Well have been "in country" for about three weeks and here are my basic impressions thus far.
A. Craig at Mirage is fantastic. Very easy to work with, and great personal follow up, the agent I worked with is very personable and Mirage has "gasp", a REAL website!! However the best personal AGENT has easily been Joseph at Direct. My first choice as I like aggressive deal closers, powerful, professional. If you know exactly where you want to live he WILL get it done. Pure and simple. The rest not so much although I am sure there are exceptions.
B. Commute to NDIA is VERY different depending on where you live. I've been commuting back and forth along the Corniche and average 15-20 minutes. Almost takes longer to get to the front gate at the project site than it does to make City Centre. Fastest journey to the Pearl from Airport has been 23 minutes. Average is about 30 minutes give or take.
C. Budget thankfully is not an issue, so with that in mind, we felt like the 3 most desirable areas were West Bay (City Centre), The Pearl/West Bay Lagoon (Upper West Bay) and Al Wabb City/ Aspire Zone area. All of these are very new and feel like it. If you consider the bulk/quality of your daily lifestyle is dictated by the 2-3 miles around you, location IS important. More on that in the last sentence.
We are now negotiating on a unit at The Pearl and heres why. Going anywhere off the Corniche is a 15 minute or a 45-60 minute drive! ALL Depends on the intersection. If there is no traffic Doha anywhere is 15 minutes. If theres any traffic however anywhere but the Corniche is pure hell. The Corniche always moves, but Commute hours through the Al Wabb and Salwa intersections are a snails paced parking lot with traffic lights on 5-7 minute rotations per side!! D Ring is bad, C Ring is worse and Al Gharafa Interchange drops you into a dirt road alley behind a mosque. From West Bay, I tried going to Airport a bit west, farther west, all the way west and backtracking and never came in under an hour. Went out to Aspire Zone from airport to a coworkers house on several occasions, no less than 45 minutes and generally longer. Passed on Al Wabb (although we do find ourselves at Villagio Mall on the weekends more often than not) based on this alone.
Mirage does have an incredible Villa in Aspire Zone (where my coworker lives at an incredible price for the size) just know that despite the relatively close distance the pace to get there is substantially longer.
The Pearl however easily has the nicest finishes of everything we looked at including several city center towers and west bay lagoon villas and although is still over valued, when you consider the drive up the Corniche is the fastest back and forth to date, the view is fantastic the whole way and to end up at a modern apartment at the Pearl is actually quite metropolitan.. Coffee on the Piazza is at the bottom of the elevator. Cheap? no, nothing here is except the finishes and the quality of the furniture but I can honestly say, I dont feel like I'm stuck in the desert! In fact, very much the contrary and THAT, may be worth the price tag after all. ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As a matter of biology; if it bites you it's probably female.
Hi All,
Well have been "in country" for about three weeks and here are my basic impressions thus far.
A. Craig at Mirage is fantastic. Very easy to work with, and great personal follow up, the agent I worked with is very personable and Mirage has "gasp", a REAL website!! However the best personal AGENT has easily been Joseph at Direct. My first choice as I like aggressive deal closers, powerful, professional. If you know exactly where you want to live he WILL get it done. Pure and simple. The rest not so much although I am sure there are exceptions.
B. Commute to NDIA is VERY different depending on where you live. I've been commuting back and forth along the Corniche and average 15-20 minutes. Almost takes longer to get to the front gate at the project site than it does to make City Centre. Fastest journey to the Pearl from Airport has been 23 minutes. Average is about 30 minutes give or take.
C. Budget thankfully is not an issue, so with that in mind, we felt like the 3 most desirable areas were West Bay (City Centre), The Pearl/West Bay Lagoon (Upper West Bay) and Al Wabb City/ Aspire Zone area. All of these are very new and feel like it. If you consider the bulk/quality of your daily lifestyle is dictated by the 2-3 miles around you, location IS important. More on that in the last sentence.
We are now negotiating on a unit at The Pearl and heres why. Going anywhere off the Corniche is a 15 minute or a 45-60 minute drive! ALL Depends on the intersection. If there is no traffic Doha anywhere is 15 minutes. If theres any traffic however anywhere but the Corniche is pure hell. The Corniche always moves, but Commute hours through the Al Wabb and Salwa intersections are a snails paced parking lot with traffic lights on 5-7 minute rotations per side!! D Ring is bad, C Ring is worse and Al Gharafa Interchange drops you into a dirt road alley behind a mosque. From West Bay, I tried going to Airport a bit west, farther west, all the way west and backtracking and never came in under an hour. Went out to Aspire Zone from airport to a coworkers house on several occasions, no less than 45 minutes and generally longer. Passed on Al Wabb (although we do find ourselves at Villagio Mall on the weekends more often than not) based on this alone.
Mirage does have an incredible Villa in Aspire Zone (where my coworker lives at an incredible price for the size) just know that despite the relatively close distance the pace to get there is substantially longer.
The Pearl however easily has the nicest finishes of everything we looked at including several city center towers and west bay lagoon villas and although is still over valued, when you consider the drive up the Corniche is the fastest back and forth to date, the view is fantastic the whole way and to end up at a modern apartment at the Pearl is actually quite metropolitan.. Coffee on the Piazza is at the bottom of the elevator. Cheap? no, nothing here is except the finishes and the quality of the furniture but I can honestly say, I dont feel like I'm stuck in the desert! In fact, very much the contrary and THAT, may be worth the price tag after all. ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As a matter of biology; if it bites you it's probably female.