Palm Jumeirah

Palm Jumeirah is the one Dubai address that needs no explanation anywhere in the world, and that recognition is a large part of what you are buying.

The practical division is simple. The fronds are villas — private, quiet, and the only part of the island where you get a garden. The trunk is apartment towers, walkable to the Monorail and the malls. The crescent is mostly hotels and hotel-branded residences, facing back at the skyline.

What separates a good purchase here from an expensive one is almost never the view in the photographs. It is the building: when it was handed over, who manages it, what the service charge has done over the last three years, and whether the beach access described in the listing is a private stretch or a shared gate you queue at in December.