My Own Home: Couple swap Dubai rents to make budget go further at Dh1.3m Ajman villa

Aaliya Alam and her husband moved out of Dubai for a bigger house with plenty of space for their family to grow

Kazi Syed Ubaid, left, and Aaliya Alam bought a Dh1.3 million three-bedroom villa in Ajman. All photos: Antonie Robertson / The National

It's in a neighbourhood called Al Zahya

The main living room

The majlis area

The TV is in the majlis

The kitchen

The master bedroom

One of the bathrooms

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

Aaliya Alam, founder of Things of Media marketing agency, was poised to move to the UAE for a job from India in 2020 before plans were scuppered by global lockdowns in place due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

It wasn’t until a few years later that she finally made it back, this time as a married woman after reconnecting with an old school friend, her now-husband Kazi Syed Ubaid, who has been living in the UAE for 13 years.

The couple recently bought their first property together, but instead of living in Abu Dhabi, where her husband commutes for work, or in Dubai where they had been renting, they decided to move to Ajman to get far more square footage for their money.

They invested in a Dh1.3 million three-bedroom villa in Al Zahya, which appreciated by Dh300,000 in just one week after they signed the paperwork, as more residents from across the Emirates are seeking better property deals.

The National takes a look around.

Please tell us about your home.

For Dh1.3 million I was able to get a 3,500-square-foot villa with three bedrooms, one majlis, a bigger kitchen, one living room and then outside we have a maid’s room as well.

Why did you decide to buy?

Once I’d moved here, we knew we had to buy a house and I don’t know why but I was always very precise that I have to go for Ajman. Everyone always said, why don’t you live here in Dubai or another city. I love Dubai, but you compromise with the square footage. I wanted to have a big house in a great budget, so that’s how it clicked.

Last year, I started the journey of searching for the house. My husband was totally against coming to Ajman, but I said even if you’re going from Dubai it’s an hour, if you just extend for half an hour we’ll have a big house where our children can be comfortable. They can run around, they can mess up the house and it’s all right. When we have guests, there would be no compromise, because they can stay here or there.

How did you find your home?

Aaliya Alam's Ajman home is in the area of Al Zahya. Antonie Robertson / The National

I went through a lot of difficulties, because here in Ajman potential is very good for real estate, but it's not that vast like Dubai and the other cities.

One day, I was just going through TikTok and I saw some villa and though, I have to go for it. I met that person, he was sub agent, and he said we’d definitely get it.

We started the journey last May and we ended up getting the house by November. It took that long.

How much did you get it for?

When I started the process, the price started going up. It was Dh900,000, which went up to Dh1 million. I was not able to get the approvals, but this was the house. The builder is great, he’s local, and he’s done everything in a very particular way, as if he was going to live in the house himself. In this area, each villa is different to the others.

We ended up getting it for Dh1.3 million, but that included everything like electricity and water [connections].

We got the approval on my birthday, on October 14, and did the registration on November 14, so we were able to reside here in January. The day we registered, it was Dh1.3 million and a week after a real estate agent said they had a family looking and that the house was worth Dh1.6 million. I think it’s worth Dh1.7 million now.

Everyone is migrating from Dubai, from Sharjah, even Abu Dhabi, and they’re coming to Ajman because of the budget. My neighbour is French and on the opposite side they’re British and they bought the house. I’m seeing a lot of foreigners coming in and buying houses here.

What’s your neighbourhood like?

It’s a little outside Ajman city, but from here it’s a 15-minute drive and you get to Umm Al Quwain. In about 30 or 40 minutes, you’ll be in Ras Al Khaimah, which is growing.

It’s not a closed community, but there are lots of grocery stores around and we can sign up to any gym in the area. It’s all very convenient and budget friendly.

What renovations have you done?

The majlis area in Aaliya Alam's home. Photo: Aaliya Alam

Nothing yet. We’ve just started. I’ve done some wallpaper. I want to do some micro-cementing, which is very much in trend, and I want to introduce more soft pastel colours. I just want to have my house more open.

We have a garden area but we haven’t started on it yet since it’s summer now. I’ll start that in winter so I can have plants that don’t die.

How would you describe your interior design style?

It should be more pastel, more white, but with a touch of green because I really like nature. I’m going to start doing the planting outside.

How long will you stay here for?

We will stay in the UAE indefinitely. This is a place we got entrepreneurial opportunity. This is a place where we get lot of peace, a lot of comfort, a lot of calmness. I think I will be here forever, inshallah.