From a trading business to the "1%" payment-plan developer
Danube Properties was founded in Dubai in 2014 by Rizwan Sajan, who had arrived in Dubai at the end of 1991 and built a building-materials trading business under the Danube name through the early-to-mid 1990s — the wider Danube Group that later grew into the Danube Home and Danube Buildmart retail chains across the UAE and the wider Gulf. Danube Properties is the group's dedicated real-estate development arm, with Sajan chairing both. As of March 2025, the company reported 34 projects launched, 18 delivered and 16 under construction, more than 21,000 residential units, roughly 15 million sq ft of sellable area, and a portfolio valued at over $7.1 billion, with buyers spanning more than 112 nationalities.
Danube is best known for its signature "1%" payment plan — a 20% down payment followed by the remaining 80% in monthly instalments of 1% of the purchase price, rather than the lump-sum or shorter instalment schedules more common elsewhere in Dubai — paired with themed, amenity-dense mid-rise towers (Elitz, Jewelz, Gemz, Lawnz, Wavez, Oceanz, Resortz and others) concentrated in Jumeirah Village Circle, Al Furjan and Arjan. In February 2023, Danube reported that five of these projects launched and sold out in 2022 alone, covering 2,087 units worth over Dh2.02 billion.
Reaching upmarket, into villas, and into celebrity branding
2024 and 2026 have seen Danube push into new formats beyond its mid-rise JVC towers. Bayz101 and Bayz102, launched in 2024, are twin towers in Business Bay — Bayz101 alone reported at over 101 storeys, roughly AED 3 billion in construction cost, and more than 40 shared amenities, a clear step up from the company's earlier portfolio. Greenz, unveiled in April 2026, is Danube's first townhouse-and-villa community — a gated, low-density development in Dubai International Academic City spanning roughly 4.9 million sq ft, with 768 units across six floor-plan configurations we've confirmed directly from Danube's own sales brochure, sold on the same 1% monthly structure and handed over in December 2029 per that brochure.
Most recently, Danube has moved into celebrity branding: Shahrukhz by Danube, a 55-storey commercial office tower on Sheikh Zayed Road, was the first project built around a partnership with Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, reported to have sold out on launch day. Shahrukhz Residences, announced in October 2026, is a separate, residential follow-up in Dubai Maritime City — a fully furnished waterfront tower Danube markets as "the world's first celebrity-named residential tower," with interior designer Gauri Khan credited with the penthouse interiors.
What we've verified directly, versus what's public reporting
As with every developer profile on this site, Danube's company history and founding date are drawn from independent reporting — Gulf Business, Gulf News, Khaleej Times and Zawya — not fabricated or assumed. For Greenz specifically, we've also reviewed Danube's own sales brochure directly, which is where the confirmed unit configurations, the 1% monthly payment plan, and the December 2029 handover date come from; it didn't include a pricing table, so Greenz's starting price is still unsettled between a Dh3.5 million press figure and AED 3.7–3.8 million shown on different pages of Danube's own site, and we've flagged that rather than picking one. Beyond the Greenz brochure, we haven't been sent current pricing lists or floor plans directly from Danube or a channel partner for Bayz101/102 or either Shahrukhz project, so treat the figures mentioned above as background rather than a live price list.
Read the full project pages
Every project mentioned here has its own detailed section on our Danube developer page, with current availability notes, real renders where we have them, and — where we have it — the payment-plan breakdown: