My Dubai Rent: Family pay Dh300,000 for seven-bedroom villa with Burj Khalifa views

Kanessa Muluneh loves the Arabic feel of living in Dubai's Al Quoz area

Kanessa Muluneh with her husband Remco Coerman at their villa, in Dubai. She is paying Dh300,000 in rent for her villa. All photos: Pawan Singh / The National

Ms Muluneh loves the extra space in the villa, in Al Quoz 2

It's time to play for daughter Malyche

The entrance to Ms Muluneh’s villa

The living room area

A kitchen with room to host a few friends

The Burj Khalifa can be seen from the villa

A view from the park near the couple's home

My Dubai Rent takes you inside a reader's home to have a look at what they pay in rent, see who they live with and ask what they like and don't like

Kanessa Muluneh moved to Dubai with her family from the Netherlands in the second half of last year.

For their first home in the UAE, she and her husband chose to live with their two children in a seven-bedroom villa in Al Quoz.

They pay Dh300,000, split into four cheques.

Ms Muluneh, 32, who runs her own clothing line, invited The National into her home to show just why it is so special to her.

Why did you choose to live here and not somewhere else?

When we were considering moving from the Netherlands, we thought about moving to the typical expat areas like Arabian Ranches.

We wanted to get as much space as we could for our money and I told my husband that the main condition was there would be a view of the Burj Khalifa from our home.

When we looked here we realised it was a very Arabic area, which was great for me as I was born in Ethiopia and the cultures are extremely similar.

We didn’t want to move here and just live the same lifestyle we lived back in Europe.

It’s the best of both worlds really. The house feels very Arabic and I don’t like new houses as they have no atmosphere.

This feels like a home that has been lived in.

What are the advantages of living here?

It’s only a 10-minute drive to Downtown so it’s quite convenient in terms of location.

There’s a nice park here too, which has a great view of Downtown. It reminds me of Central Park in New York.

The area is quite private too. It’s not like a compound; I love that. Everybody here respects each other’s privacy.

What touches have you made to the property to put your personal touch on it?

Apart from the suitcases of clothes we brought with us and the furniture we bought, after moving in we haven’t changed much.

It just feels so different from our home in the Netherlands, which is exactly what we wanted.

The colours are brown and beige and I never had that before.

Also our home in Europe is full of stuff everywhere so it was nice for us to have a contrast here with a lot of extra space.

We like the minimalist feel here.

Did you look at many properties before settling on this one?

We were originally quoted Dh420,000 for the property, which was a bit outside of our budget, but we negotiated down to Dh300,000.

We looked at about six or seven other houses in Al Barsha and Al Quoz.

Do you see yourself staying here for the long-term?

Everybody knows the market is high right now but as soon as it changes we will buy our own home here.

We also plan to build our own home here in Dubai someday.

What would you change about the property if you could?

My husband would like to have a pool but I don’t really want a pool myself.

I am not sure there’s much else I would change as we rent and don’t own the property.