Lap of luxury: (From top) Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Sameera Reddy have homes in Dubai. Preity Zinta too plans to buy a house there. (below) The Palm Islands in Dubai

Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan have just bought a huge house in Dubai in a tony colony called Sanctuary Falls. Shah Rukh Khan owns a house on Palm Island, the largest artificial island project in the world, close to where the Clintons and Beckhams are. Among other luxuries, SRK’s Palm Island house has a private beach along with a 24-hour water patrol. More than 2,000 residents will live on the Palm Jumeirah (the smallest of the three Palm Islands) once the islands are completed. “I bought the house, because one can see the island from the moon,” SRK said in a television interview.

SRK is now also going to develop a property in his name in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). TSA International Investments, which is in the process of constructing a series of signature buildings on Al Dana Island in Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE, has approached him to develop a property called the Shah Rukh Khan Boulevard.

The race for Dubai properties is certainly heating up. Actress Sameera Reddy is among those to have bought a house in Dubai. And that’s because, Reddy stresses, she loves the city. “I prefer to holiday there than in any other place in the world. I have been all over, but Dubai is the place where I am buying a house now. I just got (designer) Neeta Lulla to open a store there as well,” says Sameera. Lulla will have company there. Fashion designer Manish Malhotra and celebrity hair stylist Hakim Aalim have also opened franchises in the UAE.

Sources at Shaikh Holdings which has sold a grand villa to Ash and Abhishek say the villas are priced between 15 million UAE Dirhams ($4 million) and 35 million UAE Dirhams ($9.5 million). The houses come with landscaped gardens, water fountains, swimming pools, Scavolini designer kitchens and Bang and Olufsen home theatre systems.

Abhishek, of course, is uber cool about the new house. “Dubai chose us,” he says when asked why he opted to buy a property in West Asia.

Once, buying property for Bollywood stars meant purchasing houses in Mumbai, or perhaps in neighbouring Khandala and Lonavla or other parts of Maharashtra. Salman Khan has a farmhouse in Panvel. Actor Anil Kapoor has gone a step forward — he is said to have bought a house-cum-office in London.

Goa, however, continues to attract stars — even though it has lost a bit of its shine. Akshay Kumar and his wife Twinkle are considering purchasing a bungalow kissing the Anjuna Beach in Goa at a cost of Rs 5 crore. Neha Dhupia has a house in Goa. And Celina Jaitley owns an ancient villa there.

But places such as Khandala and Lonavla are now overcrowded, and Goa, some fear, is going the same way. In fact, the stars also worry about security measures in Goa, where some gruesome murders have taken place in recent months. Jaitley’s house in Goa was also burgled recently.

“I have a house which is 150 years old. It’s called Casa de Francis Celina and it is situated in Moira village. But there was a theft in my house and some antique stuff has been missing,” rues Jaitley.

So what do stars do when Goa becomes unsafe, and Khandala much too crowded? Some look for a suitably glitzy and secure house in Dubai.

SRK is endorsing a property in Dubai, as is Deepika Padukone, who has lent her famous name and pretty face to Aspire Real Estate in the Emirates.

Among the real movers and shakers looking for a house in Dubai is Preity Zinta. And Salman Khan too is wondering about buying a property there — how can he lag behind former girlfriend Ash and current numero uno enemy SRK? Salman has apparently been in talks with Dubai’s Hydra Properties for a suitable house. “I have not decided what I am buying. I am looking at the legalities now. Once we are sure of that then I will go ahead,” says Khan, who took part in the opening last month of the Twin Towers at Jumeirah Village, Dubai.

There was a time when Indians were not allowed to purchase property in Dubai. Some still don’t see themselves buying a house in the UAE.

Aamir Khan, for instance, has so far shown little interest in buying a property abroad. He preferred to buy the house he and Kiran Rao got married in at Panchghani. Actor Suniel Shetty would rather go to Khandala than look elsewhere. “We generally try and spend the New Year and some other important days there so that we can enjoy being away from the city,” says Shetty.

But Dubai has opened up — and its glitzy malls, luxury residential colonies, smooth roads and low crime rates are attracting Bollywood stars. The new residential colonies in man-made islands are swankier than anything that India has to offer. And now that Dawood Ibrahim, once said to be a resident of Dubai, is almost a non-entity, it has lost its fishy odour as well. For most Bollywood stars, to have links with Dubai is no more a Dubai-ous connection.