Arjan

Arjan is a district of new mid-rise apartment buildings on the inland side of Al Barsha, best known to the rest of the city for the flower garden inside it, and best known to buyers and tenants for its prices. It grew quickly on land that had been empty a decade ago, one building at a time from dozens of developers, and it has become one of the city's busiest markets for affordable new flats within a short drive of the Marina, the Mall of the Emirates and the schools of Al Barsha.

The place

The district lies between Umm Suqeim Road and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road, with Al Barsha South and its schools on one side, Motor City and Dubai Science Park on another and the flower garden and its butterfly house at its heart, which fill the district's roads with visitors through the winter. Its blocks are mid-rise, laid out on a grid, with retail at ground level along the main streets and a hospital at its edge. Some of the district is finished; a good deal is still being built.

Dubai Science Park, the office and laboratory district beside it, is the district's employer and its hospital's home, and it has the same mid-rise grain: a buyer here often works a few streets away. The gardens, a seasonal flower park and a butterfly house, are the district's landmark and the reason its roads fill on winter weekends; in the summer they close and the district goes quiet.

It is a working district with a garden in the middle of it, and the garden is the reason most people have heard the name.

What you get

Apartments, from studios to family layouts, in mid-rise buildings by a wide range of developers, from the city's largest to the smallest. The buildings differ more than the district suggests: in finish, in management, in amenities and in the parking they provide, and the recorded prices per square foot spread accordingly. There are no villas and no towers of real height. Most stock is recent; some of it is still handing over.

A share of the district's buildings are hotel apartments or serviced blocks, run as short stays and sold to investors by the unit; they sit alongside the ordinary residential buildings and trade on a different basis. Buyers should know which kind a building is before they compare its price with the block next door.

Getting around

By car. Umm Suqeim Road and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road are at the door, the Mall of the Emirates and Al Barsha are minutes away, the Marina and the Media City offices a manageable commute, Downtown and the airport longer. There is no Metro in the district; the nearest stations are on Sheikh Zayed Road at the mall, a short drive or a bus. Traffic on the district's approaches is heavy on winter weekends when the gardens are open.

Day to day

The main streets carry supermarkets, pharmacies, cafes and the district's growing number of restaurants; the mall at Al Barsha and the district's own retail centre supply the rest. The hospital is at the district's edge, and several of the city's larger international schools sit in Al Barsha South within a few minutes, with nurseries in the residential blocks. The gardens are the district's landmark and its winter crowds; the parks between the blocks are its everyday green.

Who it suits

Tenants who want a new flat with a pool and a gym near the Marina end of the city at a rent the Marina cannot match. First-time buyers for the same reason. Families with children at the Al Barsha schools. Investors, who have made the district one of the busier letting markets in the city on the strength of its yields and its new stock.

The district's yields are the reason it exists in its present form: investors bought its flats off-plan by the building, and the tenants who filled them, young professionals and families at the Al Barsha schools, have kept the letting market among the busiest in the city.

It suits people less well who want an established neighbourhood, quiet, or a walk to the Metro, and anyone for whom a building site next door is a problem: the district is still being built.

Buying and renting here

The building matters more than the district here, as in every place built by many developers at once, and the register shows it: the tables on this page and the building pages beneath it list what each building's layouts actually fetched, and the gap between the well-built and well-run buildings and the rest is plain in those prices. Buyers should look at the owners' association, the service charge, the parking allocation and the developer's record before the asking price. Off-plan launches are constant and are kept apart from resales here.

For tenants, the official index caps a renewal while a new lease follows the market, and in a district with this much new stock the two can differ.

Buildings to know

The district's buildings are too many and too alike in plan for a short list to help; the table below shows which are actually trading now, and every building has its own page with every recorded price, which is the list that matters.