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Indian-born billionaire PNC Menon's Sobha Realty, one of Dubai's largest property developers, has bought its first development sites in Australia and is studying opportunities in Sydney as it expands beyond the Middle East and India.
The company has secured two sites in South East Queensland, one in Brisbane's inner-city Fortitude Valley district and one on the Gold Coast, it said in a statement this month. Sobha did not disclose what it paid for the land or how many homes it plans to build.
Sobha plans to lodge a development application for the Fortitude Valley site within a month, and expects construction on both Queensland projects to start in mid-2027, subject to approvals. It is also assessing apartment and house-and-land projects in Sydney, Australia's largest city, though it has not announced any deal there.
The developer said it will work with Australian top-tier builders, architects and consultants. The projects will be funded with company equity and loans from Australian banks and non-bank lenders, with bank funding preferred.
"In Australia, we are planning projects around local lifestyles and conditions, working with experienced partners," said Francis Alfred, managing director of Sobha Realty.
Texas push
The Australian entry is part of a wider overseas expansion that also takes Sobha into the United States. The company has bought about 105 hectares (260 acres) of land in Celina and Frisco, two fast-growing suburbs north of Dallas, where it plans to invest about $600 million to build roughly 700 single-family homes over five years, according to The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi.
Sales of the first 34 homes in Celina, priced at about $1 million to $1.5 million each, are expected to begin in 2027. Vipin Das, chief executive of Sobha Realty's US business, told The National that the company was also "seriously exploring" Houston and Austin. Nashville, Phoenix and Florida are under consideration for later growth.
"Our expansion into the United States and Australia reflects a long-term commitment to building an international business," Menon said in the statement.
His son Ravi Menon, who became chairman of Sobha Group in 2024, said the company's strategy was "to establish a focused presence in locations with strong housing demand."
From Oman to Dubai
Menon, 77, was born in Kerala in southern India and moved to Oman in 1976, where he started an interior decorating business. He founded Sobha in Bangalore in 1995 and later built the group into one of the biggest developers in the Gulf. Sobha Ltd., the group's Indian arm, is listed in Mumbai.
Menon, an Omani citizen who lives in Dubai, is worth an estimated $3.9 billion, according to Forbes, which ranks him 10th on its 2026 list of the richest residents of the United Arab Emirates.
In Dubai, Sobha is best known for Sobha Hartland, a large master-planned community near the city center, and plans to hand over more than 6,000 homes there and at its other projects this year. The company reported sales of 30 billion dirhams ($8.2 billion) last year, up 30%, and has launched a 40 billion dirham ($10.9 billion) residential project in Abu Dhabi, according to The National.
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