# Difference between villa and apartment



## Thetys (Jun 9, 2014)

Hello,

I will be probably moving to Dubaï in 3 months, and I am currently looking at the housing market there. Looking at Dubizzle website, I don't understand what is the difference between a villa, an apartment and a townhouse.

Second question: I am surprised by the size of the apartments: a 2 bedrooms with 1800 sqrfeet and 4 bathrooms? What a bedroom exactely refers to? Why 4 bathrooms if only 2 bedrooms? I guess there are other rooms that make the size of the properties?

Thanks for your help!


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## TallyHo (Aug 21, 2011)

Villa: standalone property.

Townhouse: attached in a row.

Apartments: flats.

You also have compounds, which are attached but differ from townhouses in that you share common outdoor space with the other properties in the compound. 

Most people here call the attached townhouses 'villas' as well. 

Pay no attention to the quoted square footage. Apartments can be large but the official square footage is always grossly inflated because it will include balcony areas, common hallway areas and whatever else the property developer factored into his creative accounting. As a rule of thumb I automatically deduct 25% from the quoted square footage to get the actual livable square footage, so if you see an advert for 1,800 square feet, it's probably closer to 1,400 square feet. 

Why four bathrooms in a two bedroom apartment? It's probably two half baths + 2 full baths. There may also be a separate maid's room with her own bathroom. Maid's rooms are always described separately and never included with the rest of the bedrooms. 

Edit: you aren't by any chance looking at an apartment in Shoreline on the Palm Jumeirah? Some of the 2-beds can be quite large, and they also have a tiny windowless maid's room with her own bathroom, so you have two large bedrooms, a tiny maid's room barely big enough to store a bicycle, two good size bathrooms, a tiny bathroom for the maid's room, plus a guest bath (half bath). I remember viewing a few of those apartments and thinking there was no way you could fit a decent single bed into the maid's room, yet the builders still managed to tuck a tiny bathroom in the corner. 



Thetys said:


> Hello,
> 
> I will be probably moving to Dubaï in 3 months, and I am currently looking at the housing market there. Looking at Dubizzle website, I don't understand what is the difference between a villa, an apartment and a townhouse.
> 
> ...


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## twowheelsgood (Feb 21, 2013)

TallyHo said:


> Edit: you aren't by any chance looking at an apartment in Shoreline on the Palm Jumeirah? Some of the 2-beds can be quite large, and they also have a tiny windowless maid's room with her own bathroom, so you have two large bedrooms, a tiny maid's room barely big enough to store a bicycle, two good size bathrooms, a tiny bathroom for the maid's room, plus a guest bath (half bath). I remember viewing a few of those apartments and thinking there was no way you could fit a decent single bed into the maid's room, yet the builders still managed to tuck a tiny bathroom in the corner.


A D type on the Shoreline is as described except;

You really can get a large amount of stuff in the maids room including a fridge freezer, a bike box, a bike, three aires, a shelving unit and no end of suitcases, and still have room in there to do the ironing. The bathroom can be packed full of junk as well  the main bedroom is spacious, has a walk in shower but ****** all storage space. Bed 2 is larger, has more enclosed cupboards but no walk in shower. 

A single bed certainly does fit in the room if you take the rest out. It leaves enough room for a small drawer unit and makes a good space to hide an irritating yoof who visits with his parents. Having your own room full of boxes is a small price to pay.

There is also another 'box' room about 1m square, which, if you buy a shelving unit from Ace, makes a combined box store, alcohol store and bicycle bits store.

PS you have SFA chance of getting a D as we tried for two months to move from one D to another. We settled on a C in the Residences instead.

( I sound like an estate agent - ugggggh)


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## Thetys (Jun 9, 2014)

Thanks for your replies, very helpful!

Actually, my employer offers to provide me with a 2 bedrooms villa in The Palm or close to the palm. That is why I am looking to figure out what it covers, and if it really means only 2 bedrooms, or if there are other rooms that can be used to accomodate friends visiting us.


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## QOFE (Apr 28, 2013)

There aren't any 2 bed villas on the Palm. Unless the new very squeezed Palma residences ( check Wikimapia- it's the p*nis sticking out) have some. 
They are still under construction though.


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## Malbec (Jan 2, 2014)

Some 2 beds are actually 2+1 (maids room). So two bedrooms ensuite + guest bathroom + maids bathroom.

I don't know what is your budget, but there are not any nice villas on the Palm below AED 400,000 per year. I would suggest checking Dream Residences, they have a massive 2beds + maids room, sea views and the apartments are brand new.


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## vantage (May 10, 2012)

the main difference is that, in a villa, you do not fall to your death when you go sleepwalking.


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## QOFE (Apr 28, 2013)

vantage said:


> the main difference is that, in a villa, you do not fall to your death when you go sleepwalking.


I would say the main difference is that in a villa you don't have any noisy neighbours upstairs. If you really want to be sure to not fall to your death when sleepwalking - live in a bungalow...


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## xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxStewartC (Mar 3, 2012)

Life can be hellish in the apartment blocks with people scraping furniture and partying at all hours. There are a lot of short-stay guests on The Palm who are there just to party till dawn. No fun to live with that. Marina Residences is very badly run.


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