kostik3000

Try Layan Community as well. We are moving there as we speak. They have 3 bed villas at reasonable price.

Good point for Layan as that you are dealing directly with developer so could avoid agency fees and maintenance team is on the site.

For school, Ranches Primary is within walking distance (winter months) and it's very good school with highly educated head master, unlike some other school which works more like money hovering houses.

jam25mack

These look quite nice and are pretty reasonable, however, it does make Mirdif look like it's a bustling metropolis. Being in 'the sticks' would be a compliment.

shake2000

Thank you for the feedback.

I understand it is a bit "out of the way" but our main goal is to have space, be near a school and not more than 30 mins from work.
I have heard really positive reviews of Arabian Ranches and actually have friends who live there but my only gripe is you don't get much space for the money and the villas are all jammed together. Arabian Ranches would be a perfect fit if I was working in the Marina area/ Internet city etc.. but working in DIFC this opens up different options.
My other main question is, coming from the west, why is everyone concerned with 30 mins of commute time, is this not considered normal there? Am I missing something? Is Dubai 30 minute commute more painful than out here? Apologies for the direct question but I keep hearing the same concern and feel I am missing something.

Thank you again for your help.

shake2000

I was told to avoid Mirdif as commuting from there to DIFC would be a pain.

Millhouse

I've done the commute from the ranches to DIFC, as well as mirdif to DIFC.

Mirdif was, for me at least, hell. Up to 2 hours of aggressive traffic.

Ranches was fine. 27mins and always consistent. It did increase to 40mins of nutcase stuff but not sure if it's still like that. The traffic was around Dubai mall.

And yes I'd say that commutes here worse due to how the traffic behaves. Not so much the time taken.

scrubbedexpat141

84 paces from lift to lift.

Commuting here is about the aggressive, lane changing, fighty nature of driving. You're spot on, the stress is in the driving not the time.

shake2000

I have a feeling I am going to miss my 10 min walk to work, which includes a 3 min stopover at Tim Horton's for my morning coffee.

All right then, Mirdif is off the list.

I have lived in Doha for a year and it used to take 1 hour for a 14 kilometer commute. Majority of the time was spent stuck in traffic on the freeway with the occasional pet lion running around.... cannot be worse than that!

It's a quiet day at and work and driving through "Google Maps" I now understand what everyone means when they say it is in the middle of nowhere but the positive is that it only takes 20 mins to go from nowhere to Downtown.

The final decision will be if and when we get there but this is all good information.

Gavtek

I think you've got the right idea, get a house near where your kids are going to school. You'll pay around AED 6,000 a year per kid for school buses and to be honest, I wouldn't want my child being driven along a Highway (especially 311) in one of the school buses here.

Sure the house you like may be in the middle of nowhere, but I've known people who have lived in the Marina because they want to be in the middle of everything but still drove absolutely everywhere.

jam25mack

Dunno how you managed to stretch out a Mirdif commute to 2hrs Millhouse. Admittedly its not the best due to the Sharjah weirdos but on average from Shorooq to my office (by the Crowne Plaza on SZR) is 30-40 mins and similar back. Today it took 22 but that's obviously because the schools are off. On a friday morning its 15.

IMO traffic in Dubai is pretty awful wherever you are. There's always a pinch point and there's always accidents. It's swings and roundabouts.

mission

can't beat a 10-15 mins max commute by car...JLT Cluster A to Jebel Ali Free Zone Gate 9....frigging awesome

Millhouse

Quite easily... Leave DIFC at 6pm... 30mins to get through Dubai Mall on a bad day, 30mins to get through the mirdif lights on a bad day, and about 30-1hr to crawl along the business bad crossing area. That's a bad day... it was never less than 50mins, typically 1hour 10, and sometimes 2 hours.

If I left work at 5pm or 7/8, it was admittedly a lot easier. In the mornings it was about 30mins - partially caused by an annoying U-turn in mirdif. Friday 15mins.

I'm now 8mins in the morning, 12 at night and a happy Millhouse.

Meow

Oh yes I can. Bedroom upstairs to office downstairs. 30 seconds max.

mission

IKnowNothing

Weirdly enough I was in there last night, with a merrycan mate.

Jockey's is shut - apparently the owner of the two Panorama's died and all the staff have been laid off until the will is sorted.

DXBtoDOH

The only thing I know about the Villa is that while the properties are large for your money relative to the Ranches, the A/C bills are massive. Remember hearing of people complaining of 5k monthly bills in the hot months.