Estate agents

Off-plan residential transactions in Dubai for the first six months of 2018 were down 20 per cent from last year during the same period, according to GCP-Reidin. On the ready property side, sales in the first six months of the year held up well, with an increase of around about 6 per cent year-on-year. Does this mark the end of off-plan sales and a switch back to ready units? Time will tell, but what is...

Lots of residents own their cars in the UAE but far fewer own their houses. Undoubtedly, houses are more expensive than cars so I will not address my thoughts to the people who simply cannot afford a down payment on their own home, but more to those who have the deposit, own a car but do not own their house. On the face of it cars and houses occupy very similar places in our lives. They are both...

Since 2015 the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Market has had a tough time. The fall in the price of oil meant that, unlike the rest of the world who are now in their ninth year of recovery from the 2008 crash, we had a serious “double-dip”. The resulting government spending cutbacks, benefits reductions and job losses in 2016 lead to vacancies across the board and sales and rental prices dropped. 2017 was...

When you are an investor there are a lot of things you can put your money into. Stocks and shares, funds, art, bitcoin, crowdfunding, there is a pretty long list. Property is always high on that list. High net worth individuals will be told by financial advisors that they should invest a certain amount of their wealth into real estate, but why?...

A lot of people say to me “I’m only going to be here for a few years, surely buying doesn’t make sense”? But what is the actual truth? If you have read my articles “Why is Property Such a Good Investment” and “How Buying Property Halves Your Rent” then you will understand what a great investment property is, but over what time period does it make sense to invest. One approach, and I...

So you think you’re a Property Investor, a Guru, the Jedi of Returns, the Master of Capital Appreciation. If you are buying with anything but as much debt as you can then you are still an amateur. Maybe you’re rich, obscenely wealthy, money is nothing to you – if you’re buying with cash you are mere beginner on the property scene, level one, I don’t care how big your portfolio is. Why? One...

So you are thinking about buying, but you are worried you might lose money on the deal. The market is unpredictable in the UAE and you can’t tell when or if it might change. If you have read my articles “How Buying Property Halves Your Rent” and “How Long Do You Have to Stay For Buying to Make Sense” you can see that buying property as an investor or an end user is one of the best investments...

A lot of people in the World own their own homes. Home ownership rates in Europe vary from Germany at 53% all the way to Romania at 96% (the USA is 65% and India is 86%). There are lots of reasons to own the place you live in, some people inherit, some people fall in love with it, others want to make their mark on the property by renovating, some people like to put their money into something they can...

One things was quite apparent at Abu Dhabi Cityscape 2018, that Dubai and Abu Dhabi sent quite different representatives. Representing Abu Dhabi were the Master Developers, Aldar, Tamouh, Baniyas, Al Fahid, Qudra, IMKAN, Maryah Island (Mubadala) and the list goes on. The only real Sub-Developer there was Bloom Holdings who have their own development Bloom Gardens but also two sub-development projects on...

A 99 year lease when you buy property in Abu Dhabi is neither unusual nor something to be concerned about. In Abu Dhabi expatriates (non GCC) acquire 99 year leases when they buy property and this is a concern for some people who only want freehold. It will not be an issue with people from the Common Law legal jurisdictions (like the UK) as these almost always only grant leasehold ownership rights to...