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Dubai's billionaires' row
"We create space, there's terraces and water features. You're not buying an apartment where you have a lift that you can go down in, you're buying a quality of life where you can go to a restaurant, a butcher or baker, experience culture."
Zaal believes the pace of development in Dubai has led to neighbourhoods springing up which lack both a sense of community and identity.
"My passion is to create communities with neighbourhoods and responsibilities and values and identity - we lost that in Dubai. Our culture is an evolving culture, we have a very rooted history in architecture and art.
But unfortunately now you buy a villa in Jumeirah, but do you know your neighbour? No. Behind you and in front of you is a road. If you want to go for a walk you can't as you will be hit by a car.
If you want to go to your office you get into your car and drive for two hours to another building. Come the weekend you have a choice of a shopping mall, another shopping mall, or a little bit of beach," says Zaal.
"Al Barari is creating a community and this is the creation of value."
As far as the Dubai property bubble is concerned, Zaal does see a popping of the high prices in the apartment sector next year.
"A correction will happen for the simple reason that thousands of apartments are being sold practically the same. But we shouldn't be afraid of a correction," he says.
"You can't have a speculator turning into a developer because he made money and he has access to land because his aim is fast build, fast profit and that's not good for the market, but it happens."
Looking to the future, Zaal's first concern is bringing his flagship project online. The company is negotiating with four contractors, shortlisted from an initial list of 12, for construction of phase two of the project, with a final three firms to be selected by the end of the year. The entire scheme should be completed by the end of 2011.
After that, Al Barari is scouting for locations within the UAE and Oman for potential luxury hideaway tourist resorts, which would offer alternative medicine therapies.
"It would be for the select few, not the masses," he explains. "We are creating our own brand in hospitality and would run the resorts. To start with it would be a joint initiative in partnership on the management side."
He reveals the firm is also in the early planning stages of another real estate project within the UAE which would be similar to Al Barari.
But like Al Barari, any future projects would be funded by the company itself, with Zaal ruling out any possibility of an IPO. "I am very single-minded with my business and don't like people meddling with my vision," insists Zaal.
"What I see is right, so I don't take partners and if I do they know I am right and believe in me.
"I love nature, I love human beings and want to put values back into society. I love to see happy people and if it means I spend the coming five years putting in billions of dollars to make that happen I will do it - it's a passion of mine.
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Comments 1-10 of 10
Posted by Spectator on 30 November 2008 at 16:07 UAE time
Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a DREAM.
Posted by Barb, Dubai, UAE on 30 October 2008 at 08:35 UAE time
Agree Ametis! All individuals have their choice to live, buy and enjoy where and with who they want to!
Zaal will find the people who think the way he does and Im sure there are more than 300 in the world.
His competitors with their cheap quality, high density, poor service and misleading marketing will find their audience as well.
No need to bitch about each other....you have a better plan? Lucky enough to execute it? Come up with it and make it reality instead of critisizing someone who is actually doing it.
Posted by Ametis, Dubai, UAE on 22 October 2008 at 05:35 UAE time
Congratulations to Mr Zaal for his vision and putting his money where his mouth is to achieve his vision.
To those posting vitriolic comments, being a Billionaire means exactly that I can have my Villa in South of France, My beach house in the Caribbean, my Island in the Mediterranean, and you never know maybe a lunar mansion??
While you are still sitting in your room in the shared Villa, bitching about those who fulfilled their dream by sheer hard work, and taking the risk
Posted by SR on 20 October 2008 at 18:45 UAE time
What is amazing is that every developer has their own definition of luxury!! Just for the purpose of making their sale. No wonder as greed is a natural phenomina in this part of the world.
If anybody wants to live close to nature, I dont think they are in the right place!
Posted by Trojan on 20 October 2008 at 11:36 UAE time
What a joke man! Billionaires from "all over the world"... are you kidding me? If I have millions to spend, I sure won't go to Dubai to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life - did anyone forget Dubai's nightmarish traffic and aweful weather? I'd rather buy a villa on Greece's coast, the French Riviera, the Bahamas, or Florida's and Califronia's beach-front properties. Or how about a cabin in one of Colorado's ski resorts? Has anyone been out to Al Barrari? I have, and I can tell you no amount of vegetation you plant in there is going to stop do anything about the nasty sand-laiden wind whipping you in the face while you enjoy the tropical landscape. Obviously Al Barrari is getting desperate because only 200 of the 350 villas have been "snapped up" by billionaires rushing in from all over the world. Get real people!
Posted by debbie, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on 20 October 2008 at 09:14 UAE time
so if you will carpet it green and grow plants and all kinds of lush fauna, you will have to recreate that environment which costs water (precious in this environment) and energy thereby creating a larger carbon footprint than you think. A desert is meant to be a desert, lets enjoy the beauty of that!
Posted by Paul, Dubai on 19 October 2008 at 15:52 UAE time
Wonder if DM will also be evicting any billionaires who happen to live in villas with people who aren't members of their family...like, a girlfriend, for instance? I can't see billionaires sharing housing to cut down on rent costs (well, maybe not yet...)
Posted by Ramon Imperial Lapak, Dubai, UAE on 17 October 2008 at 16:48 UAE time
Congratulations to Mr. Zaal and his Family for their vision to create a good place for those who can afford it. Having enough space and greens has become very expensive and in the future, places like these will not be available if visionaries like them are not around. Wishing you sucess and good luck in your endevour..
Posted by Graham Plater, Munich, Germany on 17 October 2008 at 12:50 UAE time
To quote the developer of Al Barari, "We have more billionaires per square metre than anywhere else". Yes, the place sounds really wonderful but maybe a little overcrowded ...?
Posted by nada, doha on 16 October 2008 at 23:19 UAE time
Good project and nice concept.. However, as long as this part of the world is a pure desert...How much water is needed and How much energy is needed to keep the greenery "green" and the turn the engines?
I've read somewhere in one of those serious reports that the middle east is harming the environment due to the consumption of energy to turn ACs on and to maintain the greenery... Such projects just add more worries and please few eccentric people...