A day at home in Raincrest Residence

A day at Raincrest Residence tends to start high and end high. The pool is on the fourteenth floor, the best homes face the sunrise or the park, and the balconies do a good deal of the living. Here is how the building is used from morning to evening, by the kinds of household that choose it.

Morning

The homes facing the sunrise wake up first. One of the fully furnished 3+1 apartments Binga let on the eleventh floor was marketed precisely for this: the sunrise and Central Park. The first coffee goes out on the balcony while the air is still cool.

For the swimmers, the lift runs to the top. The main pool sits between the two towers on the fourteenth floor, which the developer placed there for privacy and to keep noise away from the apartments. Early in the morning it is the quietest room in the building, with the ocean on one horizon and the rest of Hulhumalé on the other. The gym, which the catalogue describes as fully equipped, is the alternative on a day when the wind is up.

Then the school run and the commute. Residents who drive use the building's parking, and the towers sit on Reethigas Magu, which the developer calls a key hub of residential and commercial activity on the island.

The middle of the day

A home that is empty all day and a home that is worked from are different things, and Raincrest's layouts suit both. The "+1" in its 2+1 and 3+1 plans is a flexible room: a helper's suite in one of the corner homes Binga let this year, and, in other homes, just as easily a study or a nursery. With three or five balconies on the corner units, there is usually a side of the flat out of the direct sun, and the listings for those corners talk about breeze and natural ventilation.

Families with a helper will notice the practical details the listings mention: a dedicated laundry utility room, a separate helper's room, a third bathroom in the 2+1 corner plans.

Afternoon and evening

After school, the children's play area is the building's meeting point, one of the amenities the catalogue lists alongside the gym and the pool. For a family new to Hulhumalé, a play area inside the building is how the first friendships form, among the children and then among the parents.

Hulhumalé itself is the planned island, with wider streets, parks and the beach, as the desk's neighbourhood guide describes it, and Central Park is the view from several Raincrest homes. The evening walk is there.

When the gathering is bigger than the flat, the building has a convention hall: a birthday, a family dinner, a colleague's farewell. For households on the second floor, the private terrace gardens that the developer's brief describes are the other way to host, outdoors and at your own door.

The day ends where it began, at the top. The pool deck in the last light looks out over the ocean and the city; on a clear evening, that is what residents come up for.

Who the day suits

Young professionals in the one-bedroom and 2+1 homes, who want a pool and a gym within the building and a straightforward run to work. Families in the 3+1 and four-bedroom plans, who need the extra room, the play area and the parking. Relocating executives and HR teams placing staff, who want a fully furnished flat where the balcony, the pool and the hall do the work of making a new city feel lived in.