The Zaal family: the parents Zaal Mohammed Zaal, top row, left, and Lesley Zaal, and their children Hazaa bin Zaal, from left, first row, Nadia Zaal, Mohammed bin Zaal, and Kamelia Zaal, pose for their portrait at the family-owned Al Barari development in Dubai. They are also responsible for the Nurai project in Abu Dhabi.
The Zaal family: the parents Zaal Mohammed Zaal, top row, left, and Lesley Zaal, and their children Hazaa bin Zaal, from left, first row, Nadia Zaal, Mohammed bin Zaal, and Kamelia Zaal, pose for theiShow more

Quality thrives in downturn



Zaal Mohammed Zaal attributes his family's success in the middle of the property downturn to old-fashioned thinking. "We didn't listen to the consultants," says Mr Zaal, the friendly patriarch. "If we did that, we wouldn't be where we are today."

The Zaal family is responsible for two of the most exclusive property developments in the country: Al Barari villas in Dubailand and the private island homes of Nurai in Abu Dhabi. When Mr Zaal was forming his ideas for the Dh15 billion (US$4.08bn) Al Barari, consultants told him his concept would be too expensive and that no one would buy homes that cost as much as Dh100 million. "We put our hearts and our own money into this project," Mr Zaal says. "Instead of using a lot of debt, we built something that is about living a good life."

The numbers seem to prove that in volatile economic times, projects that stand out can be lucrative. Al Barari, a lush garden oasis in the desert, has emerged as one of the few successful projects in the 27,000-hectare Dubailand. The project has handed over the first 33 villas and is looking at a default rate from buyers of about 1 per cent. Nurai cut down the number of homes after the global financial crisis but is preparing to hand over half of its villas by the end of the year.

While competitors are scaling down their plans, the family is looking further afield for new projects. Mr Zaal said he was eyeing a plot of land in Jeddah for a project similar to Al Barari, as well as an ultra-exclusive resort in the desert that might be accessible only by air. Nadia Zaal, his daughter and the chief executive of Zaya, has said she was in preliminary talks with the developer of a stalled project in Dubai to take over its construction site and build a tower.

"I still truly believe in the property market in Dubai," Ms Zaal says. "You still have people who love it there and want a home there. As overdeveloped as people think it to be, there is demand in Dubai for high-quality, beautiful homes." The relative success of the Zaal projects comes from the family's particular approach to property development. Rather than delivering slipshod homes in soulless towers, the Zaals aim to create a sense of community and build to a high quality, Ms Zaal says.

Mohammed bin Zaal, the chief operating officer of Al Barari, says sales of Zaya homes never became overheated because the family restricted speculator involvement from the start. "We are a zero-debt company, which has always helped us," he says. "And we put restrictions in the contract so that no one could flip them unless a certain amount of time had passed. We even rejected some people from buying multiple villas."

Each member of the family plays a different role in Al Barari and Nurai. Mr Zaal, the father, is the visionary and lover of gardens whose passion translates into vast stretches of greenery around the homes they build. Lesley Zaal, the mother, oversees interior decoration with her own company, Etcetera Living. Nadia and Mohammed play a large role in the financing and structuring of contracts related to the projects, as well as in overseeing them.

Their sister, Kamelia Zaal, has her own landscape design company and works closely with their father on creating the large gardens and other landscaping elements for the projects. Hazza bin Zaal, the youngest brother, is studying environmental technology in Australia. He, too, could join the family business in a few years. "We are a very close-knit family," Nadia Zaal says. "We always talk about business over dinner. We travel around the world together."

While Zaal Mohammed Zaal's family has long been involved in property development in Dubai, they only recently decided to concentrate on high-profile projects. The idea for Al Barari partially came out of the family's return to the UAE from the UK a few years ago. "We were looking for a place to live and there wasn't the type of home we were looking for," Mohammed Zaal says. Over the next few years, they pondered how an ideal development would work and feel.

The result was Al Barari - "the wilderness". Al Barari's primary distinguishing feature is its lush landscaping and gardens surrounding what will eventually be about 270 villas. The company says it has introduced 800 plant species that have never before been grown in the Middle East, including wild garlic; Bismarkia nobilis, a palm native to Madagascar; and ancient olive trees from Spain. About Dh1.4bn is being spent on plants alone.

Al Barari will also include 26 botanical gardens and a 14.6km system of waterways that will flow throughout the 130ha development. Kamelia Zaal, the creative mind behind the landscape design, says she and her father like taking cuttings of plants that catch their eye from around the world and bringing them back to their homes. "Our homes are full of plants," she says. "It's a passion that I learnt from my father and we spend a lot of time together working on the designs for the gardens."

Phase two of Al Barari, which includes a five-star hotel and yet more villas and gardens, is expected to start by the middle of next year. "It's about a quality of life," Zaal Mohammed Zaal says. "Anybody can build a magnificent house somewhere. Here, there will be a community; there will be gardens." Nadia Zaal started Nurai after serving as the chief executive of Al Barari. Her company, Zaya, is a joint venture between Tasameem Real Estate and the landscape architecture company Ashjar.

Located on an island only a few minutes away from Saadiyat Island, the project will feature villas on the island and others on stilts over the water. bhope@thenational.ae

How to register as a donor

1) Organ donors can register on the Hayat app, run by the Ministry of Health and Prevention

2) There are about 11,000 patients in the country in need of organ transplants

3) People must be over 21. Emiratis and residents can register. 

4) The campaign uses the hashtag  #donate_hope

COMPANY PROFILE

Company: Bidzi

● Started: 2024

● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid

● Based: Dubai, UAE

● Industry: M&A

● Funding size: Bootstrapped

● No of employees: Nine

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Another way to earn air miles

In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.

An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.

“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.

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Thank You for Banking with Us

Director: Laila Abbas

Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum

Rating: 4/5

MATCH INFO

Manchester United 1 (Greenwood 77')

Everton 1 (Lindelof 36' og)

SPECS

Engine: Two-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 235hp
Torque: 350Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Price: From Dh167,500 ($45,000)
On sale: Now

APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)

Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits

Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine

Storage: 128/256/512GB

Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4

Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps

Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID

Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight

In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter

Price: From Dh2,099

Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history

4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon

- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.

50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater

1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.  

1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.

1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.

-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.

Key findings
  • Over a period of seven years, a team of scientists analysed dietary data from 50,000 North American adults.
  • Eating one or two meals a day was associated with a relative decrease in BMI, compared with three meals. Snacks count as a meal. Likewise, participants who ate more than three meals a day experienced an increase in BMI: the more meals a day, the greater the increase. 
  • People who ate breakfast experienced a relative decrease in their BMI compared with “breakfast-skippers”. 
  • Those who turned the eating day on its head to make breakfast the biggest meal of the day, did even better. 
  • But scrapping dinner altogether gave the best results. The study found that the BMI of subjects who had a long overnight fast (of 18 hours or more) decreased when compared even with those who had a medium overnight fast, of between 12 and 17 hours.
10 tips for entry-level job seekers
  • Have an up-to-date, professional LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, set one up today. Avoid poor-quality profile pictures with distracting backgrounds. Include a professional summary and begin to grow your network.
  • Keep track of the job trends in your sector through the news. Apply for job alerts at your dream organisations and the types of jobs you want – LinkedIn uses AI to share similar relevant jobs based on your selections.
  • Double check that you’ve highlighted relevant skills on your resume and LinkedIn profile.
  • For most entry-level jobs, your resume will first be filtered by an applicant tracking system for keywords. Look closely at the description of the job you are applying for and mirror the language as much as possible (while being honest and accurate about your skills and experience).
  • Keep your CV professional and in a simple format – make sure you tailor your cover letter and application to the company and role.
  • Go online and look for details on job specifications for your target position. Make a list of skills required and set yourself some learning goals to tick off all the necessary skills one by one.
  • Don’t be afraid to reach outside your immediate friends and family to other acquaintances and let them know you are looking for new opportunities.
  • Make sure you’ve set your LinkedIn profile to signal that you are “open to opportunities”. Also be sure to use LinkedIn to search for people who are still actively hiring by searching for those that have the headline “I’m hiring” or “We’re hiring” in their profile.
  • Prepare for online interviews using mock interview tools. Even before landing interviews, it can be useful to start practising.
  • Be professional and patient. Always be professional with whoever you are interacting with throughout your search process, this will be remembered. You need to be patient, dedicated and not give up on your search. Candidates need to make sure they are following up appropriately for roles they have applied.

Arda Atalay, head of Mena private sector at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Rudy Bier, managing partner of Kinetic Business Solutions and Ben Kinerman Daltrey, co-founder of KinFitz

Padmaavat

Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Starring: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Jim Sarbh

3.5/5

Results
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TV: World Cup Qualifier 2018 matches will be aired on on OSN Sports HD Cricket channel

England squad

Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford, Nick Pope, Aaron Ramsdale 

Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Conor Coady, Marc Guehi, Reece James, Harry Maguire, Tyrone Mings, Luke Shaw, John Stones, Ben White

Midfielders: Jude Bellingham, Conor Gallagher, Mason Mount, Jordan Henderson, Declan Rice, James Ward-Prowse

Forwards: Tammy Abraham, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Harry Kane, Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Raheem Sterling


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