Helvetia

Balconies taking up to 18% of floor area: DHG's Swiss blueprint in JVC

In a 445 square foot (41.33 sqm) Helvetia studio, 80 square feet sit outdoors. That's 18% of the total area, a ratio the developer carries over almost unchanged into the one-bedroom apartments. DHG Properties, the Emirati arm of a Swiss group founded in 1994, is putting up its first building in Dubai here: 430 homes spread across 21 residential floors in Jumeirah Village Circle. Handover is set for June 2026. The project isn't chasing a striking silhouette. Instead it leans on generous outdoor layouts, a standardized technical spec, and ground-floor retail.

Twenty-five levels, three of them podium

The building stacks a ground floor, three podium levels and 21 floors of housing on top. Parking is covered, which remains a practical plus under Dubai's climate. At 430 units, Helvetia sits toward the upper end of JVC buildings, where many recent developments cap out between 150 and 350 homes. That scale has a direct consequence for investors: rental competition will also play out within the tower itself, between units of the same layout type. The floor-to-ceiling windows and open-plan layouts touted in the brochure have become standard across the neighborhood and aren't a differentiator on their own.

From a 41 sqm studio to a 165 sqm three-bedroom

The lineup spans four unit types. The studio measures 365 square feet indoors (33.92 sqm) for 445 total. The one-bedroom reaches 882 square feet (81.98 sqm), including 160 square feet of balcony, noticeably larger than the compact 650 to 750 square foot one-bedrooms common in JVC. The two-bedroom goes up to 1,400 square feet (130.10 sqm) and the three-bedroom to 1,774 square feet (164.84 sqm), with a 255 square foot balcony. On the larger units, the outdoor share drops to around 14%, still comfortable by local standards. The studio is clearly built for renting to young professionals, while the two and three-bedroom units target expat families looking for space without paying Dubai Hills or Dubai Marina prices.

Bosch kitchens, walk-in closets and a smart lock

DHG markets its finishes as Swiss-style, without naming suppliers beyond Bosch for appliances. Every unit comes with a built-in walk-in closet, an amenity rarely offered in studios in this area. A smart home system paired with a connected lock equips the apartments, handy for managing a short-term rental remotely. The three-bedroom kitchens are described as handle-free. Bathrooms combine marble with wood paneling, a warmer material choice than the all-white tiling common in JVC handovers.

Rooftop padel courts, kids' pool at podium level

The rooftop houses the padel courts and gym, a placement that frees up the podium for family-oriented uses. The main pool is paired with a dedicated kids' pool and wrapped by a jogging track. A meditation and yoga room rounds out the offering, alongside a landscaped garden next to the play area, designed so parents can keep an eye on kids from the lawn. The list also includes a tennis court, a barbecue area and a dog park. It's a full package, but not an unusual one for JVC, where rooftop padel has become commonplace over the past two years.

Pharmacy, grocery store and restaurant on the ground floor

The ground floor includes retail space, and the brochure names three tenants: a pharmacy, a grocery store and a restaurant. An ATM rounds things out. That detail matters in a neighborhood still largely car-dependent, where reaching a supermarket often means leaving the circle. On travel times, the developer cites 19 minutes to Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa or Dubai Marina, and 24 minutes to DXB and Al Maktoum airports, figures worth taking with a grain of salt outside off-peak hours on Al Khail Road and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road.

Thirty years in Switzerland, a first build site in Dubai

The DHG group started out in 1994 in building renovation. Its holding company, set up in 2015, now controls more than 30 construction and real estate businesses and holds over 1,000 residential units in Switzerland. A Serbian subsidiary has been developing residential and commercial projects since 2020. DHG Properties set up in the UAE in 2022 and launched Helvetia in 2023. Buyers are therefore backing the strength of a European asset-holding landlord, but with no delivery track record in Dubai: hitting the June 2026 deadline will be the developer's first public test in this market.