Neom announces superyacht resort on Gulf of Aqaba

Neom

• 500 apartments and 700 villas planned
• Shelter for up to 300 superyachts
• Designed by Bureau Proberts of Brisbane

Plans to build a high-end resort town on the Gulf of Aqaba aimed at the luxury yacht community have been announced by Neom, despite rising doubts about Saudi Arabia’s ability to maintain funding lines for the country’s giga-projects. 

The new project, Jaumur, was described by Neom as an “exclusive residential community set around an inspiring superyacht marina” that will be the largest luxury neighbourhood along the 110-mile-long Gulf of Aqaba coast, with 6,000 residents. 

It will include 500 apartments, 700 villas and two hotels, an international boarding school and a deep sea research centre, Neom said. 

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The town will feature typically futuristic architecture, in line with the 12 resorts Neom has announced so far, most of them apparently aimed at the super-rich. 

The centrepiece is what its architects are calling an Aerofoil, a 1.5km long structure big enough to shelter up to 300 superyachts, designed by the Brisbane-based firm Bureau Proberts. 

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In a promotional video for the project, Terry McQuillan, head of architecture at Bureau Proberts, said: “Imagine, if you will, you’re approaching on your superyacht. In the distance you see something on the horizon: this amazing structure that is totally unique. 

“Once you arrive in the marina you’ll be overwhelmed by such a strong sense of geometry.”

Neom, owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, is the biggest of the projects worth $1.25 trillion intended to diversify the country’s economy away from oil. 

But it admitted in March that its horizontal city, The Line, would open in 2030 at only around 3.2km long, instead of the 170km initially announced. 

The Line is meant to have attracted 300,000 residents by then, according to the latest plans. 

The Saudi government has projected three years of budget deficits, as oil output cuts fail to raise oil prices to the country’s current breakeven price of $96 a barrel, raising speculation that some of the more than 1,000 projects in the Vision 2030 programme could be ditched or pared back.