Old Airport /Najma area is ok, bit run down though. There are, as I said some compounds there and also apartments. But they are not as nice as the ones in Al Waab and West Bay. Except one, Al Fardan Garden compound , but they have only villas , no apartments.
You have about a 5 minute drive ( if there is NO traffic, like on an early Friday morning) to the Cornishe.

And yes, Cornishe properties would defo be more expensive as those apartments are in Residential towers.

I think the cheapest wou;d be Ezdan towers in West Bay, but I heard they have massive problems there. A lot of residents seem to be unhappy from what I heard. There were threads on that on QL.