My Own Home: Arabian Ranches villa has increased in value by Dh4m in five years

Three-bedroom property was a distressed sale bought in the early days of the pandemic

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  Naythar Al Balushi lives in a three-bedroom Arabian Ranches 1 villa that she and her husband Ahmed bought for Dh1.85 million. All photos: Antonie Robertson / The National

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  The couple and their three children live in Al Reem 1

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  The reception area. The family renovated the entire property before moving in

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  The living room

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  The dining area and kitchen

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  Her two sons' room

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  A desk in the boys' room

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  Her daughter's room

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  The family put a seating area in the back garden

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  The back of the house

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  A children's play park behind the house

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  The neighbourhood is popular with families

My Own Home takes you inside a reader-owned property to ask how much they paid, why they decided to buy and what they have done with it since moving in

Emirati HR manager Naythar Al Balushi and her Kenyan husband Ahmed have seen the value of their property in Arabian Ranches 1 rise by about Dh4 million ($1 million) in the past five years.

They bought the three-bedroom villa in a distress sale before the Covid-19 pandemic peaked, spending Dh1.85 million. The value has since gone up to Dh5.5 million, at least.

Ms Al Balushi and her husband were both born and raised in the UAE. They live in their home with their three children, aged 11, nine and seven.

While they have considered moving to Nad Al Sheba, where Ms Al Balushi’s parents live, they love their home and neighbourhood too much to leave any time soon.

The National takes a look around.

Please tell us about your home

What sold it to us was that, behind our back garden, there is a small park and it’s perfect for the kids.

A children's playground is directly behind the house. Antonie Robertson / The National

The villa has three bedrooms, a study and a laundry room. We’ve got a very big back garden. The main living room is downstairs and we've got a little small living room upstairs as well.

Then there is the master bedroom and two rooms for the kids.

Why did you decide to buy?

We bought it at the beginning of 2020. We used to stay in an apartment, so this is the first house we’ve owned. We were looking for a while but the market was going up and down. We were trying to save up as we'd always wanted to buy a place of our own and the prices weren't so bad at the time.

Then we found this place. It was pretty rundown, actually. It was not renovated, it was a distress sale and we just loved the area. We've always loved the area.

So we took the plunge because we thought it was an excellent price. We said we could upgrade it and see where it goes from there.

How much did you buy it for?

We bought it for Dh1.85 million. I constantly get calls asking if I want to sell and I think it would be worth about Dh5.5 million. I just got told today they sold one that wasn't upgraded for Dh5.2 million, so the guy told me we could probably get Dh5.5 million for it.

What renovations have you done?

We did a complete upgrade before we moved in. We remodelled the entire kitchen. We broke it down and rebuilt everything. We also did all the ceilings again. There were two windows leading to the back garden, so we made it into just one, so there's more sunlight coming in.

We put in a seating area in the back garden and redid the lighting. And then upstairs, we broke down a wall so there’s more light coming in. We’ve changed all the bathrooms, removed baths and put in showers. The wardrobes were all completely changed.

We spent about Dh600,000.

How would you describe your interior design style?

It’s modern yet it's got a cosy feel. The bedrooms are very cosy. Upstairs is more cosy, in general, because we spend more time up there, while downstairs is more formal, but modern as well.

What facilities do you have?

We have access to a pool, but we can also access the pools of all the other communities within the Ranches. We've also got two parks within Al Reem 1, and we've got a skate park and a tennis court.

How long do you plan to stay here?

We were planning for it to be our forever home but, if we could get a bigger place at some point, maybe we could move closer to my parents.

My parents are in Nad Al Sheba. Where I work is close to them and, when my kids finish school, they get dropped off at my parents’ house. They’ve always said, if we can get a place within the same community, then why not sell?

We’d possibly sell if we get a good price. Right now it's probably permanent, because we love this area so much. We can't think of moving anywhere else. So, we’re in between at the moment, because we just love it here so much.