My Own Home takes you inside a reader-owned property to ask how much they paid, why they decided to buy and what they have done with it since moving in
Lyn and Alejandro Helbling have lived together in nine countries across four continents but they chose to put down roots in Dubai.
Filipino travel and food content creator Lyn, a former restaurateur who trained as a chef in Paris, now lives in Jumeirah Park with her Argentinian husband, who pivoted from hospitality to health care, and daughter, Cami, 16.
After viewing dozens of houses, they purchased their three-bedroom villa nearly two years ago for Dh4.9 million. Following extensive renovations, they’ve now been told it’s worth as much as Dh8.7 million.
While they don’t plan to sell just yet, downsizing is on the cards when Cami follows in her brother Jerome’s footsteps and heads to university. In the meantime, however, the trio are very happy exactly where they are.
The National takes a look around their happy home.
Why did you decide to buy your home?
Lyn: We’d been serial renters and serial expats, so we just said to ourselves, we think it’s time to buy. We like it here in Dubai and the kids love it here.
When we arrived back here in 2017 – we also lived here for a couple of years in 2002 – we were going to rent. We first lived in Jumeirah Golf Estates and we stayed there for two years, but then it was too far to the school our kids were at and there was too much traffic.
We then moved to Emirates Golf Club, another rental, and we would have stayed there – we probably wouldn’t have bought, actually – but then in 2022 they evicted us. They gave us the one-year notice, but they basically took everybody out from one side because they were going to renovate.
The rents were very high at that time, so it didn’t make sense to rent. We figured we might as well buy, thinking it was a sign.
Why did you choose this neighbourhood?
Lyn: I think I looked at about 40 houses. We looked at Dubai Hills, the houses were very nice but they were much smaller and far from the school. We then looked at apartments in Vida, near Emirates Hills.
We tried The Meadows and The Lakes, but the prices were way too high, and then The Lakes were smaller than what we were looking for. It was actually my son who said, how about Jumeirah Park? I never thought about it. It was just not on my radar.
We started to look and we saw maybe five or six and we walked into this one, and we were like, “This is it. We're going to buy this one.” It took about two months and we finally bought in July 2023.
How much did you buy it for?
Lyn: We bought it for Dh4.9 million. We were told by the estate agent that if we sell now for the same one, a three-bedroom with a similar size garden, it would be about Dh8.7 million.
We were toying with the idea because our daughter's going to finish school in two years. Maybe next year we should start looking, because we're probably going to downsize when she goes, as there's really no point being in a big house with the maintenance and upkeep.
Alejandro: It didn’t just appreciate like that out of nowhere though, because we also did a whole renovation.
What renovations have you done?
Lyn: When we walked in, the house was exactly as it was when Jumeirah Park was launched 10, maybe 12 years ago. So, we changed all of the tiles, we changed the flooring. We blocked some windows, broke a wall to make a bigger window, redid the garden, changed all the bathrooms.
We broke walls in the kitchen as well, then put in a brand-new kitchen in the TV room. Then we transformed the upstairs landing into a TV room.
There was a little kitchenette up on the second floor, which we also took away to make the master bathroom and dressing area bigger.
We didn’t gut it for a renovation, to take everything down, but we did take down walls and change practically everything.
How was the renovation process?
Alejandro: There were fights and budget issues, but I have to say overall we did it pretty quickly. You can look back at a lot of different things in life and I have to say that overall it went very well.
What facilities do you have?
Lyn: Jumeirah Park is not a gated neighbourhood, but they do have community parks. We have a park with a tennis court and a football pitch, a playground, padel courts. There's a running track.
The funny thing, though, is that they didn't put in any pools. I suppose they thought everyone's going to have a pool, but they didn't put a community pool. There is a gym but I think you have to be a member.
How would you describe your interior design style?
Lyn: I wouldn’t say we have one theme. There are modern elements but it’s eclectic. A lot of the things we have are from our travels. We have art from when we were in Bali that we’ve taken with us everywhere we have been. And every place we move we try to buy something, whether it’s a piece of furniture or art or something.
With so many renovations going on now, I see a lot of these very white, nice interiors and it looks amazing, but I just don’t see how it could be workable for us, as we cook a lot, we eat a lot at home, we have a dog.
Alejandro: We have something like 300 books. There are books all over the place, which makes it very homely. And we have transported these books since we got married. So, that makes it very much who we are. It makes a difference.
We also always try to have flowers and buy them from the florists a lot of the time because, again, we feel that’s what our house is all about.
How long do you plan to stay in this property?
Alejandro: We’ve been here for a year now [a tenant was here until February 2024 and we renovated for three months and moved in June]. So, we’ll see, because Cami, our daughter, has two more years to go with school. Should we move in a year? Should we move in two years? We’ll have to see.
But we love our place for the moment. We're very happy.
Lyn: If we move after our daughter goes to university, just the two of us, I think we would probably either move to a townhouse or move a bit closer to the city. Maybe near Dubai Canal, going towards Jumeirah Beach. Because now we’re a bit far out and there is lots of traffic if we want to go out for dinner.
