Elvira, Dubai Hills Estate
Emaar Properties developed Elvira in Dubai Hills Estate. The homes range from one-bedroom apartments to three-bedroom ones, and the building adds duplexes and townhouses on top. That spread decides who it suits. A couple fits a one-bedroom, two friends travelling together take a two-bedroom, and a family that wants a second level or a front door of its own looks at the duplexes and townhouses. The estate around the building is freehold and gated. It covers about 2,700 acres that hold apartments and townhouses as well as villas.
Developer
Emaar Properties
Area
Dubai Hills Estate
Unit Mix
1, 2 and 3-bedroom apartments, duplexes and townhouses
On this page
- Gym in the morning, barbecue at night
- A weekend, a month, a family summer
- Neighbours with their own guides
- Landing at DXB and the road home
- When Dubai Hills is not the right fit
- The mall and the first shop
- Splash parks and long tracks
- The golf club and the day out
- Doctors and a school
- If you own here
- Sources
- Frequently Asked Questions
Gym in the morning, barbecue at night
A day inside Elvira can run from the gym to the pool without leaving the building. The gym covers the early hour before the heat builds, and the swimming pool takes over once the sun is up. Landscaped gardens come with both, which gives the building a green edge that a plain tower block does not have, and if you like to swim before breakfast and read outside after it, this is the part of Elvira you will use most.
Afternoons suit children, because the building has its own play area and a young family can fill an hour there between lunch and the evening meal. In the evening the barbecue area is where you cook outdoors, and the cafes or restaurants on site cover the nights when you would rather not light a grill at all.
A residents' lounge or function room gives a remote worker a change of scene from the bedroom desk, and it hosts a small gathering when the stay is a family one. Add a gym session at lunchtime and the working day gets a shape.
Three practical things sit behind the front door. Parking comes with the homes. Security and CCTV cover the building, and maintenance services are on hand if something breaks in week two of a longer stay. That last item matters more than it sounds: a flat with a service behind it is easier to live in for a month than one without.
A weekend, a month, a family summer
Length of stay changes which home you want. For a weekend, a one-bedroom is plenty, and you will spend most of it in the pool or the gym. A month is easier in the two- or three-bedroom apartments, where you can work in one room and sleep in another. The duplexes and townhouses fit the longer family stay, because the estate attracts families with children and keeps a calmer pace than the nightlife districts. Covered parking is part of most homes across the estate, which is worth knowing if you hire a car.
Neighbours with their own guides
If the mix here is not quite right, the estate has other addresses to compare. Park Heights has one- to three-bedroom apartments, which is the closest match on size. Maple has townhouses with three to four bedrooms, so it suits a larger group that wants a house rather than a flat. Our guide to Dubai Hills Estate for owners covers the district side.
Landing at DXB and the road home
Dubai International Airport (DXB) is the airport you land at, and a taxi takes you to Dubai Hills in one leg. The estate sits where Al Khail Road meets Umm Suqeim Road, inside Mohammed Bin Rashid City. Al Khail Road and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road carry the traffic out to the rest of the city.
Traffic inside and around the estate is generally light. One road gets busy at rush hour. School-run hours are the heaviest period, so a morning transfer to a meeting across town is better planned around them.
There is no metro station inside the estate. The nearest Red Line stops are Equiti and Mall of the Emirates, and Equiti sits on Sheikh Zayed Road. The circular DH1 bus links the estate with Equiti station at one-hour intervals, so the metro is a connection, not a doorstep.
When Dubai Hills is not the right fit
It suits you less if you want a Red Line station you can walk to, or a loud night out. The estate sits between Dubai Marina and Downtown, but has no metro station, unlike both of those areas. DIFC is the usual pick for a louder, nightlife-focused stay. Higher prices and construction in some parts of the estate are the other things to weigh. Inside Elvira the pull runs the other way: the pool, the gym and the gardens do the work that a busy district would otherwise do, which suits a slow stay and a quiet evening far better than a packed itinerary.
The mall and the first shop
Geant Hypermarket is on the ground floor of Dubai Hills Mall. That makes it the weekly shop. The mall also has pharmacies and more than 650 retail outlets, from fashion to electronics, so a forgotten adaptor is a short errand.
In the hot months the mall's indoor rollercoaster gives families something to do indoors. So do the Roxy cinema and the children's Adventure Park. Plan the pool for the early morning and the mall for the afternoon.
Dinner in the area has range: Little Bangkok serves Thai food and Eataly brings Italian, while Maiz Tacos does Mexican street food. Shvili in the mall is the pick for Georgian food and its khachapuri. For a slow coffee, Angel's Cakes has a large terrace overlooking Dubai Hills Park.
Splash parks and long tracks
Dubai Hills Park covers 180,000 sqm. It has a skate park and outdoor gyms, and splash parks and pet-friendly zones fill the rest. Paddle and tennis courts share the park with football pitches. Jogging and cycling tracks across the estate add up to 54 km, so a morning run needs no car.
Older children get a full afternoon here. Dubai Hills Park has a Wave Pool and a Giant Bubble, plus a play area called Dragon Play Park. It suits the days when the building's own play area has had its turn.
The golf club and the day out
Dubai Hills Golf Club is an 18-hole championship course of 1.2 million sqm, with a driving range and a golf academy. It was named World's Best New Golf Course at the 2019 World Golf Awards, and you do not need to play to enjoy the open views the fairways give the estate.
Beyond the building, F45 and UN1T run high-intensity classes. In the Pink teaches barre and stretching.
Doctors and a school
King's College Hospital Dubai runs family medicine and dermatology, plus evening clinics, and its Dubai Hills hospital stands on Al Khail Road. Mediclinic Park View on Umm Suqeim Road has 24-hour emergency care.
Families with school-age children can look at GEMS Wellington Academy, which has a swimming pool, a performing arts centre and a medical centre on site.
If you own here
Every unit let as a holiday home in Dubai needs its own DET Holiday Home Permit before it is listed. A no-objection certificate from the developer or from whoever owns or manages the building is often needed first. Royale Stays manages homes for owners from a management fee of 15%, covering furnishing, photography, pricing, check-in, guest communication and maintenance. Our Airbnb management guide for Dubai Hills Estate sets the district out from the ownership side. Fairways and Palace Residences Hillside have their own guides.
Sources
Sources: Emaar, Bayut, Bayut area guide, Sandy Times, Property Finder, RTA, Wikipedia, King's College Hospital Dubai, GEMS Education, Hostaway.
Questions