This Month's Featured Area: Green Community DIP

Jess Stephenson from 3367 speaks to Darren Murphy, Associate Director at Allsopp & Allsopp and Green Community DIP specialist of six years about the area, and why you must explore Dubai’s “Greenest Community”.

What and where is Green Community DIP?

Green Community is located in Dubai Investments Park (DIP), to the West of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road. Its closest neighbouring communities are Jumeirah Golf Estates, Victory Heights and Jebel Ali Village. The area is divided into East and West, featuring apartments, townhouses and independent villas of exceptional size and quality, as well as a plethora of retail and dining outlets, and expansive lush green parks.

What do your clients find most impressive about the area?

Buyers love the overall layout and floorplan of the villas in the area; they’re considerably larger than they often believe they can afford, and the open plan free flowing living spaces are welcoming, usable and hugely appealing. The architecture of the villas give the look and feel of a European town, it’s a very picturesque community. My Buyers cannot believe they are in Dubai when they enter the Green Community!

Secondly, are the plot sizes. It’s very apparent when building the community the developer’s priority was absolutely to create a ‘green community’; the plots are generous and surround the villas to the sides as well as front and back. Plots like these ordinarily carry expensive ongoing costs in DEWA bills, but in Green Community residents can opt to pay only 350aed per month to connect to the developer’s communal water supply and enjoy unlimited use. So your DEWA bill will only include your internal usage.

In terms of price, how does it compare to other established communities?

Townhouses in Green Community are currently around 750aed per sq. ft. with independent villas from 825-875aed per sq. ft. If we compare that to other established communities, for example, the Arabian Ranches independent villas are now around 1,330aed per sq. ft. and Victory Heights is currently around 1,380aed per sq. ft. While these are in different locations, Green Community is just as well established as these areas.

Are there any advantages to be in Green Community East, or Green Community West?

Green Community East was built twelve years ago, and the West was built six years ago, however, it is entirely personal preference and circumstance which makes one or the other more preferable. For example, Green Community East is older but has direct access to the shops and restaurants. Green Community West is newer and is home to the bungalows which aren’t available in the East, which are very popular for families with young children or elderly relatives, and at their price point aren’t available anywhere else in Dubai. In place of the bungalows in the East, you’ll find the townhouses, which have always been highly sought after due to their family friendly floorplan. It really depends on the priority and interests of the buyer which is more advantageous.

What facilities are available?

It’s an entirely self-contained community, there’s a large hotel; the Marriot Courtyard, restaurants, coffee shops, schools, Fitness First gym, hospital, Carrefour, Park & Shop, Choithrams, Spinneys and much more in and around the area. There are far more parks and pools than other Dubai communities and it’s always just a short walk to your nearest pool. The developer has been very generous on facilities in the area which gives residents a great family lifestyle.

Who is buying in Green Community?

When buyers are exploring Dubai to purchase, many people struggle with getting the space and build quality they want, without compromising on the community facilities and landscaped areas within their budget. Green Community offers all of this, while still remaining exceptional value. If you work in Jebel Ali or even Abu Dhabi, it’s a very obvious choice of area for access to work. In the six years of working in the area, the people I have sold to have only resold their property when leaving Dubai, my clients never leave Green Community to move to another community within Dubai. For me, this speaks volumes about the area.

Are there any disadvantages to the area?

Sometimes buyers find it difficult to commit to buying a leasehold property. I’d like to explain what this is in a broader sense. The traditional view of freehold versus leasehold properties, to give a theoretical example; if your property is freehold, you own the land it is built on, and should the property fall down tomorrow, you are free to build that property back up as you wish. In Dubai, in freehold areas, this isn’t the case. Freehold areas in Dubai include the Arabian Ranches, Emirates Living, Victory Heights, etc. All of these areas, although freehold, carry heavy restrictions from the developer. Regardless of owning a freehold property, the overall look of the property and the land it sits on is absolutely governed by the developer. The developers are still at will to place restrictions on your property should any building work you carry out not be to their requirements or satisfaction. Thus, dispelling the main advantage of opting for a freehold property.

The majority of banks are freely mortgaging the properties in Green Community, if there was a real issue with the area’s leasehold status, banks simply would not finance the properties. Neither the developer nor the Dubai Land Department would benefit from that situation. The community is now strongly rumoured to become a freehold area in the near future. In the meantime, there is a very real opportunity to buy exceptional family homes for considerably less than in a freehold community.

What does the future hold for the area?

Dubai’s RTA has awarded a 227 million AED contract for upgrading the existing Al Houdh Roundabout (‘Green Community roundabout’) and converting it from a roundabout to a free multi-tier crossing. The instruction is for this to be completed early as possible in order to improve the traffic movement on this junction and raise its capacity by constructing flyovers across the Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road to ensure smooth traffic flow in all directions. This will eliminate the ‘Green Community roundabout’ traffic issue.

Within just the last few weeks, the entrance/exit to Green Community has been considerably improved from what use to be a bottleneck which could take several minutes to get through, to four lanes in and out which has made a dramatic improvement.

Green Community is also the closest community to the Expo 2020 site and the new Al Maktoum International Airport, and as such plans have been agreed to go ahead with a 15km extension of the red line on the Dubai Metro, ‘Route 2020’ which will extend to Green Community DIP. It’s widely known that public transport links increase local property value wherever implemented, this is sure to be the case with these huge scale improvements.