Courtyard House, Sheikh Zayed

This is the kind of plot Sheikh Zayed still has and the newer compounds cannot price: 1,400 square metres, forty-year-old ficus and jacaranda, and a house that only occupies a third of it.

The villa was built in 1998 around a central courtyard — not a light well, an actual courtyard with a fountain and enough shade to sit out in June. It is an old idea, and it works better in this climate than anything the new stock is doing with glass.

Be clear-eyed: the interior is original 1998 and reads that way. Bathrooms and kitchen need replacing, and we have priced accordingly rather than pretending otherwise. The structure, the plot and the trees are what you are buying, and none of the three can be built new.