A new american style steakhouse has opened for business on thePalm Jumeirah. West 14th at the Oceana Development on the top of the Palm Jumeirah trunk offers Palm Jumeirah residents the first steakhouse restaurant among the residential buildings of the trunk.
West 14th is a contemporary american style steakhouse offering great value food and drink with stunning sea views.
The Palm Jumeirah is really starting to take full shape now as most of the residential buildings on the trunk have completed and handed over and the Palm Golden Mile gardens are under construction.
While the rest of the world struggles to emerge out of one of the worst economic recessions since the 1930’s, Dubai continues to push full-steam ahead with is central infrastructure projects with the announcement this week that 5 more stations on the Dubai Metro red line are on track to open this October.
The Dubai Metro recently turned one year old on 9th September 2010 and is one of the Dubai government’s flagship infrastructure projects, linking old Dubai and the airport with many of the popular tourist and residential areas of “new Dubai”.
The 5 new stations to open next month include Jumeirah Lake Towers, Nakheel, Sharaj DG, First Gulf Bank and Business Bay. Once opened the red line will be almost complete, with just 3 stations left to be opened.
The Dubai Metro is the world’s longest driverless metro system and one of the most ambitious metro projects ever undertaken. It is central to the Dubai government’s vision of truly turning Dubai into the most modern and advanced cities of the 21st century.
The metro already serves as a vital and affordable mode of transport for hundreds of thousands of Dubai residents and these 5 extra stations will further increase the number of commuters using the metro, especially those who have recently moved into the popular Business Bay Executive Heights and surrounding buildings.
Falcon City of Wonders, a new development off Emirates Road in Dubailand offers a very large villa community with a selection of homes.
For those living in Dubai, the location may strike as being a little isolated away from the built up areas or lacking in on site amenities. However, access to the Emirates Road means many amenities are within 10-15mins reach. More importantly, when a community is built up to a high standard, people do move in and this results in little retail outlets and coffee shops springing up on site within months.
For now, the lack of amenities does not seem much of a deal when you consider you can get a new high-end 5 bed, 5,200sq ft + villa for AED 150,000-170,000 per year. Given that some top-end 2 bedrooms in the Dubai Marina are leasing at over AED 150k, this surely has to be some of the best value the Dubai Real Estate has ever had.
Have a look at some pictures here and see decide for yourself if the a dream property is worth being 15 minutes out of the more developed areas.
There appears to be good news on the horizon for the Golden Mile and Palm Jumeirah Shoreline Apartment residents as work on the Golden Mile gardens has re-started.
Work re-starts on Golden Mile Gardens
Over the past few days huge truck loads of soil have been transported to the site of the Golden Mile gardens which will run almost the full length of the Palm Jumeirah trunk in between the Shoreline Apartments and Golden Mile buildings.
When finished, the Gardens will offer a beautiful view mile-long walkway and will open up access to the Golden Mile retail units on the promenade level. They will also hugely enhance the view from the Palm Jumeirah monorail which runs down the middle of the gardens.
It is thought that when finished the Golden Mile Gardens and retail units will rival the JBR walk and will be a great addition to the Palm Jumeirah.
The luxury Dubai Sports City development, Victory Heights, reached a new milestone this week as the developer handed over the keys to the 600th villa of the 794 phase one villas.
The Victory Heights phase one aims to be fully completed by the end of 2010. This is positive Dubai property news as there continues to be a relative shortage of luxury villa accommodation for the city’s executive expat population. While certain Dubai villas communities have seen price drops, especially in the Emaar built Springs community, the luxury Palm Jumeriah villas on the other hand have seen steady price increases during the past quarter as there continues to be a lack of large high-end executive family villas.
The properties in Victory Heights are built in three styles: Spanish Andalusian, bold Mediterranean and classic European and are surrounded by the Ernie Els designed 18-hole championship golf course The Els Club.
The Golden Mile will finally come to life at the start of 2011! Retail and leisure stores to include a large Waitrose supermarket on the Palm Jumeirah.
In an exciting and much awaited announcement, IFA, the developer of the Golden Mile announced that it had finalised leases for some if its retail units. The flagship store will no doubt be the 1,140sq m Waitrose supermarket. Â Starbucks, a Boots pharmacy, Optvision opticians and a Dr Nicholas & ASP medical centre will be amongst the first few offerings in the Golden Mile.
The Golden Mile is a high end residential development of 10 buildings stretching for almost a mile down the middle of the Palm Jumeirah trunk. The Golden Mile has retail spaces all across the ground floor of its connected buildings. Residents on the Palm Jumeirah have long been eager to see these retail space occupied. However, like many developments in Dubai progress has been slow despite the buildings having been handed over to owners and residents several months ago.
This is excellent news for the many residents of the Palm Jumeirah. This also brings a certain level of confidence back to the market. The addition of such brands as well as the excellent convenience and enhancement to quality of living they offer is a big boost to the Palm Jumeirah which has recently received criticism for failing to live up to its billing as the 8th wonder of the world.
The announcement signals only the first  of a wave of businesses to set up in the Golden Mile. It is expected that that a lot more stores will be announced soon. The Waitrose Palm Jumeirah store is expected to open in April 2011. Waitrose had earlier met their ambitious deadline to open their store in Dubai Mall. The only question that remains is whether Nakheel will make any strides in finishing the park, which currently sits as a sandpit, in time for the grand opening.
The Dubai hotel industry has had a difficult time in 2010 with an increased supply of hotel rooms – up 13% from 2009 – however the summer Ramadan month is a traditionally good time for hotels in the UAE with many tourists coming to Dubai to celebrate the holy month with friends and family.
Many hotels are already promoting their Ramadan special offers and Iftar meal deals with some offering excellent discounts of up to 20% for those who book hotel rooms in Dubai before the start of Ramadan.
Just Rentals Dubai offers over 300 hotels in Dubai for visitors to make bookings online. To get the best rate for your next stay in Dubai, check out our online hotel booking system. There are no booking fees we offer the best rates available.
The Dubai Municipality announced today that Housing fees will become mandatory for all residents in Dubai from 1st January 2011.
The Housing Fee is 5% of the tenancy contract for tenanted properties. For Landlord-occupied properties, the landlord will also be charged 5% of what the RERA rent index shows as the average rental price for the property in question.
This Housing Fee is equivalent to what expats will be more accustomed to as Council Tax and will be used to pay towards the upkeep of roads, landscaping, road lights etc in each of the residential communities.
Whilst 5% sounds like a large additional payment that residents will have to pay for, it is still much cheaper than other property related taxes that are levied in other countries.
Will the enforcement of the Housing Fee from January next year have any impact on the rental prices in residential areas? Some people think so as tenants will try to pass this cost onto the landlords by requesting a reduction in the rent paid to off set this additional payment.
Tomorrow seven new stations will open on the Dubai Metro, along with 5 new trains serving the Red line.
The new stations to open will be Emirates, Airport Terminal 1, Al Karama, Emirates Towers, Dubai Internet City, Marina and Ibn Battuta.
These new stations will serve thousands more residents in Dubai, particularly those in the popular Dubai Marina / Dubai Internet City areas.
By the end of the year, the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) plans to have all 29 stations and 24 trains on the Red Line operational.
The Dubai Metro has been a huge success since it’s launch in September 2009 and is already a very popular mode of transport as well as somewhat of a tourist attraction for tourists to the city.
Office prices in Dubai continue to decline at fast rates. This is due to vast oversupply of available offices across many areas in Dubai.
Jumeirah Lake Towers currently has around 20% occupancy levels despite very competitive pricing. To make the situation worse for would-be landlords, there is a huge amount of supply of office units to be completed in the next two years. While this represents bad news for landlords, it represents terrific opportunities for existing and start-up businesses.
Lowering the cost to businesses will ultimately benefit the local economy and the population. This represents a particular opportunity for start-up businesses that can potentially afford office space to aid their business operations. This would have been out of the question 2-3 years ago where office space was amongst the most expensive in the world and stories of businesses hiring hotel rooms as office space was common.
