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Veena Menon has called the UAE home since 1999. The Indian has spent most of her life here with her family. While she moved to India for higher education, she soon returned to Dubai, got married and started a family of her own.
Now she lives in a three-bedroom apartment in the Midtown community of Dubai Production City, with her husband, daughter and parents. They chose this location because it is easy to slip out onto the motorway and head to Abu Dhabi, where she works as a programme lead at Zayed International Airport’s air traffic control centre.
While they only bought the place in January, they had already been living in the property for two years. They loved it so much that they decided to make it their own.
The National takes a look around.
Please tell us about your home
Because I stay with my parents, my mum was very particular that we have a closed kitchen and not an open one. And this has a layout with a closed kitchen, and that works well for us. It's the style of our cooking, with a lot of oil and spices, flavours, fragrances and all that. It's better if it's closed so that everything is contained.
We have three bedrooms. We have a maid's room as well, which we've conveniently converted into a storeroom. I have a six-year-old, so she has her own room with her toys and her stuff.
We also have a pretty big balcony, which looks over the community children's park. So, if my daughter goes out to play, I just have to go to the balcony and I can see her playing downstairs.
Everything in the community is on the first floor. On the ground floor is where the car park is, so we can easily leave the kids in the community and not worry about them going into the roads or anything.
When did you buy this property?
December 30 was when the registration was completed, so we technically bought it in January. We had been a tenant in the same apartment since 2023, so we thought we’d make it our own because we like the community.
We like where we are at, where we are staying, so we didn't want to move. We were very particular about getting this apartment.
How much did you buy it for?
We bought it for Dh2.3 million. We just bought it, so I haven't seen if that’s changed, but the area is so popular right now. I'm sure it's going to appreciate soon, once the new airport opens in Dubai World Central.
Why did you choose this neighbourhood?
I work at the Abu Dhabi airport, so I do the commute every day from here. Because of the location, it is an easy commute. It just takes me about 45 to 50 minutes to get to the airport and the same coming back.
The commute to Abu Dhabi was my number one priority. I wanted that to be easy. We were initially staying in Sports City, which isn't far from here as well, but then we found this community. My husband works in Dubai Industrial City, so for him, as well, this is an easy exit.
I also love the community and how many friends there are for my daughter. There are a lot of different nationalities and people from all over and they all meet downstairs in the evening. About 4pm or 5pm, the community becomes really lively, with people walking. There's a jogging trail, there's a swimming pool, a gym, and all of that going on.
I come back from Abu Dhabi and I just go out for a run. I don't like to go to the gym, but there are easy jogging trails and all sorts of sports equipment out there in the community like rowing machines, scooters, bikes and things like that, so I make use of all of that.
For my daughter, it's easy because she goes down and I don't have to worry at all because she has friends. We know who her friends are. We all meet downstairs in the park. We know she'll come back home when it's time.
What renovations have you done?
When we moved in, it was in pretty good condition, so we haven't had to do any renovations. We were a tenant here, so there were minor maintenances here and there we had to organise, but no renovation was required.
Maybe after three or four years, we might consider doing some renovations, but at this moment, I don't see a need.
How would you describe your interior design style?
My style is more homely and very warm. We have a lot of photographs. We travel quite a bit, so there are photos all over the place. There are also little things that we collect from our travels. It’s very minimal, but very homely.
How long do you want to stay in this property?
We're not planning to move out any time soon. This is home. The UAE is home. My husband's got a business, so he has settled. My parents have retired, but they're staying back so they can support us. They keep travelling to India, but after spending maybe one month there, they want to come back.
Having experienced this community now, I can't think about moving out from here, even if I was working somewhere in Dubai. We're so settled here, especially with my daughter having a lot of friends from different nationalities, and I can see her enjoying all of that.
And there are so many festivals celebrated here, not just Indian, although there are a lot of those, but also Thanksgiving and Eid. We get a flavour of all of it.
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Day 1, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Dimuth Karunaratne had batted with plenty of pluck, and no little skill, in getting to within seven runs of a first-day century. Then, while he ran what he thought was a comfortable single to mid-on, his batting partner Dinesh Chandimal opted to stay at home. The opener was run out by the length of the pitch.
Stat of the day - 1 One six was hit on Day 1. The boundary was only breached 18 times in total over the course of the 90 overs. When it did arrive, the lone six was a thing of beauty, as Niroshan Dickwella effortlessly clipped Mohammed Amir over the square-leg boundary.
The verdict Three wickets down at lunch, on a featherbed wicket having won the toss, and Sri Lanka’s fragile confidence must have been waning. Then Karunaratne and Chandimal's alliance of precisely 100 gave them a foothold in the match. Dickwella’s free-spirited strokeplay meant the Sri Lankans were handily placed at 227 for four at the close.
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
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ITU Abu Dhabi World Triathlon
Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
'The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey'
Rating: 3/5
Directors: Ramin Bahrani, Debbie Allen, Hanelle Culpepper, Guillermo Navarro
Writers: Walter Mosley
Stars: Samuel L Jackson, Dominique Fishback, Walton Goggins
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
SNAPSHOT
While Huawei did launch the first smartphone with a 50MP image sensor in its P40 series in 2020, Oppo in 2014 introduced the Find 7, which was capable of taking 50MP images: this was done using a combination of a 13MP sensor and software that resulted in shots seemingly taken from a 50MP camera.
