Dh30m Dubai penthouse with environment at its soul

The Index Tower in DIFC. Antonie Robertson / The National

If you want to live the high life in the city, then this penthouse is for you.

This Norman Foster-designed building looks like no other in the heart of Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), surrounded by Emaar towers; this duplex penthouse is in Index Tower – an 80-storey tower built with the environment at its very soul.

This fully upgraded two-storey, 7,300 square feet property comes fully furnished. The penthouse has been designed with high net worth individuals in mind. It is finished with high- quality Italian Bianco lasa marble flooring and ultra-modern furnishings.

The contemporary kitchen and spacious breakfast area have been fully upgraded featuring uber-fashion resin flooring with Miele and Gaggenau appliances, which is a standard for the Poggenpohl kitchen.

Four massive bedrooms are upstairs including the master suite, which offers his and hers walk-in closets and a spacious reception area.

The lady who owns the penthouse has had the furnishings custom-made for the space and is therefore not willing to take the furniture with her. However, with the soft state of the market at present some negotiation on the Dh30 million asking price is to be expected.

While outside space in a penthouse is often at a premium the two balconies, with views across the DIFC, offer a living space that is at odds with the urban environment it is set in.

The penthouse is not just about the space you live in, it’s about the wider environment. The tower has been designed with the environmental cooling as its central core – not an easy job in one of the hottest places on Earth. The tower’s environmental strategy significantly lowers the requirement for air conditioning within the building and therefore substantially reduces the energy costs for its tenants. During the height of the summer, without air conditioning, the tower’s internal temperatures will not surpass 28°C.

This apartment, in every sense of the word, is cool.

Q&A

Alexander von Sayn-Wittgenstein, the sales director for Luxhabitat, tell us more about the property:

Is Dh30m for this apartment good value?

The state of the market right now is enabling some great deals and goes beyond “value”. This apartment, which is huge, has been on the books for four weeks and we had a very interested buyer that decided to look elsewhere. It wasn’t about the apartment, as such, it was about her own needs rather than what the penthouse offered.

Is this the best penthouse in the building?

There are three-floor pent­houses, triplexes, available on the upper floors, so depending on what your wants and needs are, this could easily be the best. Although it doesn’t have views of the Burj Khalifa and DIFC, which is available for some of the corner penthouses, this one only offers the DIFC. Saying that, this apartment has been totally renovated and the building has high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows which is almost unique in, mostly Emaar-designed, DIFC. This is the coolest building in the DIFC neighbourhood.

However, it’s not actually “in” DIFC is it?

It is slightly remote from The Village, The Gate and The Capital Club, but it is not a far walk. It’s a Norman Foster building, with community pool, gym, steam room and sauna and that in itself is a buying point. This is not a traditional tower. Most apartments in the vicinity are two to three bedrooms so this beats them for location, square footage, design and name.

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