The Lime Tree Valley Diaries: A Show Of Villas

The marketing process associated with a prime collection of fine villas, nestling beside the links of a magnificent golf course, requires a distinct dash of ingenuity, especially at the conceptual stage with no show home in sight. In a market awash with off-plan sales there is a finite advantage to be gained from the presentation of a show property. The primary function of a show villa (or apartment) is to guide the expectations of potential purchasers but, on another level, it help’s the developer to understand his own product. The decision to provide a show villa is not a difficult one; however this month’s Lime Tree Diaries endeavours to unravel the thought processes that preoccupy the mind of the developer. 

In due deference to those that possess an overriding desire to reside around the fairways, but have yet to swing a club; the word links comes from the Scots language and refers to an area of coastal sand dunes, and sometimes to open parkland. Fitting perhaps when the enclave, in this case, Lime Tree Valley at Jumeirah Golf Estates, has risen resplendent from a large portion of dune clad desert sand.

The Celtic semantics are also in keeping with the Irish heritage of CHI, the developers behind the project. CHI has recently completed their second show villa at LTV but with a function and objective somewhat different to the first. However, before I get too far ahead of myself at this stage of the proceedings, it seems prudent to secure the Development Director at CHI view of the purpose of said show creation in the first place.

“A show home basically aims to display the spatial and build qualities of the home, as well as the potential ‘living atmosphere’, to a potential buyer who harbour’s a yet to be confirmed wish to live in that environment. The moment that potential client walks through the door, you want him, or her, to fall in love with the property.”

So articulate considering this is an onsite afternoon beneath a burning June sun as | juggle a petrol station sandwich and a notepad and writing implement, whilst striding between Zara, Selva, The One and other interior furnishing exhibits.

“The second function is the importance to the developer of taking a structure from a concept design through the design and builds process. No amount of sketches, models, CGl’s or such-like can prepare anyone for the reality of the built environment. The show villa is therefore regarded as a prototype for the overall development — it’s the one last chance the developer has to iron out the major wrinkles that deftly avoided the crystal ball.”

He continued unabated: “Ultimately, the challenge with show villas is the timescale. Logically you purchase a piece of land, finalise the design and assign a contractor to produce a permanent property. However, you cannot accomplish these years in advance of the total development programme. Yet the sub-challenges are even more diverse, for you may be part way through the build and still examining the reiterative questions that surround sanitary ware, fittings, kitchen tiles etc. Meanwhile, you have already sold villas in an earlier period of your marketing campaign and continuing to meet your client obligations. For CHI it has always been hugely important to make sure that what we sold to the customer
ended up as the finished goods or as close as is possible.

We are, | would hope to say, a good example of a fastidious developer, who does not want to be accused of sacrificial changes in the interests of commercial gain i.e. degrading and devaluing materials and fittings en route.”

Looking at a show villa from the perspective of a test bed there is an evolution that can only be achieved by practical application. Philip Lloyd (one of the partners of CHI) stepped into replace a rapidly overheating Roger with an explanation on one example of the minutiae that cannot always be prepared for: “We started revealing the finished material effects via a mock-up room constructed in our offices where, for example, we had bronze sanitary ware and bathroom taps, which were then fitted in the first show villa. One factor we never envisaged was that you cannot actually source the smaller functional bathroom fittings to match the bronze theme of the more visible elements i.e. plughole surrounds, drain covers and shower door hinges, we discovered, were only available in ubiquitous chrome finishes. Not a sliver of bronze to be had in the house. This revelation forced us to go back and fit chrome throughout in the bulk of the villas, which although they cost the same from the same supplier, any change of this nature can offend the buyer. Nevertheless, without the show villa progress we would never have found out until much later.”

“Another example was that of the interconnecting archways between room spaces; our original images portrayed a gypsum plaster finish. However, in the show home we elected to adopt a GRC plus stone-paint approach which when finished, we took an ambivalent attitude towards. As a result we have now reverted to the plaster look in the main which we have now constructed in the other villas. There is a definite danger that we could be accused of penny pinching due to this change; however it is definitely not the case. There is no doubt that the provision of show homes opens up a Pandora’s Box of technicalities, in that the developers need to test everything but without disgruntling the consumers.”

So now we have this show villa that is structurally complete but exhibits little in the way of being dressed up with places to go. The looking livable factor remains firmly on the critical path. | press another of the partners, Marcus O’Grady on this aspect.

“The art of the show villa should be to ensure that the ‘theatre’ of the place should not camouflage the actual experience of seeing the rooms. They have to look like a home but rise to meet the viewer’s aspirations. Without resorting to propaganda, it is possible to fashion a show villa that does not resemble the delivered product. This was an adopted policy from the beginning; in order not to be accused of playing games. Another important factor is to be able to show both a fully dressed show villa and an empty version. This allows a buyer the opportunity to actually see the finished spaces and be re-assured that the finishes etc are the same in the un-furnished villa.”


He stepped back into the great debate: “However, there is of course an immense cultural and ethnic mix resident in Dubai and therefore a commensurate diversity in terms of what appeals as an interior style. In our first show villa we adopted the least radical route with classical Italian furniture; we have of course tried to truly accentuate the classic Mediterranean feel of the interior spaces. In our second edition of the show villa we wanted to instill a change of emotion without inducing a shock to the system, however, it is much more contemporary.”

Version two is modernistic but not to the bleeding edge, in my never so humble opinion, and there is an inordinately broad palette of taste to satisfy most people out there in Metro-Dubai, thus some insight as to the impact of contrasting styles is vital. Italian wall paper with a highly textured impression makes a feature of the staircase, the placing of more minimalistic accessories adds to the overall sense of space, pleasant perfumes pervading the overall setting add to the lighter feel. Do not get the impression that | thumb my nose at the classical interior, but it does impose greater adult formality and needs a light touch to dissipate any sense of congestive clutter. The children’s area is the offset in terms of the whole.

Leaping from my journalistic opinion box and back to the words of Le Patron:

“The use of pale and darker terracotta tiling was also an area of exploration and, in fact, we have deployed a different option between Lime Tree Valley East and Lime Tree Valley West. The reality of that choice only became apparent after both installation and then after furnishing the villas. There was a moment when we were concerned that clients might not like the tiling but in fact the show homes have revealed that our instinct was correct. Additionally not all villas have the same depth architecturally and we needed to accentuate perspective by the way in which we apply the wood / gypsum frames in arches, but once again that only becomes apparent once you have seen them built and the show home once again is the litmus paper. We are planning a third show villa in fact where the greater use of wood in a more rustic provincial Tuscan farmhouse setting should prove to be a major feature.”

“There is a plan to refresh Show Villa number one, softening the classical overtones perhaps to add other dimensions and possibilities in the eye of the beholder. There is a huge repertoire of villas across the length and breadth of the estate and therefore the variations in layout, sizes and angles and space allocation lend themselves to an equally wide variety of interior styles. In many respects a pageant of show villas can also stimulate longer term interior design decisions for owner occupiers.”

| emerge from this stratospheric council of show homes and re-enter society a more enlightened individual. The moral of the story, there are far more dimensions to the making of a show of villas than meet the naked eye.

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