My Dubai Rent takes you inside a reader’s home to have a look at what they get for their money, how much they pay in rent and asks them what they like and don’t like. Click here if you would like to take part in the series and show us why your home is so special.
Sarah Donaldson – known professionally as Nurse Sarah Louise – pays Dh690,000 a year for a five-bedroom villa in Al Barsha.
Ms Donaldson, an Australian former nurse who now runs her own consultancy for aesthetic clinics called The Business Injection, lives in the main house with husband and two children, while her team operates out of a detached majlis alongside a four-car, air-conditioned garage that the couple had built.
The National takes a look around.
How did you end up in this property?
The situation pushed us into moving. I was looking to either get a separate office building and keep the house that we had, or put the budget together and get a bigger house with an office that was detached from the house.
We've converted the majlis – it's a traditional outer building – in to a registered business address, with room for staff, a kitchen and, eventually, we're going to knock two rooms through to make it more of an open workspace.
Where else have you lived and how has your rent differed?
We've gone from Dh350,000 to Dh400,000 to Dh690,000. We lived at The Villa – that's quite an expat community, mixed with locals, more modern houses, bigger properties – five-bedroom, private pool. We lived out there for a year, but the location is too far – we do a lot of work in the city.
So we moved to Al Barsha 1, right behind a park. We have a two-year-old. She was only one at the time so it was nice just to have a park next to us.
And then, this third year [in the UAE], we've come into this one.
Why Al Barsha specifically?
We like Al Barsha, we like the location, and we like the privacy of having a full villa. We have quite a small family, but for people that want to visit when they're overseas, you've got the extra bedroom space.
And we spend a lot of time in our home. I know a lot of people say: “Oh, you move to Dubai to be in the warmer weather and be outdoors,” which is true – it's almost like the UK in the winter. In the summer, we stay in the UAE, where generally we don't leave because our work doesn't stop. We work internationally so Christmas time, realistically, is the only time that we get off.
What do you get for Dh690,000?
You get your private pool [and] the biggest thing is the plot size.
The house is five bedrooms plus two lounge rooms, a separate dining, another separate small sitting room, en suites in every bedroom, which is normal, but they're double the size.
And you have the size to be able to do modifications.
What modifications have you done?
We've done all the media walls, all the built-ins. The baby's room has been wallpapered.
The curtain bill was ginormous with floor-to-ceiling windows throughout.
The garage was our biggest modification. We built that from scratch. It's a four-car garage with aircon.
We will modify the pool and put a pergola outside. We will also put in a carport, because it's boiling hot for cars that don't have cover.
And also we need to make it more friendly for the staff, so we're knocking through to make a combined kitchen and staff room.
Are you allowed to do all this as a tenant?
My husband's quite friendly with the owner, and we were allowed to make all the changes we want to the house. We're here for three years minimum. We put up cameras. We built a garage. We're a dream tenant. And that's why he said: “Go for it – do whatever you want.”
How else have you made it feel like home?
We've made it more “us” just by putting in the furniture that we like, colour co-ordinating things. We have animals, so the animals obviously have their little bits in here.
And just making it warm: lots of rugs, lots of colours. We're just getting our artworks put up now.
What's around the area?
There's a little park they've just built for the kids – AstroTurf, an air-conditioned room. We're six minutes from Dubai Hills Mall, nine minutes from the Palm, four minutes to JVC Circle Mall. All the schools are here – we're just at the back of all the main ones.
My 16-year-old is in online school, so it doesn't matter, and the two-year-old is at a nursery back in Al Barsha 1.
Any thought of buying instead?
We buy investment properties – smaller ones that you can rent out and get a bigger yield from. In these types of homes, we don't believe in buying to live. We invest our money in businesses and things that give us rental return quite quickly.
But if we could buy this property tomorrow, we would – because we love the area. And especially if you've paid off three years of rent, that would go towards the cost. But when you're looking to rent somewhere stable and make it home, it's just about finding a landlord that will give you the longevity.
