Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Arabian Ranches could not have captured the ‘family-friendly neighbourhood’ vibe any better.
From two-bedroom townhouses with lake views to seven-bedroom mansions overlooking a golf course, it is a perfect place for young couples and families to set up home.
Established in 2004 by property developer Emaar, the district has 15 gated sub-communities located in Arabian Ranches 1, 2 and 3.
It has 4,500 homes, spread over 1,650 acres.
Arabian Ranches offers residents a premium lifestyle with Spanish, Mediterranean and Arabian-style residences.
The neighbourhood is self-sustaining, with easy access to top-rated schools, medical centres, community centre, restaurants, swimming and sports facilities.
With a drop in rents, you can now score a two-bedroom townhouse at starting price of Dh75,000.
Prices can go all the way up to Dh550,000 for a seven-bedroom luxury villa.
“The location is better than a lot of the other new developments which are along the same corridor,” said Greg Ware, senior sales consultant at Allsopp & Allsopp, a real-estate firm in the UAE.
“It is not the cheapest place to live by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s definitely not the most expensive.
“It has a really good spread of families and there’s a really good sense of community there, because people are encouraged to go out and use all the parks and facilities, and there's so many of them. When you go there, after school, or the weekends, a lot of the places are busy.”
The lively neighbourhood has an 80 to 85 per cent occupancy rate and more are choosing to relocate here as rents become slightly more pocket-friendly.
The 15 sub-communities in Arabian Ranches are Al Reem, Terra Nova, Al Mahra, Palmera, Alvorada, Mirador, Savannah, Aseel, Saheel and Alma.
The luxury ones are Polo Homes, Hattan, La Avenida, Golf Homes and Mirador La Coleccian.
Location and landmarks near Arabian Ranches
Arabian Ranches is situated along Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road.
Neighbouring communities include Dubai Hills, Motor City and Dubai Studio City.
Mall of the Emirates and Dubai Mall are about a 25-minute drive away.
Dubai International Airport is about 23 minutes by car and the Al Maktoum International Airport is 26 minutes away.
Nearby attractions include Dubai Miracle Garden, Dubai Autodrome, Plantation Equestrian and Polo Club and Dubai Butterfly Garden.
It’s also a short drive away from the leisure attractions of IMG Worlds of Adventure and Global Village. The latter also has several country pavilions and is ideal for a unique shopping experience.
Does Arabian Ranches have public transport?
Dubai Metro or Dubai Tram does not link up to Arabian Ranches.
Residents here mostly depend on cars.
Though, there is no shortage of restaurants, medical facilities, supermarkets and schools within the district itself.
Rent prices at Arabian Ranches
Mr Ware said rents for entry level townhouses with two bedrooms range from Dh70,000 to Dh85,000. So, even though Arabian Ranches is a premium community, you can still find an affordable home in some sub-communities.
The current market has caused a dip in rent. Previously, starting rents for similar units started at Dh85,000.
The value for a two-bedroom townhouse start at Dh1.45 million.
“Every time there’s been a difficult blip in the market, Arabian Ranches has always been one of those areas which has managed to do very well by maintaining its pricing or recovering very quickly,” said Mr Ware.
“The only thing about the Arabian Ranches is that you could argue it’s dated, but a lot of people who buy units there will always upgrade and modernise. But, structurally, you’re buying a better villa.”
A three-bedroom villa with a study room (278.7 square metres), in the Al Reem sub-community is going for Dh90,000.
Some of the luxury villas with seven bedrooms (929sqm to 2,043sqm) in the Polo sub-community are selling at Dh27.5m. Yearly rents range from Dh550,000 to 1m.
Nearly all the structures in Arabian Ranches are generously sized and most have a very spacious landscaped backyard.
Facilities at Arabian Ranches
Each sub-community in Arabian Ranches has its own swimming pool for kids and adults, kids play area and park.
The neighbourhood is also equipped with its own tennis and basketball court.
Some of the larger villas have their own private pools and come with a maid’s room plus a study.
Arabian Ranches has a main community centre that has restaurants, medical centres and supermarkets.
There is a mosque in the area and a school.
Schools and hospitals at Arabian Ranches
Arabian Ranches is home to the Jumeirah English Speaking School, which has primary and secondary education.
The not-for-profit school is rated as outstanding for by Dubai's private schools regulator, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority.
Tuition fees ranges from Dh39,837 to Dh93,852.
Safa Community School is another option outside of the neighbourhood, just a 10-minute drive away.
As for medical care, the community centre has the Mediclinic Arabian Ranches and a pharmacy.
In the Ranches 2, there is an Aster Medical Centre and clinic.
What shops does Arabian Ranches have?
There are about 20 to 25 retail outlets in the community centre – all the way from restaurants, supermarkets, pharmacies, clinics and coffee shops.
It has a Carrefour, where residents shop for their groceries.
There are no small grocery or convenient stores located within the sub-communities, so residents do have to drive to the retail centre within the district.
What makes Arabian Ranches a good community?
The quality of homes, facilities nearby and community feel is what makes this neighbourhood popular among residents.
While, it is not the most affordable places when compared to other areas of Dubai, Arabian Ranches makes up for it with the premium lifestyle it promises its residents.
Some of the luxury homes face the golf course, while others overlook a lake.
But, with rents down, a two-bedroom townhouse in the Palmera going for Dh70,000 to Dh85,000, also offers a lake view.
Laura Walsh has been living in a three-bedroom villa in Arabian Ranches for nearly four years.
“It’s a great neighbourhood for families,” she said.
“You get the open backyard, big bedrooms and living area and you have the kids’ school nearby, as well as the coffee shops and supermarket – there’s everything you need.”
Aayush Chauhan also rents a three-bedroom villa.
“I think what separates Arabian Ranches from other communities is the quality you are getting. It’s well-developed, there’s no construction around. In my opinion, you really are getting what you paid for.”
A version of this article was first published on November 22, 2020.
HOW DO SIM CARD SCAMS WORK?
Sim swap frauds are a form of identity theft.
They involve criminals conning mobile phone operators into issuing them with replacement Sim cards, often by claiming their phone has been lost or stolen
They use the victim's personal details - obtained through criminal methods - to convince such companies of their identity.
The criminal can then access any online service that requires security codes to be sent to a user's mobile phone, such as banking services.
How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
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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.”
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What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
Brief scores:
Barcelona 3
Pique 38', Messi 51 (pen), Suarez 82'
Rayo Vallecano 1
De Tomas Gomez 24'
Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill
Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
