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Hi there!
Moving into Dubai next week. Task #1 is flat hunting (employer takes care about 1 month temporary housing, but still..)
Liked Marina a lot for the view and distance to beach etc.
Could you please share what are hidden or other problems within Marina area?

P.S. Will work in Dubai Internet City.
P.P.S. Thought also about Greens vs. Marina, but not sure..

Spirit wrote:Hi there!
Moving into Dubai next week. Task #1 is flat hunting (employer takes care about 1 month temporary housing, but still..)
Liked Marina a lot for the view and distance to beach etc.
Could you please share what are hidden or other problems within Marina area?

P.S. Will work in Dubai Internet City.
P.P.S. Thought also about Greens vs. Marina, but not sure..

Dubai Marina is not the best place for value for money, smaller apartments for the same price as everywhere else, JBR is the ideal, but the price does shoot up to almost double, although you have the beach and all the restaurants at walking distance.
I do recommend, Jumeira Lakes Towers, the price is good, the size of the apartments in the majority of the towers are quite fair especially in the older towers - SABA 2/3 and Green Lakes.

The not so one hidden problem is the traffic and endless road diversion and construction noise, dunno if the last one has stopped.

And not to forget during the weekend or any public holidays its become a parking lot out in the streets.

Greens biggest problem is getting in and out of it. Made even worse with the new traffic lights and diversions, absolute nightmare !

thanks a lot! really appreciate your help
2marrakech: JBR is good, but looks like they don't have a gym among amenities at all (don't know if it a big problem to enroll for a neighbour's one, but would like to have a full pack at once ) JLT seems like a good option though - will ping my agent to give me a tour over there. Thanks!

2desertdudeshj: parking lot? You mean traffic jams or a lot literally parked vehicles along the road? As for Greens absolutely agree - my friends who live there can't wait when this traffic/road contruction will end.

Do I miss any district close to the sea with good amenities on board?

For the most part the apartment buildings in Dubai do have gyms and pools.

But having said that, the location of the pool and the size can be very unappealing. I looked at an apartment in the Marina, absolutely great view, 3 bedrooms, one which could only fit a desk, the second a double bed and nothing more, the third was decent. However, the pool was inside and looked like a children's pool. Found out at the owners were Saudi and they wanted a touch of "Sharia", hence the pool.

JLT apartments have more space than those in JBR.

You may want to take a look at Palm Island as there are plenty of apartment complexes there. Don't know about the size of the rooms, but logistically, very close to DIC.

Thanks, Bora Bora! Been at Palm - price/value imho is lower vs. Marina. and in spite of closeness of DIC traffic is not the ideal though 4-line road splits into a single line toward any main direction slowing everething pretty heavily.

Looks like the most important advice I got (and appreciate) is to look with my own eyes on exact apartments and _especially_ amenities which could be a dissapointment..

Anyway, start my flat hunt next week..

Check that some of them don't have restrictions on allowing members of opposite sex to visit. I heard that some JLT apartments have these stupid rules where ur not allowed to bring someone of opposite sex back even just for visit unless ur married to them or they're family.

If you are looking for a good apartment block in the Marina - check out the "Waves". Its a building by Damac and I lived there for 3 years and worked in Internet City. Its a short 5 min walk from JBR shops and the beach, has a great pool and bbq areas, gym steam room and sauna room.

Worth a look!

Used to live in the Marina for 2.5 years, was alright at the start but as someone has pointed out the 'classy' atmosphere has faded and the streets are either parking lot or mini drag strip - contrary to some people's self belief trying to ring the neck out of your ferrari in first gear on a small congested street is not impressive.