Business Bay

I wanted to be relatively close to Downtown and DIFC, without the disruption and/or cost of those places. And whilst I liked the convenience of Business Bay, I didn't want to have the crowded living of Executive Towers. U Bora Towers is good value for money in terms of floor space and facilities for the flat. The finish pretty good (and certainly much better than some places I've seen). The building maintenance guys have been very helpful in sorting out the snag list that comes with moving into a new place. The security people have also been very helpful with their knowledge and advice. There is a good view of the Burj Khalifa from the north side, and relatively uninterrupted view towards the Dubai Stables on the south side. Overall there is not too much feeling of being crowded by other buildings (and no looking into someone else's kitchen!)

This building suffer from water leakage all over starting from parking till high floors, the fungus is inside the cupboards and bad smell of garbage stayed in the building for 2 years and everyone complaining but the building management is not responding. Infrastructure is bad, the internet connection max speed you can get is 16MB. The swimming pool and sauna heater used to work in the beginning and due to lack of care it stopped and for the last 3 years we are asking them to fix it with no response. A newly opened restaurant which opened 24 hours will make you miss sleeping with noise level you can not imagine.

With it's own shopping and dining area on the ground floor, Executive Towers almost feels like a small city within the city. (We lived there 2 years ago and it's even better now with more shops open at Bay Avenue.) The location is close to perfect with direct access to Sh. Zayed road, easy escape route to Al Khail road and the tunnel to DIFC. Our apartment had Business Bay view with quite a few construction sites, but luckily none of those were close enough to bother us. The layout of the 2 bedroom was a bit strange at first, but we got use to it quickly. We left because at the end prices reached the level of Downtown and we couldn't negotiate with our landlord.

This is a new building in Business Bay (BB), so I have tried to ignore the obvious problems you get with a new building (i.e. snagging issues) that will no doubt be resolved in time. Located ten minutes walk/two minutes drive from Dubai Mall & Souk Al Bahar and quite literally one minute drive from Financial Centre Road/Al Khail Road, this tower is in a great location. It backs on to one of the new lakes in BB and our apartment is on a high floor with a lake view. It's nice to see the lake everyday but the view other than that is fairly uninspiring, being dominated by the new DAMAC Paramount building going up on the other side of the Al Khail Road. Apartments on the front side advertise a "Burj view" and charge accordingly, but this is misleading as that landmark is obscured almost 2/3 of the way to the top. The apartment itself has no storage (being strictly a 2-bed) but the rooms are quite generous. Ceramic tiles floors look nice but transmit the noise from the apartment above very easily - we've only been in a week and had to make a small complaint! The kitchen has no white goods (which is great as the units supplied are often very poor quality & size) and although it is big it has no external walls - only an interior window allows access to the internal ventilation shaft. Thankfully ENI have though to put a door on the kitchen to allow it to be closed off. The pool is large enough (and heated) to do meaningful lengths, but the gym that is on the same level is small and suitable for only occasional use. Parking is plentiful but extra spaces for your second car are a chargeable extra. On the negative side, the noise issues created by the expansive use of ceramic tiles are annoying but not uncommon in Dubai. There is no visitor parking at all - access to the internal car park is via radio keyfob only and you only get one per space. The biggest downside is the overall finish and the layout. The main bathroom has a small sink, no storage for towels or toiletries and no electrical sockets - think again if you want to charge your electric toothbrush or shaver here. The second bathroom is small and laid out in such a way that to open the shower door and the main door is impossible at the same time as they open into each other. Water leaks out from the shower all across the floor due to the poor layout and fittings. There are no sockets in this bathroom either. In the main rooms there are simply no enough plugs or network sockets, and those that are there are in odd places. Worst of all every surface is very poorly finished, either scratches or paint stains on all the woodwork or grout stains on all the tile surfaces. Even the floors are heavily marked with scratches and solidified grout. Overall the location is great, access to SZR, Dubai Mall & Al Khail Road is quick, the views are nice on the backside, and the pool will get a lot of use. It's just a shame that this relatively compact building is let down by the apartments poorly thought out internal layout, lack of visitor parking and a generally poor standard of finish.

Pros - accessibility, location, quality of the flats Cons - guest parking, walking area missing, developing area

I have lived in Ontario Tower for a year and it is a really good building, very well finished and with good facilities. There is a shop now on the base of the tower and it is in walking distance of the Metro. Very good value in the best part of Business Bay - it is close to the proposed canal and SZR. Great apartment. Awesome gym and nice neighbours.

We just brought this property. Because area is surrounded by most of office buildings, its not congested during day & weekends. Small groceries around but no hypermarkets may be because of Dubai Mall near by, which also does not have any mid range hyper market. Business Bay metro station is across the road is advantageous, but being prime location needs more development.

The park and mall alone make up everything I want in this community. Flat is amazing. Traffic is near zero and you are close to Dubai Mall which means everything is there. I would live here as long as possible.

Perfect for people working in Downtown or DIFC or Business Bay Easy access to Al khail Road (3 minutes) and Sheikh Zayed (5 minutes) , to Downtown 7 minutes, and to DIFC 10 minutes. Restaurants and grocery stores are 2 minutes away. Supermarket is available on the Ground Floor. Maintenance people are friendly so whatever small work in the flat, they come the same day and help you for free.

The building is ok, not that great. It just so happens it is near the Burj Khalifa and Dubai mall. The building is not properly done like other buildings in Dubai. We cannot complain much as the landlord gave us a good deal. There is no traffic as the roads never improved since we stayed here. All in all if the ratings is 5 as the highest, I would probably rate our building as 3.

I like my accommodation as it's near to everything, first of all my job. The surrounding Business Bay is beautiful to live, has a nice walk way etc. The thing I don't like is the partition rooms which they are building now from the living room and how nobody is taking care about the cleanliness of the kitchen.

I've been living in this apartment for 2 years now with my wife. The building when you look at it is a nice building good location in Business Bay, and the size of the apartment is ok. The security in the building are amazing compared to the level of security we found in Dubai, but the best part of it all is the view that we have. We live on the 24th floor and have a view that cover all the way from the flag in Jumeirah 1 till Burj al Arab and Atlantis with nothing to block it. That said, we can move to the negatives of this building: - the quality of the building is really bad, toilet door doesn't close properly, leaking at different places in the shared areas, even the bedroom window doesn't close properly in my apartment so we had to seal it with tape for the dust not to get in. -You have to clean the house on a daily base because its one of the dustiest building you can ever live in, even with everything shut and the AC cleaned, dust still manages to find its way into the apartment. - The gym is pointless. - And the price compared to everything else is just ridiculous. I am moving out soon

Business Bay is an upcoming area, which is within walking distance to Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa, Boulevard Walk and Souk al Bahar. Across Al Sada Street (2 mins walk) there is also Bay Avenue, with 2 parks, a cycle path, Spinneys, Learning Tree Nursery, lots of restaurants and cafes. I love this area and I love the apartment. When we were looking to move, I couldnt believe some of the finishings - even if Executive Tower - they were quite tired looking - and their asking price was too high. Falcon Tower is located near Business Bay Metro Station, I would say about a 5 min walk. Ideal for travelling around the City. There is also easy access to Al Khail Road, Al Ain Road and Sheik Zayed Road.

If you can tolerate traffic congestion during peak hours, band-aid fix maintenance services, high cost of rent, surly neighbours, people stealing your allocated parking and lack lustre security - then the view and retail opportunities around this area are enticing. Good point of convergence for both new and old Dubai. Rents are unreasonably high and you are forced to play the evacuate-or-pay-higher-rent game with opportunistic landlords.

I am living in a one bedroom apartment in this tower, I have the Pool and lake side view. Overall good building, family friendly and at the same time peaceful.

Central location but has become over priced for the quality of life

A high tech apartment with key card / PIN front door entry (no need to ever lose your keys in that taxi ever again). Central Control Unit allows you to programme your apartment to turn on/off your a/c, set the temperature, manage your lighting, notify reception of the arrival of guests, maintenance requests, deliveries, etc. Remote curtains, wooden floors in the bedroom and tiled throughout the rest. Very compact but well designed so much so that the furniture pretty much tells you where it needs to be placed. Moving in was a breeze as the property is managed on site and assistance is given with DEWA and Ejari. Whilst a little bit off the beaten (or rather underdeveloped) track, the 11 floors Residence tower and the 60+ office tower means plenty of taxi's coming and going, even on a Friday. Handy stores under the Residences will enable you to stock your fridge/freezer, sort out your banking, keep the body maintenance under control and buy flowers to keep the apartment smelling fresh. 1 Bed apartment (approx 750 sq.ft) is AED100k for a low level floor without Burj views. Expect prices to go up as the floors go higher and the views get better. Take out life insurance if you plan on using the gym, it's a health hazard. The equipment looks as though it was used in the making of Rocky 1.

I like Business Bay in general due to its accessibility to major routes in Dubai (with your own transport) plus the area itself is not too densely populated compared to places like Marina and JLT. BUT.. the building itself feels like one just walked into their nightmare. Maintenance is poor, if not very little is done. Noise is constant. You can forget about sleeping in on weekends (at times Fridays) since the building next door starts their construction work early in the morning. For people with their own transport, they won't face much of a hassle - public transport is non existent, cabbies are hard to come by unless you book them personally. With that mentioned, its not a good value for money, when the starting rent in the area for one bed is 75k up. In the last 6 months, we had a couple of panic attacks in form of a small fire in the thrash chute. Just recently, on a Christmas evening, there was a gas leak in the building. Both times, residents were left to guess what's happening as none of the staff knew or was trained to actually handle the situation until the proper authorities arrived. When the situation was calmer, and the residents were allowed in, a few of them (majority of the upper floors) fund themselves with flooded flats. To which the ''building management'' representative replied they should take pictures and complain to a third party they hired to maintain the building and that the ''building management'' is not responsible - I think this should have been handled better as they seem so eager to increase the rents yearly. I rest my case.

Executive Towers located in Business Bay is where I live and it is very convenient in so many ways. When it comes to public transportation or be it Metro it is all easily accessible. A very good combination of both family oriented and at the same time suitable for bachelors too. I have however come across a few quality differences among different towers with Executive Towers, which I am not sure as to why. However, the standards and quality are pretty much high and comparable to other high end properties in Dubai. Security is very good and 24/7 that is really important. Visitors and in house members parking is sufficient expect on New Years Eve for obvious reasons. Bay Avenue very often holds events such as car shows and motorbike shows etc… for guests to enjoy which I believe is very unique and different compared to other properties in Dubai.

I just recently moved into this building, it has great amenities and is close to everything (you can walk, about 10 minutes to get to Dubai Mall, but the sidewalks are not finished yet so its all sand and when the wind picks up.. you get the idea). The building is beautiful and the apartment itself is great but there are definitely some design/function flaws that I found right away. Its a new building so you would expect it would have available spaces for things like a dishwasher and some sort of laundry area.. well it doesn't. They put the area for the laundry under the sink in the kitchen, we ended up putting the dishwasher there anyways and squeezing the washing machine into one of the bathrooms behind the door.. very inconvenient, but still works. The finishings are kinda sloppy, the bathrooms especially I notice it. Seems just thrown together too fast although if you don't pay attention to the little details like I do (my father does construction and I think thats why I notice these, maybe not everyone would) then its ok. Other then that the only other problem is the electrical sockets.. there are so very few! Trying to vacuum the hallway is quite difficult because our cord doesn't reach. Obviously with any place there are going to be some issues but these are pretty minor things. I love the building, the area, and the people that live and work here. Everyone has been very helpful and courteous. So all in all I would recommend it to anyone.

Dubai Properties continuously upgrading its services to the residents of ETBB. Great convenience to have large free parking, restaurants, grocery stores, and other available services in the community. There is a big garden where residents can safely let their children play. There are nice amenities in the community that you cannot easily find in other towers and apartments/communities in Dubai such as jogging track, playground, large swimming pools, complete gym facilities, skate boarding area, outdoor gym, etc. There are some things which we complained, and yet to complain like maintenance, etc. but we believe all buildings/ apartment/ real estate management have those common short comings. We have a million dollar view of Burj Khalifa and its Dubai Mall's dancing fountain, which makes the apartment more special. Its location is like you are in the heart of Dubai. During winter time, it is easy to walk from ETBB to Dubai Mall and to the Business Bay Metro (train) Station. We are living a life in ETBB!

There are small issues with sewage pipes in some parts of the buildings. Sometimes even on the walk.