Your neighbourhood guide to Victory Heights

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Your neighbourhood guide to Victory Heights

Published: Tue 16 Aug 2016, 6:24 PM

Last updated: Wed 17 Aug 2016, 10:42 PM

Recently, I had a client who wanted a nice spacious villa near his office in Dubai Media City.
Listening to details of what they like, we suggested Victory Heights. Victory Heights? He had heard about it and even been there once or twice, but thought it was too far.
Still, we drove there and it was 15 minutes from Media City now that the Al Fay road entrance is open. Surprisingly close, and it's a lush green development with parks everywhere and a beautiful Ernie Els designed golf course.
Villas and townhouses spread on large spacious layouts, and all either open to a park or near a park, or a direct golf course view. Bicycle tracks are everywhere, along with quiet streets, barbecue areas set among tree and grass-filled parks. After viewing a few properties, this was exactly what they wanted. Bingo...
Victory Heights is now a well-established villa community comprising 961 villas and townhouses built on about 25 million square feet of land. It uses the now formulaic approach of golf course fairways running right through the community.
Psychologists suggest that a general preference for open greenery with patches of trees and water holes is built into us as our ancestral environment, so the formula is very old indeed, but it never gets tired. These days, we just prefer to swing clubs at a ball rather than throwing spears at a gazelle. (The gazelles prefer it too.)
The villas themselves represent the movement forward in design that we have seen emerging in Dubai, with flowing living spaces and an open feel. Living rooms and bedrooms are large in the higher specification villas (B1, C1), while still a good size in the smaller models. Owners praise their association as efficient and responsive, providing good services with comparatively low charges.
Some of the townhouse options have exterior styling that might leave a few scratching their heads, but the interiors are again quite spacious and still enjoy the community surroundings. Those townhouses placed up close to the Sports City high-rises may lose some of the sense of exclusivity enjoyed further into the community although they are still within the secure gated perimeter.
On the other hand, proximity to the numerous Sports City recreational facilities is another positive for the development. There are football, rugby, swimming and cricket academies as well as the Butch Harmon School of Golf and a clubhouse on site.
The Al Qudra Cycling Track is a short drive up the road. There are also several schools and a nursery nearby.
There are seven "villages" in the community. The most central and best established are Carmen and Esmeralda, along with Estella, Novelia, Oliva, Calida and Morella added and two more villages to come soon. The oldest villages enjoy the most established feel, with full-sized trees on grassy lanes, making it easy to forget that there is a desert just over the hill.
Fortuna is currently under construction and scheduled to be completed within a few months. A further ninth village, Marbella, will be launched shortly. Potential buyers should also take a look at the Prime Villas, a small private development on the outer perimeter with an emphasis on high-quality design and finishing, which is nearing completion.
For a spacious villa or townhouse and a premium lifestyle for a good price, take a second look at this community.
The writer is a senior real estate consultant with Coldwell ?Banker. Views expressed are her own and do not reflect the ?newspaper's policies.
 

By Shadi Zand

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