A Czech tries living on the world’s largest artificial island. This will blow you away!
When you arrive from the mainland to the “trunk” of Palm Jumeirah across the four-lane bridge, you can’t even tell that you’ve just landed on an island. As is evident from the official name “Palm Jumeirah”, the island was constructed in the shape of a palm tree and is composed of three parts: the trunk, which is home to important infrastructure and a number of apartment buildings, towers and hotels; the palm fronds – this part is the most lucrative area on the island (and maybe in Dubai as a whole) for residential living; and finally the third part consist of a crescent island lined by gigantic hotel chains, including the Atlantis Hotel, Kempinski Hotel or Rixos, to name a few.
A Czech woman who experience life on the “Palm” first-hand told Luxury Prague Life what it’s like to live in one of the most impressive places on earth.
“We moved to Palm Jumeirah in 2009, into the villa section of “palm frond” M. The island was still under active construction at the time. The villa section in the “palm fronds” were built and completed first out of the entire project, and served as the main advertisement for investors. Until 2015, the villa parts of the palm, apartment towers and hotels offering long-term accommodation and located on the “trunk” were absolutely the most attractive address, which had no competition in the Emirates at the time. This was naturally reflected in the prices to purchase or rent a house or apartment on the palm. Between 2009–2015, prices for real estate, rent and services grew aggressively – despite the continuous delays in building a shopping centre and hypermarket (the Palm has about 30,000 residents). This was the only unpleasant factor of that period,” recalls Veronika.
How much does a dream cost?
Are you wondering how much luxury living on Palm Jumeirah costs? It is a very exclusive affair, although the project has already lost its original sheen due to the extreme climate and cooling. Time has made a visible mark both on the facades and interiors of the houses.
“In the early stages of settlement of the Palm (from around 2008 when the project was relatively new), there was huge demand for residential living on Palm Jumeirah. House rental prices at the time were between 10 and 16 thousand dollars per month for the smaller houses. If you wanted a larger house, the prices ranged between 15 and 25 thousand dollars per month. Since about 2015, several projects on the Palm started competing. For instance, the newly built and functional city sections like DIFC, City Walk and especially Downtown Dubai with the tallest tower on the planet, Burj Khalifa. Because of the existing competition, rental prices on the Palm declined in 2015 (and continue to stagnate), back to around 10,000 dollars per month for a smaller villa, which is approximately equal to today’s level,” says Veronika.
In addition to rent, tenants must pay mandatory expenses – meaning water and electricity fees. In the case of a residential couple, the fee is around 2,000 dollars per month. This amount is relatively high, mainly because of the air conditioning without which life in the Emirates is truly unthinkable. To give an idea: its use is not necessary from November to February. Otherwise, it’s impossible because of the heat. Advances on services like we know them in the Czech Republic don’t exist in Dubai. Everything is paid based on real consumption, and directly to the state. If you don’t pay on time, they will disconnect you from water or electricity on the first day after the invoice maturity date!!
The costs for living on Palm Jumeirah aren’t just the rent and mandatory expenses, but also the fee for optional services, which practically everybody uses on the “Palm”.
“For instance, most villas don’t have automatic sprinklers, but gardens have to be watered daily. “Fortunately”, human labour is not as expensive here compared to rent. A gardener costs 100 dollars per month, as does a pool technician (pool guy), who takes care of cleaning and maintaining your pool twice a week for the same amount. For a live-in maid, prepare to pay 800 dollars a month, and a personal driver – almost everybody on the Palm has one – will set you back about 600 dollars a month,” says Veronika.
If you long to own a villa on Palm Jumeirah, the cheapest one currently on offer (with an area of 465 m2) starts at 2.3 million dollars.
Price development 2003–2018
Signature Villas
Pre-sale 2003: 1,250 mil. $
Before the crisis 2008: 6.8 to 8 mil. $
Crisis 2009–2010: 3 to 3.2 mil. $
Garden Homes
Pre-sale 2003: 630 000. $
Before the crisis 2008: 6 to 7 mil. $
Crisis 2009: 3.8 to 4.9 mil. $
Once the economy stabilised, prices gradually returned to the 2008 level.
How not to err when choosing a villa?
In total, the project comprises 1,354 villas and 220 town houses. Each frond of the “Palm” is marked with a letter and name (A-P) and is guarded with a gate, which can be entered only by residence, announced guests and employees. For instance frond “N-Al Naghal” features 85 Signature Villas. In general, there are 5 types of villas, of which Garden Homes are smaller (500 metres squared), while Signature Villas (700 metres squared) have larger facilities and lots. On the “trunk” are the Canal Cover Town Homes. Every type of completed villa has a typical design style: Arabic, Indian, Swiss (also called European) and others.
Each villa has a private pool and also a beach which is shared by Palm Jumeirah residents. The beaches near the villas which are closer to the palm trunk are narrower (essentially it is just a strip of sand), while the villas further from the trunk have larger beaches. The best and biggest beaches are at the end of the frond – where lots were offered for sale on which the owners could build houses based on their own tastes. For instance, a Versailles-style palace (a sort of classic Arabic rococo) was built in frond A, while frond D houses an ultramodern building commission by crown prince of Dubai Sheik Hamdan.
“When choosing a villa, it is important to assess your priorities – faster accessibility (you will likely choose a house closer to the trunk) or privacy (a house further down the frond). My partner and I compromised and rented a villa in the middle of the frond,” Veronika describes how they chose their residence on the “Palm”.
Good neighbours worth more than a sheik’s gold
Today, the houses on Palm Jumeirah are generally inhabited by people from the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) and East Asia, and only occasionally by expats from the west. They say the Palm is a paradise for family living: “You have a house in a gated community in the safest place on earth. Nobody looks the doors of their houses during the day or at night.”
But like anywhere else on earth, even here it is important to be fortunate with neighbours – especially if you live near the trunk of the palm where the houses are very close together. What’s more, the water surface creates great acoustics, which means that the neighbours will hear your every word (and you theirs).
Once in a while, a sheik on a jet ski (who doesn’t bother much about laws) will surprise you in the private waters of the peninsula :-). Should there by a woman on the beach and should she make unwelcome conversation, such behaviour could be deemed unethical and might be reported to the responsible authorities.
Be patient: you will eventually reach the shopping centre
The “fronds” (palm leaves the island) can be up to 3 km long, and there is a retarder every 60 metres on the road. The further you are from the trunk of the palm, the more it slows your life down. It is worth mentioning that the momentary traffic situation in Palm Jumeirah is complicated by the increasing density of the trunk and crescent through new construction. This was not in the original plans of the project – nobody originally expected such large capacity. The good news is that the shopping centre is finally under construction and should be opened by the end of this year. Inshallah :-),” says Veronika.
Living by the water
Although there was a lot of talk about how the project construction affected the local fauna, you won’t find any “dead sea” here. On the contrary, the beautiful undersea life is at your fingertips. There is a sandy bottom in the water. When you enter the water, or float from your own beach on a blow-up mattress, you will see schools of colourful fish, and somewhat less welcome blue or purple jellyfish. “There are also plenty of rays, which are not afraid to swim right up to the shore of your beach. It’s a real experience – observing them from your own garden as they frolic in the water,” Veronika recalls nostalgically. “I’m surprised you’ve never been to Dubai! One day you will go and will fall in love with it forever – I promise!” Veronika concludes the interview optimistically.
Developer Palm Jumeirah
