Dubai's billionaires' row

"For example, parquet flooring, you can get it for 30 dirhams but we get ours from Austria. We are extremely quality conscious."

This focus on quality extends to the environment surrounding the living spaces in Al Barari.
Few projects in the UAE can boast as much greenery as Al Barari, with as much as 80 percent of the land in phase one devoted to gardens and common areas.

The firm has invested $381.7m in greenery in phase one, with Zaal even setting up a production nursery onsite to produce 1.6 million trees and shrubs a year, most of which will be planted within Al Barari.

34 carefully landscaped themed botanical public gardens inspired by Mediterranean, Oriental, Islamic and contemporary designs, will also feature in the development, alongside lakes and waterfalls. And weaving its way through the project will be the world's largest man-made waterway within a residential community, stretching 14.6 km.

"We are bringing plants from all over the world, we have nurseries all over the world. When other developers talk about sustainability and greenery we are actually practicing it," enthuses Zaal, for whom nature is a particular passion.

"Nature, water, lakes are what we do and something that differentiates us from other developers is the quality, the space and the gardens - we do what we believe."

Of course, paradise doesn't come cheap and the super-rich can expect to have to fork out $10m or more for a villa. But, as Zaal points out "when you're buying quality, you pay the price".

"Most of our buyers are what you call old money," he explains. "They are end-users, we hardly have any speculators."

He refuses to give more details about the buyers, adding "they love their privacy, these people".

However, he says the sort of individuals interested in investing in Al Barari have been unaffected by the global credit squeeze.

"The rich get richer, it's a fact and they come to Al Barari and they buy. I know villa buyers who bought apartments for their children as well," he says. "We have a huge demand. We are fortunate. I can't speak for other developers."

Among the first to be moving into their new villas when the development is ready will be Zaal and his family, with whom he manages the firm.

His son Mohammad Zaal is the chief operating officer, while his daughter Kamelia Zaal holds the position of creative director, overseeing the landscape architecture.

His British wife Leslie Zaal has taken charge of all of the interior design of the buildings.

"It's a family business and a family passion," says Zaal, whose family can trace its roots back to 1820 in the UAE.

His other daughter Nadia Zaal, who he describes as the "rising star of the Middle East," is the CEO of Abu Dhabi-based luxury boutique real estate developer Zaya, a competitor to Al Barari.

Al Barari will also accommodate high-flying professionals with apartments ranging in price from $1.4m to 4m.

"A lot of people say to us ‘please, we love Al Barari, we cannot afford the villas, can we have an apartment?'," he says.

"Anyone who earns 100,000 dirhams a month can afford a 5 or 10 million-dirham apartment."

But they are no ordinary units in an apartment block as you may find elsewhere in Dubai.

"If you look at the market for one-bedroom apartments you are looking at 600, 700 sq ft. If you go around the Marina you will see the same thing - there are thousands of apartments, the same finishes, the same sizes," says Zaal.

"Now, our one-bedroom apartments are 1700 sq ft. Where is the commercial sense in that? Well, I'm selling it. Why? Because it's different, our value creation is different from normal developers," he continues

Comments 1-10 of 10

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Enter the words above *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.