Tapping into the sporting theme

In a week in which Dubai held the world's richest horse race and Bahrain gets set to host the Formula One Grand Prix, the profile of sport in the Middle East has reached an all-time high. With this growing interest in mind, real estate developers have launched several residential communities linked to sport and marketed around a sporting lifestyle.

Tapping into the sporting theme at a time when we are all encouraged to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle and when sport is used as a source of stress release, as well as being a popular leisure past time, makes a lot of sense.

Not only that, but the lifestyle factor again comes into play, and with many sports having an outdoors edge to them, sporting themed communities tend to make very nice areas in which to live, offering great views and some beautiful landscapes.

While sporting themed, and particularly golf themed communities, grow in popularity throughout the world, in Dubai, we are fortunate enough to have an array of varied and unique sporting related developments to choose from. Some examples that spring to mind include the new Meydan Race course project, Dubai Sports City, Motor-City, the Polo Homes development and of course the increasing number of golf neighbourhoods.

Developments

Of course, the biggest sports related project is Dubai Sports City which will become the world's only dedicated and purpose-built city for sport when completed. As well as offering a championship golf course and a number of stadiums and sporting academies, Dubai Sports City will also provide residential and commercial developments for people looking to base themselves in the heart of the action. From an investor's point of view, its location within Dubai Land and the possibility of holding large-scale sporting events there are both likely to fuel the area's appeal to end-users.

Neighbouring sports city is MotorCity, a destination development combining motor sports with a business and residential community, all with a motor sports theme.

Those of you who attended the Dubai World Cup will no doubt have seen the impressive Meydan development under construction. The Meydan development is a large-scale project that focuses on three key areas: sport, commerce and life. The core of the development will be the new race course, replacing the existing Nad Al Sheba, but alongside will be a variety of leisure, entertainment, commercial and residential projects. This is the world's first mixed use horse racing real estate development that will no doubt hold large appeal to both investors and end-users.

Not far from Meydan is Polo Homes. This is an exclusive development, located at the Dubai Polo and Equestrian Club within the Arabian Ranches community that will offer access to the lifestyle activities at the polo club and provide an ideal setting for children and families to spend their leisure time.

In addition, we also have a selection of the world's finest golf communities to hand, backed by some of the greatest names in the sports history including Greg Norman, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els. There are some really great golf communities in progress and not only do they have the added advantage of being just a stone's throw from the greens, they also come with golf course views and stunning landscapes.

Even with so much choice here, demand remains strong and I have a feeling we will see even more great projects in the future. With Dubai being such a frenetic and energetic city, I personally can't think of a better location for this collection of projects.

The writer is managing director of Better Homes.