Raffles Dubai

A pyramid-shaped hotel building in Wafi City, 19 storeys, opened in 2007. Architecture by Arif & Bintoak, one of the recognisable silhouettes of old business Dubai.

What kind of building this is

Raffles Dubai is a 19-storey hotel building in Wafi City, architecture by Arif & Bintoak, completed in 2007. The building's shape is a truncated pyramid in the Egyptian theme running through the whole Wafi quarter, and it's one of the most recognisable silhouettes in the old part of the city.

Our photos show the residence interiors and the hotel's grand hall. They show the level of finish and the character of the public spaces; the façade isn't included in the set, so the card's cover image comes from the reference source.

Wafi City is a quarter between Umm Hurair and Za'abeel, established long before today's Dubai: a retail arcade, a hotel, a residential section, all in one consistent style. In a city where quarters get rebuilt every ten years, this is a rare example of a settled environment.

What it means for a buyer

A hotel building is not a residential one, and the first thing to establish at this kind of address is exactly what's being sold. Options vary: freehold residence ownership, a unit in a hotel program, a right of use. Everything else follows from that answer.

Second, age. The building is nearly twenty years old, and for hotel real estate that's the age at which the room stock goes through renovation. Who pays for it and on what schedule is a question for the documents, not the brochure.

Third, location. Old business Dubai has lost prestige to newer districts but has gained in connectivity: the airport, Deira and Downtown are all equally close, and the road network is denser than on the outskirts.

How to compare a property like this

Comparing it with Downtown apartments isn't right: hotel real estate runs on different economics — income depends on occupancy and the terms with the operator, not on a rental rate.

The right benchmark is other hotel properties in the city with comparable brand and age. And the key question for each: what was the actual occupancy over the last full year.

Separately, weigh what's happening to the quarter. Wafi is a settled but not a growing environment; betting on price-per-metre growth here works worse than betting on a stable income stream.

The propsearch property record (storeys, building type, architect, district, completion year) and our own photography of the residence interiors and public spaces.