On a Wednesday afternoon in early November, inside Nobu Next Door at Nobu Fifty Seven, The Agency’s team was invited for a first look at what may be the purest expression yet of where ultra-luxury real estate is heading. Not a penthouse. Not a compound. An island, with a yacht moored at its edge.
Nobu Hospitality and Sarat International unveiled, for the first time anywhere, the design concepts for the 10 Nobu Island Estate Residences at Nobu Hotel, Residences and Restaurant Maldives, opening in 2028. Chef Nobu Matsuhisa, Robert De Niro and Meir Teper were joined by Nobu Hospitality CEO Trevor Horwell and Sarat International Managing Director Ali Ahsan, alongside the creative teams behind the project: BLINK Design Group, which designed the residences, and Vripack, which designed the yachts.
From Branded Address to Branded Island
Branded residences have spent the last decade climbing ever higher, from sky-lobby towers, to hotel-serviced penthouses and resort-adjacent villas. The Nobu Island Estates mark the next step. The world’s most discerning buyers are no longer asking for more square footage; they are asking for more distance. More privacy, more water, more control over who and what surrounds them, without giving up five-star service.
That is the proposition here. Set on the private island of Munyafushi in the Laamu Atoll, the resort will include 26 beach villas and 30 overwater villas. But the headline is the collection of just 10 Island Estate Residences, each occupying a private island of its own, and each delivered with a private yacht. Owners get the seclusion of true island ownership with the full Nobu world, restaurants, spa, fitness and curated experiences, all a short boat ride away. At the heart of it all, the Nobu restaurant itself will sit on its own island, complete with a bar and lounge.
Meir Teper, Co-Founder, Nobu Hospitality shared, “The Island Estates aren’t about square footage. They’re about a way of living that very few people in the world will ever have: your own island, your own yacht, and Nobu just a few minutes across the water.”
The Yacht is The New Driveway
In most luxury markets, arrival is a gated drive or a private elevator. In the Maldives, it’s the water. Each Island Estate comes with its own yacht, designed by Vripack, so the journey between home, the restaurant island and the resort becomes part of the experience rather than a transfer.
“For our Island Estate owners, the yacht isn’t an amenity. It’s the front door. We designed the whole experience around that idea, that every arrival should feel like coming home by sea,” added Trevor Horwell, CEO, Nobu Hospitality.
Horwell has been clear that the Maldives was a deliberate choice for the brand. When the project was first announced, he noted that the destination had long been on Nobu’s radar for a unique resort concept, and that the goal was to set a new standard of rarity among the new generation of Maldives hotels.
Each Island Estate offers generous bedrooms and baths, pavilion-style living and dining spaces made for entertaining, and private beachfront with direct ocean access. BLINK Design Group’s concept draws on Nobu’s Japanese heritage, clean lines, natural materials and a calm palette that lets the Indian Ocean do the talking.
Like the rarest assets in art, wine or real estate, the Nobu Island Estates are available by private inquiry only. For Sarat International, the project is a defining step in the Maldives. Managing Director Ali Ahsan has described the shared vision with Nobu as creating a destination that feels rare and deeply connected to its natural surroundings, a place where design, dining and setting work as one.
What it Signals
Nobu Maldives is a marker for where luxury is moving: away from the city skyline and toward the horizon. Branded living has proven its value in the world’s great cities. Now it is reaching the places where the ultimate luxury is having the ocean, and the island, to yourself.
Nobu Hotel, Residences and Restaurant Maldives is scheduled to open in 2028. Inquiries for the Nobu Island Estate Residences are by private appointment.
