My Own Home takes you inside a reader-owned property to ask how much they paid, why they decided to buy and what they have done with it since moving in
Punam Bijlani, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon at Al Zahra Hospital, received her UAE golden visa in 2021, inspiring her to buy her first property in Dubai.
She hunted for a while but it wasn’t until she found her three-bedroom, ground-floor apartment in Remraam, Dubailand that she truly fell in love with a place.
She’s lived there for three years with her family and her dog Buddy – her elderly mother visits regularly, too – and has no plans to move anywhere else any time soon.
The National looks around.
Tell us about your home
It's a lovely three-bedroom, ground-floor apartment with four bathrooms and a large terrace and all the rooms open on to the terrace. I get up in the morning and I see my mother sitting in the garden having her tea and I absolutely love that.
It also has a lovely, long kitchen. We are Indian, so I was very sure I didn't want an open kitchen, because our cooking is full of our masalas and I didn't want that to come into the living room. Our kitchen has a section for cooking and another area for washing machines, and so on. We also built a closet here for the brooms and other things you don’t want to be seen.
Why did you decide to buy?
In 2021, all doctors were given golden visas, so once that happened, we thought we could put down some money for the house.
Everybody in our house loves a garden, so I went on a hunt for a ground-floor apartment where everything would be at one level, so my mother didn't have to go up and down, and she wouldn't be isolated in a villa. I just stumbled upon this one and it was beyond my expectations.
How much did you buy it for?
We bought it three years ago, just post Covid-19, and the prices had dipped down. We were really lucky. I bought it for exactly Dh1 million ($270,000). I believe they’re going for Dh1.8 million to Dh1.9 million now.
The rents are also unaffordable now. I’m so glad we bought it when we did. We’ve made Dh800,000 in equity straight off.
Why did you choose this neighbourhood?
The community is so beautifully landscaped. My daughter and I, we both run and have a very active lifestyle, so we were sure we wanted a place where we could run, swim, do sports, and so on.
The thing about this community is there’s always some tree, or another, blossoming every month. At this time of year, we have the jasmine tree which blossoms for about a month, so the community is just filled with such a heady fragrance, especially at night.
When we bought it three years ago, it was all quite quiet and then there was this boom of construction, so I think now we will probably be the centre of Dubai as all the activity moves towards the south.
We have Expo very close to us and now the new airport is moving out there. Etihad Rail is almost ready and I believe one of the stops is going to be really close by.
I think it's got the right balance of quiet and access to all of what will be the major landmarks of Dubai.
What do you have access to?
We have two tennis courts, four swimming pools, basketball courts, football courts and a cricket pitch. You have a beautiful running trail here, which is tree-lined and absolutely stunning.
We also have a highly subsidised gym – you just pay Dh50 a month. You can't go wrong.
We have two parking spots, and because we are the ground floor apartment, near the fire escape exit, we just step out and the cars are just behind. It’s like living in a villa, but you still have that community feel.
When my mother's here, she goes for a walk and everybody knows her. There are also lots of dogs in the community. They've given us a dog park. They've created a skating rink for the skateboarding lovers.
There’s also always something or the other going on, especially these six months, because it's a large community, and there are so many different cultures living here, so we have Diwali celebrations, we have Christmas, we have Halloween and now National Day will be another big celebration.
What renovations have you done?
When I first came, I thought it had everything, so we didn't break it down to its bones or anything. We did add some things here and there, like crown moulding and all the doors were wooden brown, so we had all of that painted white to add some more light.
We redid the bathrooms and converted the baths into walk-in showers, and did all the kitchen cabinets, otherwise it was pretty much how we wanted it.
We also did a really nice garden for my mother. There was nothing here at first. In fact, when things started growing, my neighbours got inspired and now they've also grown lovely gardens. We share a gardener and we've got a little garden group.
We’ve put up ghaf trees so they form a nice barricade, as we want that privacy, but we still have the breeze. I’ve grown a lot of bougainvillaea outside, I grow my own basil, we grow curry leaves and turmeric.
How would you describe your interior design style?
It’s eclectic. It’s a bit colonial, with some modern touches. I'm from India, so we do like our wood. And I'm not too much into the new Ikea-style furniture. I like my furniture a little more solid.
I also like cane and rattan and that kind of stuff, so we've added a lot of that in our house. I paint, so my work is also all over the walls.
We just wanted it to be, most importantly, like home. I wanted everyone to come home and feel comfortable, not having to worry that they don't need to touch this or that. I just want friends and family to come and feel welcomed. This is a warm place.
For how long will you live in this property?
I look at other places and say, 'This is the one'. When I saw it, it was love at first sight. Even though the garden and the terrace was empty, I saw the potential. I knew this garden was going to thrive.
My visa is valid until 2031. I haven't thought that far ahead, but we’ll see. For now, the UAE is home.
