OMR 59,600 for a 74-square-metre one-bedroom apartment, which works out at OMR 805 per square metre, or about $195 per square foot ($155,008 for the unit at the fixed rate of 2.6008). A shop priced at OMR 200,000 would be $520,160 at the same rate, and the one-time 3% transfer fee on that price would be OMR 6,000 ($15,605). These are worked examples built from the page’s own figures, not shop prices.

Ownership, Freehold Status and Residency

Muscat Hills is a designated Integrated Tourism Complex, and commercial units at The Pearl are sold on full freehold title to buyers of any nationality, with no requirement for an Omani sponsor or local company. Shops in Integrated Tourism Complexes can count toward Oman’s Golden Residency: the programme’s published terms cover residential, commercial and tourism units with a valid title deed. Golden Residency needs a single ITC property worth at least OMR 200,000 and is decided by the Royal Oman Police. The Owner Visa has no minimum value. Shop prices are quoted per unit, so the route that applies to a given shop follows from the price in its sale and purchase agreement.

Pricing and Availability

Commercial shop units at The Pearl are currently offered on a price-on-request basis, reflecting the bespoke nature of commercial retail pricing, which varies by unit size, ground-floor frontage, corner position and proximity to the building’s main entrances and car park access points. Residential apartments in the same development started from OMR 59,600 for a 74-square-metre one-bedroom unit in the 2018 launch coverage, which gives a reference point for the wider project. Shop pricing is confirmed directly with UInvest for the specific unit under consideration.

The Developer: Al Osool Properties

Al Osool Properties is the development and ventures arm of MJS Group of Companies, delivering The Pearl as a mixed-use residential-and-retail project within the wider Muscat Hills masterplan. The project places ground-floor retail beneath a substantial residential tower, a mixed-use format of retail below and homes above.

About Al Osool Group and Its Partners

Al Osool Group is a Muscat real estate and facilities management business that says on its website it was established in 2006. Its head office is at Hay Al Mina in Muscat, with a second office in Dubai, and its service lines include brokerage for rentals and sales, property management, integrated facility management, valuation and advisory services, project marketing and landscaping. Hassan Mohammed Juma is named as its Chairman and Managing Director and is quoted in the Oman Observer’s 2018 coverage as Managing Director of Al Osool Properties. The same report states that Al Osool Properties belongs to MJS Group, also written as Mohamed Juma Sultan Group, and that ERA Al Osool Real Estate handles marketing, sales, leasing, property management, valuation and facility management for the project.

The group’s two Muscat Hills projects are The Pearl and Golf Hills. The full background, with dates and sources, is on the Al Osool developer profile, and the Oman developer profiles hub lists the other developers whose projects appear on this site. The sale and purchase agreement for each unit names the selling company.

Amenities and Lifestyle

Residents living above The Pearl’s retail gallery have access to a swimming pool, garden, children’s play area and jogging track. The 366-space basement car park serves shoppers and diners visiting from elsewhere in Muscat Hills, in addition to residents and retail staff.

Who a Shop at The Pearl Suits

The Pearl’s commercial units suit buyers who want to own freehold retail space rather than let a residential unit. They are relevant to buyers comfortable managing a commercial tenant relationship, potentially through a longer lease term than residential tenancies typically offer, and to buyers who want a holding in a mixed-use building with 298 apartments above the gallery. Overseas buyers can use the same freehold route that applies to apartments in Muscat Hills, with no Omani sponsor or local company. Buyers who prefer a residential letting can look at the apartments in the same district, such as Golf Hills, which are separate purchases with their own prices and payment plan.

Retail Tenant Mix and Leasing Considerations

A 37-shop gallery beneath a residential tower is typically let to convenience-oriented tenants — a supermarket or convenience store, pharmacy, café or casual dining, salon or barber, and similar day-to-day service businesses — rather than destination retail requiring a wider catchment. Buyers considering a shop can ask which tenant categories are already represented in the gallery and which remain available, since the gallery’s tenant mix agreement may set the permitted retail categories for each unit. A complementary mix of tenants across the gallery is a matter for the developer and the owners together.

Commercial vs Residential Freehold: Key Differences

Commercial retail leases in Oman typically run longer than residential tenancies, often with the tenant responsible for their own fit-out, and rent reviews structured differently from a standard annual residential renewal. The commercial tenant pool consists of business operators, while the residential market draws on households, so each follows its own leasing process and its own paperwork. Buyers comparing a shop at The Pearl with a residential unit elsewhere in Oman can set out the lease terms, the service charge and the expected fit-out arrangements for each before choosing between them.

Retail Frontage and Unit Selection

Within a 37-shop gallery, units differ in frontage and position, and price varies with them. Corner units and those facing the main pedestrian entrance or the car park access points are priced on different terms from units set further inside the gallery. Buyers can request a gallery layout plan from UInvest before reserving, so that unit selection reflects visibility and access as well as price.

F&B and Café Tenants

Food and beverage tenants — cafés, casual dining and bakery concepts in particular — are one of the categories suited to a residential-anchored retail gallery like The Pearl’s, since they serve daily needs of nearby residents as well as visitors. A buyer planning to let a unit to a food-service tenant can look for units with outdoor seating potential or close to the building’s main pedestrian flow, and can ask Al Osool Properties what ventilation and grease-trap infrastructure is provided for food-service units, so the tenant’s fit-out plan can be prepared against the unit’s specification.

Step-by-Step: How to Buy a Shop at The Pearl

Purchasing follows Oman’s standard freehold ITC process. The sequence is the same as for an apartment, with commercial-specific points at the fit-out and leasing stage:

1. Choose the unit: its size, frontage and position within the gallery.
2. Reserve it: a reservation agreement and down payment secure the chosen shop unit and pricing.
3. Sign the full Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA), which sets out the payment structure, specification and handover date.
4. Pay the instalments, which are held in the project escrow account and run through to handover.
5. Take possession for fit-out and tenant leasing.
6. Complete title registration with Oman’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning.

Investors pursuing the Golden Residency typically begin that process once title registration is complete and the qualifying value of the unit is confirmed.

Off-Plan Buyer Protections and Escrow

Off-plan sales within Oman’s designated ITCs, including Muscat Hills, operate under a regulated escrow framework: buyer instalments for a project under construction are held in a dedicated project escrow account, with funds released against verified construction milestones rather than paid directly to the developer up front. Buyers can confirm the specific escrow arrangement named in their Sale and Purchase Agreement and can request project updates from UInvest at any stage ahead of handover.

Royal Decree 79/2025, issued on 10 September 2025 and published in the Official Gazette on 14 September 2025, is the Law Regulating Real Estate. According to the decree’s entry on decree.om it takes effect 180 days after publication, around mid-March 2026, and repeals the earlier escrow system for real estate development projects issued by Royal Decree 30/2018, bringing the escrow rules into the unified law. Our guide to Royal Decree 79/2025 explains what it means for buyers: the project has its own escrow account, and payments are released against construction progress.

Financing Considerations

Commercial property financing in Oman is arranged separately from residential mortgages, and each bank sets its own loan-to-value ratios, terms and documentation for retail units. Buyers can confirm current commercial financing terms directly with UInvest or their bank of choice, including the income documentation the bank asks for in connection with the intended retail use.

Currency and Payment Notes

The Pearl’s units are priced in Omani Rial. The Omani Rial has been pegged to the US Dollar at a fixed rate since 1986 (OMR 1 = USD 2.6008), so buyers converting from USD, AED or other Dollar-pegged Gulf currencies see a stable conversion rate across a multi-year payment plan. Buyers paying from other currencies, such as the euro or the pound, convert at the market rate on each payment date. Our guide to the rial peg explains the mechanism.

Service Charges for Commercial Units

As part of a mixed-use building, The Pearl’s commercial units will be subject to their own service charge covering shared building infrastructure — the basement car park, building security, lifts and common-area maintenance — typically set at a different rate from the residential apartments above, reflecting the different usage of retail and residential space. Buyers can confirm the current commercial service charge rate directly with UInvest before signing, since it forms part of the ongoing cost of owning and leasing a retail unit. For reference, the service charge for Golf Hills is OMR 6.5 per square metre on the developer’s price list, and our service charges guide explains how these charges are billed in Oman developments.

Taxes and Ongoing Costs

Oman does not levy an annual property tax or capital gains tax on freehold real estate, commercial or residential, and places no restriction on repatriating rental income or sale proceeds abroad. The one-time property transfer fee for foreign buyers is 3% of the purchase price, applying equally to commercial and residential freehold purchases within Oman’s designated ITCs. Buyers should also expect the usual registration, notary and brokerage costs set out in the SPA.

Managing a Commercial Retail Investment

Owners of shop units at The Pearl typically engage a local commercial leasing agent to identify suitable tenants, negotiate lease terms, and manage the ongoing landlord relationship — a different skill set from residential property management. The Oman Observer’s 2018 report names ERA Al Osool Real Estate as handling leasing and property management for the project.

Golden Residency and the Owner Visa for Shop Buyers

Oman’s published Golden Residency terms state that units in Integrated Tourism Complexes — residential, commercial or tourism — with a valid title deed can qualify at a minimum value of OMR 200,000 ($520,160), as a single property, with the decision made by the Royal Oman Police. For The Pearl, a single shop priced at or above OMR 200,000 would meet the value condition, and the decision on any application still rests with the Royal Oman Police. A shop priced below OMR 200,000 would be held under the Owner Visa route.

The Owner Visa has no minimum value and applies to owners of units in an ITC. According to the Times of Oman explainer of 25 July 2026, owners of units in an ITC receive renewable residency for themselves and first-degree relatives. The legal basis is Royal Decree 12/2006 as amended by Royal Decree 76/2010, together with Ministerial Decision 191/2007 as amended by Ministerial Decision 109/2022. Our comparison of Golden Residency and the Owner Visa covers the two routes in full, and the title deed is issued once registration is complete.

Muscat Hills: Golf Course Community and Wider Context

Muscat Hills is built around an 18-hole golf course, combining golf-course villas and apartments — including developments such as Golf Hills — with The Pearl’s residential-and-retail tower on Muscat Hills Boulevard. Gulf News describes the community as a 1.2 million square metre development on a hillside with views over the mountains and the Gulf of Oman, with villas, apartments, an 18-hole golf course and a country club. The shop units therefore serve two overlapping groups: residents living within The Pearl itself, and the wider Muscat Hills community and golf-course visitors circulating through the district.

Related Project: Golf Hills

Golf Hills is the other Al Osool project in Muscat Hills: a three-tower scheme of 366 apartments on 11,000 square metres, unveiled in February 2026, with a handover target of Q4 2028 per the developer. The one-bedroom apartment is 644 square feet and starts from OMR 62,900 ($163,590), which is OMR 97.7 or $254 per square foot. The three-bedroom is 1,667 square feet and starts from OMR 195,200 ($507,676), or $305 per square foot. Both are below OMR 200,000, and a 2,151 square foot layout is priced on request. Unit sizes and prices are on our Golf Hills listing.

The Golf Hills payment plan shows how an off-plan schedule converts into amounts. It asks for 20 percent on booking, then 15 percent at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months, then 20 percent on completion. For the one-bedroom at OMR 62,900 that is OMR 12,580 ($32,718) on booking, four instalments of OMR 9,435 ($24,539) and OMR 12,580 ($32,718) on completion, and the percentages add up to 100. This illustrates the Golf Hills plan; the schedule for a shop at The Pearl is written into its own SPA. Our payment plans guide shows how other Oman projects structure their schedules.

Construction Progress and Reporting

UInvest maintains contact with Al Osool Properties’ sales and project teams and can provide buyers with current construction progress updates, photography and any specification changes ahead of each instalment due date under the payment plan, helping investors track delivery of their shop unit through to handover. The listing gives the year built as 2025.

Getting to The Pearl: Access and Connectivity

The Pearl sits on Muscat Hills Boulevard within the Muscat Hills masterplan, with road access connecting the district to central Muscat. The development’s 366-space basement car park gives both residents and retail customers dedicated parking, so customer access does not depend on street parking alone. Journey times given for the neighbouring Golf Hills site are 18 minutes by car to City Centre Muscat, 12 minutes to the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre, 15 minutes to Azaiba Beach and 14 minutes to Muscat International Airport.

What to Prepare When Reserving a Shop

The documents and details below are the normal items to have in hand when reserving a commercial unit at The Pearl:

• The reservation form, with the unit reference, its position in the gallery and the price written on it.
• The SPA with the handover date, which a lawyer of your choice can review before you sign.
• The escrow account details: the bank, the project account and the registration of the reservation under Royal Decree 79/2025.
• The ITC and title documents: the zone approval for Muscat Hills, the form of title and the registry that issues it.
• The payment schedule in writing, with dates and the amount of each instalment.
• The service-charge schedule for the commercial units, including the rate, the billing period and what it covers.
• The unit specification, shell-and-core or fitted, and any permitted retail categories under the gallery’s tenant mix agreement.
• Your identity documents and proof of the source of funds, as the developer’s compliance team asks.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can foreigners buy freehold retail shops at The Pearl?

Yes. Muscat Hills is a designated Integrated Tourism Complex, so commercial units at The Pearl are sold on full freehold title to buyers of any nationality, with no local partner or sponsor required.

How many shops are in The Pearl’s retail gallery?

37 shop units spanning approximately 4,000 square metres of ground-floor retail space.

Who developed The Pearl Muscat Hills?

The Pearl is developed by Al Osool Properties, the development and ventures arm of MJS Group of Companies.

How much do shop units at The Pearl cost?

Shop units are currently offered on a price-on-request basis, since commercial pricing varies by size, frontage and position within the gallery; contact UInvest for current pricing.

Does buying a shop at The Pearl qualify for Oman residency?

Commercial units in an Integrated Tourism Complex can qualify for Oman’s Golden Residency when a single property holds a valid title deed and is worth at least OMR 200,000, with the decision made by the Royal Oman Police. The Owner Visa has no minimum value.

How many apartments are above the retail gallery?

298 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments sit above The Pearl’s ground-floor retail component.

Is there parking for retail customers at The Pearl?

Yes — a 366-space basement car park serves both residents and retail customers and staff.

What taxes apply to owning commercial property in Oman?

Oman levies no annual property tax and no capital gains tax on freehold real estate, commercial or residential, and places no restriction on repatriating rental income or sale proceeds abroad.

What type of tenants typically lease shops like these in Oman?

Convenience-oriented businesses — supermarkets, pharmacies, cafés, salons and similar day-to-day service tenants — are typical of a retail gallery under a residential tower.

Can I purchase remotely, without visiting Oman?

Many international buyers complete the reservation and SPA signing remotely through a power of attorney arrangement coordinated with UInvest, though an in-person or video walkthrough visit ahead of final payment is recommended, particularly for commercial units where frontage and position matter.

How does a shop at The Pearl differ from a residential unit in Oman?

A shop is let to a business tenant on a commercial lease, usually longer than a residential tenancy and with the tenant fitting out the space. An apartment is let to a household. Shop prices are quoted per unit, while apartments are listed with starting prices.

Where is The Pearl located?

On Muscat Hills Boulevard within the Muscat Hills masterplan, a golf-course-centred Integrated Tourism Complex in Muscat.

Which company handles leasing and property management for the project?

The Oman Observer’s July 2018 report states that ERA Al Osool Real Estate handles marketing, sales, leasing, property management, valuation and facility management for The Pearl.

How does escrow work for off-plan purchases at The Pearl?

Buyer instalments for a project under construction are held in a dedicated project escrow account and released against construction progress under Royal Decree 79/2025, which repeals the earlier escrow system and brings the rules into one law. The SPA names the escrow arrangement.

Which other Al Osool project is in Muscat Hills?

Golf Hills, a three-tower freehold apartment scheme beside the golf course, with a one-bedroom from OMR 62,900 and a handover target of Q4 2028 per the developer.

The Pearl Muscat Hills offers purpose-built commercial retail space beneath a 298-apartment residential community, sold on freehold title to buyers of any nationality. For buyers who prefer a business tenant relationship to residential letting, the shop units are an option within Oman’s Muscat Hills district. Read our full guide to freehold property in Oman and areas to invest in Oman, browse all freehold properties in Oman, and contact UInvest for current shop availability, up-to-date pricing and a personalised comparison against residential freehold options before you reserve a unit at The Pearl.