Nestling in the north-west corner of Dubailand, Dubai Sports City, costing US$2.5 dollars and occupying 50 million ft/sq, is the first ever purpose built sports city in the world. Exclusive accommodation will offer superb investment opportunities on property being offered for sale in one of the most active and healthy environments one could possibly imagine, and where property values are not overheated… yet. A city within a city, it has been designed with careful precision to reflect the passion and never ending spirit of all manner of sports. Looking in detail at the specifications of the project, it looks as though Dubai may have had the 2020 Olympic Games in their sights when the proposals were put forward by real estate developers “Emaar Properties”. Indeed, they originally proposed a 25,000 seat sports arena but the powers that be saw it as not being enough and upgraded the plans to a 60,000 seat multi-purpose outdoor stadium and, for good measure, added a 25,000 seat cricket arena, a 10,000 capacity multi-purpose indoor arena and a field hockey venue accommodating 5,000 spectators.

On top of all this is included a world class 18-hole championship golf course called the Dunes, the first design of Ernie Els´ in the Middle East, which is destined to be the centrepiece of the luxury golf residential community of Victory Heights, an Olympic sized swimming pool, the purpose built Manchester United Soccer School, a David Lloyd Tennis Academy and the first Butch Harmon School of Golf outside of the United States. Such are the unrivalled sports facilities on offer that it has led to the International Cricket Council (ICC) to move their headquarters from London and make a new home here, where it is more centrally located to the real cricket loving countries of Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and India. Access to a modern cricket stadium, government subsidies and tax-free incentives obviously had more than a little to do with their decision, but they now find themselves in one of the most up and coming central hubs ever conceived around nothing but sport.

It is hard to imagine that all of this is sitting on a piece of reclaimed desert that used to be a part of a camel farm and will soon be home to some 70,000 residents. And it’s not just about the arenas and sports facilities on offer that will almost certainly encourage those 70,000 people to follow in the footsteps of the ICC. As with all of the 200 plus projects currently under construction in Dubai, Dubai Sports City has been meticulously designed to offer a lifestyle that brings together a passion for sport and a modern, stylised, technologically innovative way of living – high-end retail facilities, health and fitness clubs, medical centres, beautiful views and scenery, sports themed shopping centres, classic restaurants offering cuisine from around the world and the usual first-class condominiums, apartments and villas that are becoming synonymous with a country well focussed in it’s plans to become a world stage for all things grand and glorious.

Already attracting major world class sporting events such as The Dubai Tennis Championship, Dubai Desert Classic and the Dubai leg of the A1 Motor Racing Grand Prix, there is no question that, by choosing to set up a home in Dubai Sports City, you’ll have every sporting desire catered for in a clean, modern environment that is fast becoming recognised as the playground for the healthy hedonistic.