mxt

all,

Will be working near the abu dhabi airport but want to live near Dubai.

Does anyone know how long the wait is for a 2-bed at Discovery Gardens?

Is it a nice development?

also, anyone know of EWAN residence? Is that closer to AD?

many thanks.

Lyds

Discovery Gardens should actually be called Discovery Car Park. It is in my mind the most godforsaken place around (sorry!). Plus they haven't yet connected it to the Central Cooling so it's all run off generators (hence the cheap rents).

I would imagine there are no waiting lists/periods to get apartments. Nakheel was trying to get people in through partner-company incentives back in May and that didn't work. We had a look around and didn't get further than the race-track/car park. A single chap my hubby works with ruled it out too.

It's fine, I guess, if you just was a place to crash after a hard day's work and really, really don't mind where, but they also haven't planned in any shopping/ facilities due to its proximity to Ibn Battuta mall (which is not walking distance away).

From a distance it looks like a soviet era block.

Sorry to disapoint!

rowell

There are a lot worse areas than discovery gardens, there will new a new 132kv sub station serving this area commissioned in Jan 09, there is as I understand it a central district cooling plant supplying the area, this in fact is also being replaced and to be supplied from the one at Jumeira Lake Towers and the development for that area over the next 5 years is superb (providing it goes ahead which at the moment it is still on course.)

Lyds

yup... ok. Jan 09? Since when have they EVER made the deadline for services when the buildings have already been built and sold?! I certainly wouldn't!

Also, not being funny, but the development prospects of it being "superb" over the next 5 years doesn't count one jot if you're coming over with your family and there are no shops, schools, playgrounds... grass... er, trees.

That development is shocking - speaking professionally here - the masterplan is awful, the execution shoddy. The building have no character. The landscaping is non-existent - or rather has been axed in favour of more surface car parking linked by a series of one-way roads that are crying out to become a scalextric track. The desire-lines have been completely forgotten - you can't get from building to building without weaving in and out of the car parking. It's just shocking on every level.

I wouldn't live there if you paid me... lots.

str

Lyds,

the Discovery Car Park thing was also my first impression when I first went there. But as each household has at least one car you either leave them above ground or bring them underground which will then bring the prices up at least 50%.
I'm living in DG for a couple of months now and had never any problems with the utilites. And as long as I don't hear or see any generators I don't care if the power is coming from dozens of diesel generators or from the big gas generator on the other side of SZR.
Across the road opened a laundry shop recently, a supermarket should open soon and IB Mall is 800m from my place. It could be worse.
Smart master planning AND good design AND good workmanship? In Dubai??? At only reasonably exxagerated rents? I really would like to know where is that.
The really big problem will come when the place is fully occupied and everybody has to get through the bottleneck to SZR in the morning.

mxt

so is there any other place that is of slightly higher quality?

Blue Cat

no

Lyds

oh, harsh words there! lol

That's good to know about the shops opening up. Very good, in fact.

I'm just too much of an idealist for my own good!

Right, to be a bit more helpful, maybe we could list the "towards jebel ali" developments and comment on them. I don't know that many, but can kick off...

The Gardens- low-rise blocks (4 storeys), in nice gardens (yes, it's true), seems to be mainly non-western families.
The Marina - still under construction, a firm favourite, can get some good bargains
JBR - nice (I'm there, so I would say that), but getting the expensive side of extortionate on rental
The Greens - heard many good things about this area, apart from the rush-hour traffic
Jumeirah Lake Towers - still under construction, but some really huge places for reasonably extortionate rents.
er... there are more...

Anyhow, it will really depend on your family circumstances too - schooling? nurseries? Just pubs and restaurants, thankee? Wife at home with small children, medium children, wife working, no wife? Anyhow, there you go.

Blue Cat

comments above

Lyds

I didn't think Marina traffic was that bad - not compared to Springs/Meadows and the Greens area, surely!

I think anything in Dubai is relative - rents are extortionate, but you can get cheap extortionate and are-you-having-a-laugh extortionate. Traffic is bad, but again, in some places it's only moderately bad and in others it's give-me-the-2-hour-train-commute-in-a-cattle-wagon-any-day bad.

Oh yes, and yesterday I found somewhere on a par with Discovery Gardens (on the surface at least) - International City! Woot woot!

Blue Cat

I like Disco Gardens, I think they are quite attractive looking better than the high rises

MacScot

Dubai Marina traffic has eased a lot with the new roundabout/interchange 5a. You can get easily now to Abu Dhabi or Dubai without going through traffic lights. They are also building another bridge at the end of the marina, which will allow JBR people to go directly to Interchange 5a.