Damac Hills 2

Damac Hills 2 is where a townhouse costs least in Dubai, and the reason is on the map. Damac launched it as Akoya Oxygen, a sister to its golf community nearer the city, on desert land far out along the road towards Al Qudra, and built a very large community of townhouses and villas there at prices the city's established suburbs could not match. It has since taken the parent's name, which confuses everyone: the two are separate places a long drive apart, with separate markets, and the register keeps them apart. This page is about the far one.

The place

The community sits beyond Arabian Ranches 3 and the Al Qudra cycle track, on the edge of the desert, reached by the Jebel Ali to Lehbab road or by Al Qudra Road from the city side. Inside it the townhouses and villas are laid out in named clusters on quiet internal loops, with parks, a lazy river, a wave pool and a water play area at the centre and a growing strip of shops and cafes beside them. It was built in phases and the phases show: the earliest clusters are settled and green, the newest are still handing over, and construction continues at the edges.

The attractions were part of the pitch and they are real: the community's leisure facilities are more than most suburbs offer, and on a weekend they are full.

What you get

Townhouses, mostly, in the developer's standard layouts, and villas from modest to large on the clusters nearer the centre. A number of the villas were sold furnished or with designer branding at launch. A small amount of apartment stock has been added in later phases. Finish is the developer's standard specification across the community, so the differences that matter are position, cluster age and what an owner has done since.

The clusters carry names rather than numbers, and buyers learn quickly which were handed over first, which sit by the parks and water, and which face the entrance roads. The register records sales against those names and this page rolls them up.

Getting around

Distance is the whole trade here and it should be faced squarely. There is no public transport of any use, and the drive to the Marina or the Media City offices is long at the best of times and longer at the peak; Downtown and the airport are longer still. The community runs a bus to the nearest Metro, and the roads out have improved, but a household here owns cars and plans around the drive. Inside the gate the streets are quiet and children cycle on them.

Day to day

The community centre has a supermarket, a pharmacy, cafes and the usual services, and the leisure facilities carry the weekends: the wave pool, the lazy river, the sports courts, the parks and the community's own events. There are nurseries inside and schools have been promised; for now most families drive to the schools in Arabian Ranches, Mudon and the communities nearer the city, or use the school buses that serve the community.

It is a young place, full of families who bought their first house here, and it has the sociability that comes with that.

Who it suits

Families and first-time buyers for whom a townhouse in the established suburbs is out of reach, and who will trade the commute for a garden and a house. Investors, who have found the townhouses here cheap enough that the yields compete with apartments elsewhere. Tenants priced out of the city's inner villa communities.

It suits people less well who work in the centre, who need a short commute or public transport, or who want an established neighbourhood with a school inside the gate today.

Buying and renting here

Prices here are the clearest in the city because the stock is so uniform: thousands of similar townhouses, sold and resold, give the register a deep and consistent record, and the tables on this page show what each layout has actually fetched. Off-plan is a large part of the market and is kept apart from resales here; a launch price for a cluster handing over in a few years is not what a finished house next door is worth today. The register files a house sold with its plot against the plot, and this page reads those sales correctly.

Service charges are set by the developer's community management. Buyers of early-phase homes should look at the condition of the cluster's common areas; buyers of new ones should know the handover date and what remains on the payment plan. For tenants, the official index caps a renewal while a new lease follows the market.

The name

This community was Akoya Oxygen until the developer renamed it after its golf community nearer the city, Damac Hills, which had itself been Akoya. They are separate places with separate markets and a long drive between them. Anyone reading a price for either should be sure which it describes; the register, and this page, keep them apart.