Peter and Gill Bennett, originally from the UK, bought their villa in 2003 and are among Palm Jumeirah's longest residents.
Property owned
Three-storey Garden Home on a frond of Palm Jumeirah.
Price
Bought off-plan in 2003, with the optional third storey included in the design for Dh3.2m. At the time, the basic two-storey design cost Dh2.6m, or Dh2.8m with an optional fifth bedroom.
Key features
Originally a Grand Foyer design, the villa has a built-up area of slightly more than 6,000 square feet on a standard plot size of 13,000 square feet. The villa fronts on to a private road shared with the other frond villas, while at the rear is a small garden with a pool, and steps leading directly down to the beach.
The hunt
We had been in Dubai for a number of years, living in rented accommodation but I was really impressed by the idea of Palm Jumeirah. We went along to the so-called sales office when it was really just a fairly rustic bungalow in one of the Hundred Villas where Dubai Marina is now. They had designs on the walls that bore very little relation to what became the finished product and a rather fabulous model of the whole thing, and that was about it. But I put my name on the mailing list and popped in every so often just to keep track of things. I reckoned it was going to be a really interesting place to live.
And then things really started to move quickly - first there was an e-mail sent round at the end of the Arabian Travel Market announcing a 99-year leasehold for non-GCC owners. Then Asteco was appointed sales agent, and on the Wednesday night prices were announced. Just the next morning, on the Thursday, freehold was also announced, so I went straight round to the office to book my villa. There were only a couple of people there at the time, but of course by the end of the weekend, it was mobbed.
(Bennett believes that his home is the very first villa on Palm Jumeirah to have been secured for purchase by the payment of a deposit. Other properties had been allocated to various future owners prior to the launch of public sales, but his was the first deposit accepted by the selling agent Asteco.)
The result
We bought the three-storey version of one of the original Signature villa designs, but we've done rather a lot of work to it since. One of the things you probably wouldn't notice is the entrance foyer. This used to be the full height of the first floor and created a great big void, but we put a new floor in and created a new space, which is now my office. Downstairs was a series of fairly small rooms, so I took out most of the internal walls and built the full-sized chiller cabinet. The kitchen is in the middle of the house, but my wife, Gill, wanted to be able to look out to the ocean instead of the back of the house next door. Chris of Mark Wilkinson kitchens was a great help, and though we wanted some very specific things he managed to fit it all in and make it work, and now you really can stand there and gaze out to sea.
We really wanted something light and airy and open, to really take advantage of our location beside the sea - not quite New England beach house, but a cool, modern, contemporary look and feel. I think we've done that. Now we have a kitchen that looks over the dining and living areas and the terrace outside, so you're always able to see and talk to people instead of being shut away.
We've remodelled the rest of the house, too, mainly making better use of the space and organising it in the way we wanted it to be. I've closed off access to one of the bedrooms to make a new gym and installed a steam room. We replaced all the windows with slimmer and more elegant frames (the old ones were heavy, dark and industrial), and we enlarged the kitchen windows. Outside, I laid decking to create a proper dining space, using a special kind of board from the UK that is a combination of recycled plastic and reclaimed timber. Inside, we moved some of the bathrooms around, retiled them and put in new units that are a bit more stylish than the originals.
One of my pet peeves is exposed cabling - I mean, what's the point of mounting a nice, big flat-panel TV on the wall if you're going to have wires dangling from it? So all the cabling is hidden, the wires chased into the walls and the speakers motorised and concealed in the ceiling so they only come down when you're watching something. I think in total there's something like five and a half kilometres of Cat 5 cable in the whole house for the wiring and AV systems.
We're not finished yet - I'm still working on turning the third storey into a sort of loft space for relaxing, and may put another barbecue up there on the terrace as well.
Love
The peace and quiet. After the hustle and bustle of Sheikh Zayed Road, it's really nice to get back here and escape all the noise and traffic. It really is a great place to be.
Loathe
The helicopters. Because Palm Jumeirah is what it is, we get sightseeing tours flying low over the houses, and because we face out over open water, the sound can reverberate. Between Christmas and New Year we were getting three or four flights buzzing the house every hour.
Verdict
It's everything we hoped it would be and more. We bought the house because Palm Jumeirah was iconic and we wanted to live there, and now that we do, it doesn't disappoint. We enjoy it every single day.
Peter Bennett was speaking to Jonathan Castle
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg
Real Madrid (2) v Bayern Munich (1)
Where: Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
When: 10.45pm, Tuesday
Watch Live: beIN Sports HD
Name: Colm McLoughlin
Country: Galway, Ireland
Job: Executive vice chairman and chief executive of Dubai Duty Free
Favourite golf course: Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club
Favourite part of Dubai: Palm Jumeirah
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Sebastian Stefan, Sebastian Morar and Claudia Pacurar
Based: Dubai, UAE
Founded: 2014
Number of employees: 36
Sector: Logistics
Raised: $2.5 million
Investors: DP World, Prime Venture Partners and family offices in Saudi Arabia and the UAE
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
MATCH INFO
Osasuna 1 Real Madrid 4
Osasuna: García (14')
Real Madrid: Isco (33'), Ramos (38'), Vázquez (84'), Jovic (90' 2)
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
Mia Man’s tips for fermentation
- Start with a simple recipe such as yogurt or sauerkraut
- Keep your hands and kitchen tools clean. Sanitize knives, cutting boards, tongs and storage jars with boiling water before you start.
- Mold is bad: the colour pink is a sign of mold. If yogurt turns pink as it ferments, you need to discard it and start again. For kraut, if you remove the top leaves and see any sign of mold, you should discard the batch.
- Always use clean, closed, airtight lids and containers such as mason jars when fermenting yogurt and kraut. Keep the lid closed to prevent insects and contaminants from getting in.
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Guide to intelligent investing
Investing success often hinges on discipline and perspective. As markets fluctuate, remember these guiding principles:
- Stay invested: Time in the market, not timing the market, is critical to long-term gains.
- Rational thinking: Breathe and avoid emotional decision-making; let logic and planning guide your actions.
- Strategic patience: Understand why you’re investing and allow time for your strategies to unfold.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
