MacScot

Actually, I checked, JTF has only about 18 posts (as at today) at skyscrapercity.com and joined in 2006 !

Inselaffen

some people on here are very snobby when it comes to JBR.

ok it looks pretty horrible from outside but where else can you get an apartment so close to the beach, with cafe's and restaurants on your doorstep?

I was looking at rooms in shared apartments there. Didnt take one because people were basically looking for others to subsidise the rent on their rooms. also I didnt want to get tied into 12 months which turned out to be the right decision.

commander

im not being snobby, my best mate lived in Rimmal 4 for a year and we had a blasr there.

His apartment was shit though, it stunk, the toilets leaked, etc etc. He didnt give a shit as he rented.

I make no apology for slighting the same people who 2 years ago were swanning around thinking they were donald trump because they bought an apartment in Dubai and its value had soared....well, the ones with half a brain no longer own any property in dubai... the remainder are muppets, pure and simple

Hello.Kitty

I'm with you on that one... I like living here, but I've given up trying to get problems fixed (like the smell that comes through the air-con) and now trying to make helpful suggestions via the Salwan forum (the "offical" one - the one that's meant to actually be a feedback loop to the management company... [cough]).

My landlord bought the flat for the grand total of 800k AED and I reckon, in balance, it's only worth about that much. He finds it hillarious that people were paying out however many millions for the place last year. I would too, if it weren't so tragic.

Salwan are trying desperately to keep it up-market (the latest thing is, shock-horror, people have been *hanging their washing on the balconies* which is apparently not allowed), but with finishes already looking worse for wear, paving cracked and shops shutting, I fear that it won't be long before the predictions of a "culture shift" come true.

rowell

I too live at JBR and I love it, dont get any of the smells through air con talked about but my year is up, rent is due, not decreased at all and only offering 8 month contract this time with 1 cheque.Off to try Dubai Marina

TGFKASE

I wholeheartedly agree with you there, commander...

From about early 2002, I had started looking into buying a place here (handy for those last minute hideaways from the UK tax man!!) but refused on the principle that I preferred to see the finished article before spending cash. Thanks Christ I did, as surely anyone with a brain, having seen the place upon completion, would have known that the prices did not reflect the quality.

All those people did were gamble that there would be another sucker along to pay an even higher vastly inflated price for any kind of property here. So, we put up with the arseholes telling all and sundry around the table at Barasti of the number of properties they own and how much they were gonna make when they decided the time was right to sell...

Well, we are now left with those that missed the boat and now want everyone to feel sorry for them...

Chase yersel'.. You played with fire and you got 3rd degree burns.. I wouldnt even stop to piss on you...

Hello.Kitty

well, tbh, what with the maintenance increases, the landlords can't really lower the rents that much - sad but true.

As for the smell, well, we had the A/C filters cleaned with no effect, then called in the maintenance chaps who found that the soil vent pipe shaft wasn't closed in one of the bathrooms, so they sealed that up, but to no avail either. We can't shut the door in the small bedroom or it'll give you a headache, the utility room smells the same and the flat directly below us has exactly the same problem in the same area. It sounds like it's a bit more serious than something needing a bit of a clean! Rimal 5 also seems to suffer from it.

We won't be renewing either... and I know a good few families who are looking elsewhere in the marina now... same price (or lower) and generally better finishes and fewer problems!

Hello.Kitty

that's a bit harsh!

Hmm... thinking about it, I haven't seen Diablo in a while. He was fun.

TGFKASE

Harsh but true.. Anyone who bought property here should have been aware that it was a gamble, and while RERA et al have attempted to shore up confidence for buyers by pulling some ridiculous numbers out of the air for the Rental Index, it appears that its slowly starting to sink in to some peoples heads that the extortionate rental income they thought they could command is now no longer there... So what is starting to happen now is that they are having to move out of their own rented accommodation and move into the house they actually own, because they cannot afford to pay rent on one and pay the mortgage on the other....

So NOW, they see their apartment, not as a golden egg, but for what it actually is, and only now are bitching to the powers that be. Maybe if they had been so diligent about the quality etc when renting the place out, it would have been fixed before they had to actually live in it....

admon

its funny really, because only 6 months ago, us 'non buyers' were being ridiculed as being bitter because we hadn't jumped aboard.

the deluded were more than a little smug..

and yes, where are they now?

well most of them have already defaulted on their mortgage payments..

typical

Our flat is fine for smells - except when someone smokes in the lobby outside :curse: - but it's obvious where the finishing was crap. Chips in the floor tiles, leaking toilet hoses, flimsy cupboards, hearing the stilettos of the woman in the flat above...

The Walk is great now - have two grocery stores, loads of restaurants and quite a few banks in walking distance - but the popularity has made it sooo noisy in our apartment, especially with the patio door open. And we have to have it open sometimes, because none of the windows in our apartment open.

I'd sign up to stay again if the rent was on a par with other, nicer places in the Marina. If I can get a well-finished place in one of the blocks opposite JBR (same side of the Marina) for the same or less money though, I'll be off.

typical

When I arrived, I said I wouldn't buy until I'd lived here for at least a year.

One year later, I said "I'll never buy here".

TGFKASE

First, we are bitter, then we are smug... These property owners can never seem to get it right.....

Inselaffen

you are just smuggly bitter!

TGFKASE

Or am I bitterly smug..... God, its as confusing as a purchase contract.....