Dubai: A Dubai-based developer has started renting out a cluster of buildings in what could be the first legal shared accommodation for bachelors.
Al Khail Gate in Al Quoz features studio, one and two bedroom flats in buildings exclusively earmarked for the growing numbers of single men who cannot afford to rent an apartment on their own.
Low rents
Moreover, these "bachelor buildings" have rents that have also set a new affordability standard in the emirate, with studios going for as little as Dh23,000, compact one-bedrooms starting at Dh28,000 and going up to Dh31,000, and two-bedrooms for Dh41,000.
Buildings in Al Khail Gate, which are handled by Salwan Property Management, are in high demand among bachelors.
However, there are rules. While a maximum of two bachelors are allowed to share the 420 square foot studio, four are allowed to share a one-bedroom flat and six people can share the two-bedroom flat, which is an average of two people per room, regardless of the number of rooms in the apartment.
A handout issued by Salwan states building numbers 17, 38, 42 and 49 as "bachelor buildings" in Phase I of the project.
Although the 33 buildings in Phase 2 of Al Khail Gate have just been launched, demand has been so high that at the time of going to press, there were no more studios or one-bedroom flats available.
M. Mistry has just rented a one-bedroom apartment in one of the family buildings. The salon owner chose to rent the larger one-bedroom, at the higher end of the scale (Dh31,000 annually, paid in five cheques) since the cheaper Dh28,000 one-bedroom apartments had a unique feature unlike any other: the bedroom didn't have doors.
A spokesperson from the Salwan Leasing office admits the smaller one-bedroom flats "are 450 square feet and are an elaborated studio, more than a proper one-bed.
"The bedrooms don't have doors, and there is a wall separating the living room from the bedroom, almost like when one partitions a room."
- 23,000 dirhams, the annual rent for a studio flat
- 28,000 dirhams, the annual rent for a one-bedroom flat
- 41,000 dirhams, the annual rent for a two-bedroom flat
