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International lawyer Guy Norman first moved to Dubai in 2010, before relocating back to his native UK.
Now on his second stint living in the city, he and his wife Jodi, 42 and also a lawyer, decided to swap renting for home ownership. They bought a villa in the leafy Al Barari community, which they share with their cat, Patrick.
Mr Norman, 59 and father to three grown-up children living in the UK, gave The National a tour.
Please tell us about your home
It’s got four bedrooms, all with en suite bathrooms.
There’s also a study area, which was a huge attraction for my wife who is a partner at a big law firm.
It’s got a garden, swimming pool and an outdoor kitchen and, on the top, a big roof terrace. Off one of the bedrooms on the first floor there is a terrace, which my wife’s turned into a yoga space, and another little terrace off one of the other bedrooms.
It’s about 4,500-4,700sq ft, on three floors and we have a lift and a garage. We bought the house in November 2024 and paid Dh13.8 million.
Why did you decide to buy?
A combination of things: partly realisation that this was going to be home longer term, recognition that renting was dead money, partly the fact we wanted a bigger place, and to rent something bigger would be probably much more expensive. And partly, property prices are quite strong.
Where have you lived previously?
I was here in 2010 to 2013, in Arabian Ranches with my kids. I came back to Dubai three years ago.
We rented on the Boulevard, Downtown, for five years, in Vida Residence. Rents started to go up and we started thinking that, economically, renting wasn’t sensible long term.
It’s important to say the economics were not the biggest driver for buying. They were secondary to the desire to own our own house and have more space.
What influenced your search?
We looked at buying a three-bedroom apartment on the Boulevard, near the Burj Khalifa and fountains.
We spent a long time looking around that area and my wife just said: “I'm done with apartments. I want space. I want a villa, the garden, to be able to go outside, to my swimming pool.”
I took a bit of persuading, partly because I’d been in Dubai less time, so for me the Boulevard was still exciting, and I felt moving into the suburbs was not as exciting.
But I then realised actually we were cramped, and it’d be really nice to have more space generally.
First of all, we looked in District One and we made offers but the prices were running away from us.
Why choose this neighbourhood?
My wife suggested Al Barari, but I felt it was a long way out. I’ve got friends that have lived here for ages.
What I hadn’t seen was the area we’re now in, which is called Chorisia 1. It is like a little estate in Al Barari, but different from what people think of as being your classic Al Barari houses, which are enormous.
It was so green and lush and rural, and so different from anywhere else either of us had seen in Dubai. Al Barari means “the wilderness” in Arabic.
What renovations have you done?
We completely redid this house and spent probably, Dh3-4 million. We took out the marble floors and replaced them with wood.
It used to have five bedrooms. We smashed the two bedrooms on the top floor together and made a massive suite with an enormous area with illuminated glass cupboards for my wife’s clothes.
We ripped out the kitchen and replaced that, got rid of the maid's room and bathroom, and extended the kitchen to give it more space, and put a pantry in.
We tore apart the garden, took out the swimming pool, which was a bit small, and redesigned the shape of it. We’ve got a newly designed garden and outdoor barbecue kitchen area. We really went to town on the outside.
How did you fund the property?
We took out a mortgage on both our other houses in the UK, to release the funding, and then put one of those UK houses on the market with a view to paying down some of that rather large mortgage. Luckily, we sold the London house quite quickly.
What does the area give you?
Our street is tucked away a bit and there isn’t any through traffic. We look out of the front of our house at a row of very tall trees, so it’s quite secluded.
At the back, you look on to a long pond with trees and herons, and a waterfall.
My wife does a lot of walking and there are walking routes around the lagoon, and paths and cycle tracks through the forest, which is pretty unusual for Dubai.
Although they already had a big health club, they built a new one called The Bay with probably the most impressive leisure facilities I’ve seen in any five-star hotel. There are a few restaurants, a Waitrose, a chemist and a little row of shops.
Have you created your dream home?
I think so.
The only reason we would sell would be to get something a bit smaller, if we were spending less time in it. Otherwise, I’d say it’s a forever home.
Would you buy other properties?
When we both retire, we’re interested in having somewhere in France. What we might do, if we’re not tied to our jobs, is spend part of the year in Dubai, in the house we have now, and part of the year elsewhere.
We will always keep somewhere in the UK.
