Often, we in the real estate industry, focus on the numbers and statistics and forget that these numbers and statistics are a reflection of individuals and families. I had a recent conversation with a client of mine and he was interested in the story behind the location and building I was advising him to buy. And, a few days ago I overheard a conversation amongst real estate agents talking about how communities and clusters are formed around Dubai.

This piqued my interest and upon further reflection realised that this indeed is the case. But aren’t these communities artificial creations by developers and urban planners? And, furthermore, for some this might be perfectly acceptable, while others yearn for a time when communities developed organically with an inherent and valuable culture of the community that developed in parallel.

Let us consider that as our economies and our understanding of cities has developed, our ability to better understand our community’s needs has also grown. Whereas, once we were constructing, renovating, rejuvenating, demolishing and reconstructing our communities to keep pace with the demands we have the ability to look forward to our needs for the next 30 to 50 years and build these communities in keeping with these future demands.

In any project or development in the United Arab Emirates, the development activity is preceded by the development of infrastructure. We are talking about roads, electricity, water supply, telecommunication and around this basic infrastructure amenities such as shops, schools, hospitals, homes and offices are built, even places of worship, green spaces, community parks are considered integral to each community. With allocation and prioritisation given to the location of each of these amenities. Thus as the United Arab Emirates’ real estate develops rapidly this development isn’t isolated to residential units alone. All manner of community amenities and the contributing businesses and government services are developing rapidly in tandem.

One of the unique features of real estate and community development in the United Arab Emirates is the ability to approach the development with a clean slate. And thus bring in the cutting edge into reality, the cities and communities that are built today are state of the art future cities and there are very few places on the planet that entire cities and communities are being built at scale with a orientation towards the future. Yes, developmental progress towards improvement and up-scaling occurs all over the world and this “gentrification” is quite common in global cities. But here we are not talking about a change from old to new we are talking about fresh approach.

Here is a common list of amenities for each new building or community, community areas, green spaces, parks, barbecue area, children’s play area, swimming pool, gym, co-working space, jogging track, security, cctv, reserved parking and smart card access control. Some projects include sustainable features such as LEDs as standard, district cooling or high efficiency air-conditioning, water conservation features, recycling of water, segregation of recyclable and compostable waste, charging points for electric vehicles and solar integration for water heating and electricity generation. So common are some of these amenities that real estate regulars fail to even highlight them as unique.

Let’s step back to the original premise of a community, which is an organic development of people coming together to live in a particular place. It is my understanding that the most important aspect of this organic development is still met in the next phase of development of our communities. The tenants, buyers and investors are choosing to live or aspire to live in a building, in a community, in a city, where the story resonates with them. This has always been the way communities have formed and it is satisfying to know that despite the rapid progress this fundamental humanity remains and families choose to live where they feel at home.

Thus, we realise that each community in the United Arab Emirates be it Business Bay in Dubai, Reem Island in Abu Dhabi, Al Jaada in Sharjah or Al Marjan Island in Ras Al Khaimah; each has a narrative that resonates with the story of those families choosing to live there. And when we extrapolate that collective of families and investors and their motivations into numbers we realise the underlying rationale of why different communities develop differently & uniquely and why the prices & demand for each community differs. To take that same thought to the next step in order to determine which community is likely to appreciate in value, and the future ROI, one needs to understand the underlying narrative of each community and the hopes, dreams and aspirations of the tenants, buyers and investors who chose to be there.

So to answer one of the common questions, which is, “What is the guarantee that this community will appreciate in value?” The answer is simply, you. You the buyer or the investor is as much contributing to the future value by being part of the story. You, collectively as a community, will support the growth and development thus contribute to the appreciation and future value of the property. And thus, you will benefit.

• Photo by Ainur Kamaev on Unsplash