Downtown, Marina, Palm or the newer inland districts — how to match a community to how you actually live.
Buyers usually arrive with a shortlist drawn from photographs, which is a poor guide to daily life. The questions that matter are duller: how long is the commute at eight in the morning, is there a school run involved, do you want a building with a doorman or a villa with a garden and a longer drive to everything.
Downtown and Marina trade convenience for density. Palm Jumeirah and the waterfront communities trade price for space and views. The newer inland districts offer the most square metres for the money, on the understanding that the retail and the landscaping arrive a few years after the keys do.
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