The 19-bedroom villa is the latest big-ticket deal amid the city’s luxury real estate boom
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In the latest example of Dubai’s thriving luxury real estate market, a 19-bedroom megamansion in the city’s prestigious gated golf community of Emirates Hills has sold for US$40.2 million.
The villa, which sits on the largest lot in the posh enclave, changed hands last week, and the sale was handled by Leigh Borg and Timothy Ogunniyi of Dubai Sotheby’s International Realty.
“To own the largest land plot in Emirates Hills along with one of the biggest homes in the community makes this property stand out,” Ogunniyi said. “To find a property that gives you 80,000 square feet of land and 55,700 square feet of living space is rare in Dubai.”
Other large plots in the community are “not quite as massive,” he added. It’s “very seldom these plots come into the market in Emirates Hills. No doubt, this presented a great appeal to the buyer and an opportunity to capitalise on its value.”
The home has a classic feel, with an exterior that “combines timeless architectural elements with the use of natural materials, all of which are reflected in the roof shape, window style and classic columns,” Ogunniyi said.
It also has far-reaching views of the Dubai skyline and the surrounding golf course.
“With the market in Dubai appreciating, it is fair to say that this was a very good deal to come by, both for buyer and seller,” Ogunniyi said, without disclosing the identities of the parties. The seller had owned the villa for the past 15 years and lived in the property when in town, he added. Mansion Global couldn’t identify either party.
Dubai’s luxury home market has been on a tear, complete with sky-high prices that grew 17.4% last year , and record-breaking transactions.
“This year, we have witnessed a significant evolution in the luxury real estate landscape, characterised by the introduction of new iconic developments and a sustained influx of wealthy investors, many of whom boast billionaire status,” said George Azar, CEO and chairman of Dubai Sotheby’s International Realty.
“While there exists a substantial demand for super prime homes, it’s crucial to note that the market currently lacks a sufficient number of uber-luxury projects and finishes that resonate with the discerning tastes of global billionaires,” he added. That gap “underscores the resilience and strength of this segment within our market.”
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Kit Braden, an executive at French beauty empire L’Occitane, has spent every winter for the past 13 years at the stone vacation home.
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A historic Barbados estate with a 300-year-old villa and 11 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea is now for sale with a guide price of $22.5 million.
The seller is Kit Braden, chairman of the U.K. branch of French beauty empire L’Occitane Group, whose family has spent every winter for the last 13 years at the island property, known as Fustic Estate.
“It’s very much a family house,” Braden said. “We love having a lot of people there. It’s a collection point to keep everyone together.”
The main villa dates to 1712, though it’s been reimagined and expanded substantially over the years.
It spans 13,000 square feet and features seven en suite bedrooms across three wings, as well as expansive verandas, stone courtyards and rows of louvered doors in gay Caribbean pastels.
In the 1970s, when the home was owned by Charles Graves—brother of British poet Robert Graves—it was reimagined by stage designer Oliver Messel, one of the foremost theater designers of the last century. Messel expanded the home, added a lagoon pool with a natural waterfall and other theatrical features, according to Braden.
“The whole place is a little bit magical,” he said.
The home sits about 350 feet above the water, and surrounded by lush gardens that slope towards the water.
“We look down through our garden—which is about 12 acres of tropical gardens and palm trees and wonderful old mahogany trees—onto the Caribbean,” Braden said.
He and his wife first saw the property on New Year’s Eve 2013, during a quick trip from where they were staying in Grenada.
The couple spent an hour walking the perimeter, some of it still untouched jungle, in the pouring rain.
“By the time we got back, I had fallen in love with it,” Braden said.
His wife, however, wasn’t so sure. But in Braden’s telling, a second visit in sunnier weather with two of their children brought her around.
“She had to be talked into that it was a jolly good idea; now she absolutely loves it,” he said.
When they bought the property, the edge that runs along the waterfront was a jungle, so they cleared the ridge and transformed it into gardens.
They also bought an additional sea-level parcel with two beach cottages, giving the property direct access to the water and the town below via a five-minute walk.
The property also has a 15-person staff, a reflecting pond, an outdoor pavilion suitable for yoga and a commercial grade kitchen that can serve more than 100 guests, according to a brochure from Knight Frank, which posted the listing in March. They did not provide further comment.
For Braden, the property is special because of its natural beauty, its proximity to the town of Saint Lucy and its history—which dates way way back to when the island of Barbados was first formed via tectonic activity.
“It was basically tectonic plates that collided about a million years ago so the seabed is the top of the hill,” Braden said. “We’re on coral rock.”
As a result, Fustic Estate includes an extensive network of caves that were likely used by the Arawaks, a Venezuelan fishing tribe that followed the fish to these islands about a thousand years ago.
“If the fish were good they’d camp here,” Braden said. “There’s evidence that they stayed there in those caves, they lived there in good winters.”
Now it’s someone else’s turn to live on the land shared by Arawaks, the plantation owners of 1712, Charles Graves and the Braden brood.
