Dubai Real Estate Myths vs Facts: What Investors Must Know

Everybody said this is going to hurt Dubai. We had our highest years pre-recession from 2003 to 2006. We are 65% cheaper than Singapore, one of the best cities in the world. 70% cheaper than London. 75% cheaper than Paris. 80% cheaper than Sydney. 85% cheaper than New York. And we are 94% cheaper than Hong Kong. Our city is growing based on a plan. This is not natural evolution like organic cities. 196 of the Fortune 500 companies, that's 40% of the best companies in the world are headquartered in Dubai now. We are short of homes for the next 16 years. Hi, I'm GG Benitez, a certified international property specialist and a licensed realtor guiding global real estate investors with incredibly lucrative opportunities here in Dubai. And today on the episode we're going to address some of the most common myths, especially from my fellow citizens in the United States, with whom I call the Encyclopedia of Dubai. Stay tuned to chat with Dr. Anan Menan. Okay, so now that I've been doing this podcast for a little over a couple of years now, I've been paying attention to the questions and the common misconceptions I would say from a lot of the investors that have reached out to me. And with that I thought, who can come on here and address them all as eloquently as Mr. Encyclopedia, Dr. Anan Menan? Hello Dr. Anan. Hi, thank you for having me back. Our other episode that we did on last season did so incredibly well. Actually one of our videos is going viral when we were talking about an EOI and also should you go directly through the developer, the agent. Post it on Instagram, no boosting, no paying, and it's going viral. People love to hear from you because you are the numbers guy in Dubai. And you're a clinical psychologist too. True. But we're not going to talk about my OCD today, okay? We'll do that off camera. Thank you. Let's do that off camera. But in OCD nature, I have listed the questions that have been asked over and over, especially Dr. Anan, because for me I'm dealing with Americans and they're just now discovering Dubai. A lot of Canadians have been for a while, but United States, it's still a newer concept to them. And I will say I had my record-breaking month in November after the elections. I'm sure you've heard many of these, but we'll start with them and then maybe you could fill in the blanks of some that you can also help us address. Sure. And by the way, let's back it up a little bit. For someone who hasn't watched the other episode, Dr. Anan, you've been here for how many years? 32 years. My second year. So literally I've seen how this emirate has grown. Part of it it's in my DNA. No other place is ever going to be home. And I saw you. I mean I know that already that you go around teaching and doing classes and education for real estate brokers with some of the biggest names in Dubai bringing you on. Right? Yep, that's true. And it's not just about educating real estate brokers. But you're really diving into why Dubai. Yes, it's being an ambassador for the city. Ambassador for the vision of Dubai. When you're on track to becoming the best city in the world, then we do need a lot more people like me, not just me, to be able to come out and echo the vision of Sheikh Muhammad and the spirit of Dubai, which is really, really important. Because when you're popular, there's a lot of noise about you out there. We just want to make sure the noise is channeled the right way. So people have the right impression and understanding of the vision of Dubai. That's why I do what I do. And it's not just about real estate. Oh, absolutely. It's about it's about the UAE. And within the UAE you've got this diamond: Dubai. And everyone needs to understand who we are and why is it that when most of the world is going south, we're still going north. Yes. So I believe that education, communication, and engagement is really, really important. And all of us here have to be ambassadors for the city of Dubai. Absolutely. And I shared a moment with you right before camera that I had the pleasure of meeting Sheikh Muhammad, where I was able to share with him actually how I've been an ambassador in the United States with billboards saying invest in Dubai, conducting seminars and webinars to educate fellow Americans about what's happening here and the podcast, The Dubai Connect podcast, has been an immense tool to really helping walk through global investors, and mainly Americans. And I'm very particular about who I bring on by the way. So I mean I'll just say I'm not paid for people that come on to my podcast. I know that's a model. I'm not putting it down. Who knows what happens in the future. But as of now, I really vet my guests on. And so I really value you coming on here and sharing your expertise. So if anybody hasn't watched the first episode, I highly encourage them because you dig deeply into the future of Dubai, which is important for an investor to understand, right? I mean, absolutely. There's the trends, there's the history, there are the numbers that are very important. But if you're coming in here right now, you need to know about the Master 2040 plan, that urban plan, the Centennial plan, the D33, to understand Dubai, right? Correct. All right, well let's dig in. I just wanted, I think it was important to introduce a little bit more of you, know, what, why you are the one to answer these. So we'll dig in. Okay. Dr. Anan, this one frustrates me, so I hope that you can speak without the emotions that I have on this one. When someone says, "Gigi, it's too late. I've been priced out of the market. It's too expensive now to buy in Dubai." Okay, great question. Firstly, you're not being priced out of the market because if you look at the actual comparisons globally, let's just take luxury segment as an example. At the moment in Dubai you can get one square meter for $3,850. That's how much you would have to put in: $3,850. The same square meter in central London is going to cost you $19,300. If I get into New York, let's say take a look at Manhattan, that's going up to $22,850. If I go to Hong Kong, it's $28,300. Let me just give it to you in percentages which might be easy for people to get. Let's compare Dubai in terms of being cheaper than which kind of mega cities. We are 65% cheaper than Singapore, one of the best cities in the world. We are 70% cheaper than London, central London is what we're talking about. We are 75% cheaper than Paris. We are 80% cheaper than Sydney. We are 85% cheaper than New York, Manhattan to be specific. And we are 94% cheaper than Hong Kong. So if people say they've been priced out of the market because the prices in Dubai are going, we're nowhere close to any of the other cities. Now bear in mind, when we look at all these cities that I mentioned, probably with the exception of only Singapore, in there most of them have old infrastructure, the buildings, the streets, everything is cracking. You know, you don't have this spanking new ecosystem into which you're coming. Crime is as high as a skyscraper. The streets filled with homeless people. Quality of life: no way close to what we are offering here. And at one quarter, one fifth, one eighth the price, you have the investments in one of the most dynamic and beautiful cities in the world that has an amazing future. I think it's a super deal. So for those who are sitting there and thinking, "I've been priced out, I've lost out," you're doing the same thing that you did four years ago. You lost out then. You'll continue to lose out now, unless you get into the game immediately. Well, let me discuss that even further. If you look at the future, so okay, you shared so eloquently the comparisons about price per square foot and affordability, and then with all those cities, what about the future potential? The future capital appreciation. The rental returns. The property taxes. The income taxes of people who live there. In addition to the infrastructure. So if you look at the numbers here right, and you look at what is happening with the population hit: what, 3.8 million? 3.82 million? Now we will go to 6 million by 2033, and 7.8 million by 2040. I love that. And you know the Sheikh has said over and over again, and it's visible on video, he wants us to be the best city in the world for his people. But having said that, I believe there was even an announcement recently by the Finance Minister that says there is no intention to incorporate income taxes anytime soon. Correct. But we know that there has been the introduction, just recently, of a corporate tax at about 9%, which still on a global level is less expensive than most of those major financial, or most of those major cities that we discussed, right? Correct. If you look at Monaco, it's the Monaco tax system that we have. DMCC in Dubai has partnered with the government in Monaco. Monaco is the tax haven of Europe, right? Everyone goes in. That's exactly what we've done. The same system is what we have now because we intend to become the Monaco of the Middle East. So just like we are attracting the millionaires, the ultra-high-net-worth millionaires, and billionaires to Monaco, we're now driving them into Dubai because we are creating the most friendly taxation system that we have in the Middle East. Yeah, that's a great way of describing it because that's exactly what Americans know Monaco for being. And now absolutely. I guess along the same line of questioning, and a misconception is that Dubai is facing a real estate bubble. Firstly, if we are facing a bubble, it's an extremely strong bubble because I've been hearing this from 2006. Wow. So this is a really strong bubble. If you ever had to encounter a bubble, you better do it in Dubai. Even Dubai does bubbles better. That's what I'm saying. However, if you actually look at the current positioning on the market, we're nowhere close to a bubble. There is the UBS Global real estate bubble index report which is published annually. It comes out from the Bank of Switzerland, which is the world's largest private wealth management bank. They handle over $4.1 trillion a year. And they actually measure bubble risks in 25 of the most popular cities in the world. There are four categories in there. And we are second from the bottom, which is the moderate category. We're not even in the overvalued or risk category. So when you look at a global report which actually measures the potential for risks, we are still sitting in a very, very strong position. Though we have considerably risen because of the sheer demand that has come into the Dubai market, demand will always drive prices upward. Now that's again a comforting thing to know because when prices are going up consistently but the demand is not proportionate to that, that is when the risk of the bubble actually starts to appear. But we have this increasing demand for luxury and affordable category in all sectors of real estate: commercial, residential, retail, hospitality, theaters, and entertainment. In every single area we're seeing this huge spike in demand, which is also leading to an increase in prices. So the demand is rising as fast, if not faster, than the availability of inventory in the market. So that is not a bubble by definition. By definition, in a slow moving or a flatlined economy, when you have any one industry that's showing consistent growth, there is the risk of a bubble. We don't have a flatlined economy. We have the most stable economy in the world. The US World News reports number two being Switzerland. We have the most aggressive growth percentage projected on the planet. With clear indicators from the 2033 urban master plan, we now have the real estate strategy 2033 where the target is we will be selling 1 trillion worth of real estate every single year. So there is a strategy in place. There is a plan in place that actually is engineering our growth. This is not organic. This is not something that's just randomized. It's happening based on plans. This is why Sheikh Muhammad said it a few months ago. He said, "The future belongs to those who can imagine it, who can design it, and who can execute it." It isn't something that you await. It's something that you create. Two weeks ago, he again made a statement. He said, "The world doesn't wait. The future does not belong to hesitant people." Wow. I love that. The future does not belong to hesitant people. Yes. Wow. So again, he's echoing the same spirit of what he said before. And everything that we are doing now and achieving is in line with the agenda. We've had our strongest year on business, GDP, and performance last year. Sheikh Muhammad personally made the announcement on behalf of the UAE. So we're in a very good place. So those who are talking about the bubble: Habibi, come to Dubai. This is where the economy is going to the next level. And we've got all the data, all the plans to share with you. And it's all available on the internet for anyone. I think that's one of the most important points, Dr. Anan, is that Dubai is a very transparent real estate market. The numbers are there. The portals are there. The websites are there. You can look at the numbers. You can look at the trajectory. You can look at the history. And it's there. So thank you for addressing that. You touched upon something that actually was another misconception I was going to address, which is that Dubai is too dependent on any one sector and not a diverse economy. So if one of those sectors hurts, it's going to crash the entire economy. How would you address that? Okay, typically when people talk about that, they refer to oil. Now while 30% of the GDP in the UAE is still oil dependent, Dubai it's less than 2%, right? So we. People don't know that. Correct. But then all it requires is someone to get onto the internet and instead of looking for the not-so-exciting stuff out there, do some diligence work, and they will find the answer. It's less than 2%. We are making our money from education, from healthcare, business ecosystems. We're making it from the environment. We're making it from exhibitions and events. We're doing it from real estate, technology, financial services, hospitality, tourism. So we are multifaceted as an economy. We are not dependent on oil. I'd like to add one point in this which recently people have been paying a lot of attention to it. You see, what's the one thing that has set Dubai apart from the rest of the world? The rest of the world are organic cities. Dubai is an engineered city. Now what's the difference between the two? An organic city has got growth that is influenced by geopolitical situations and by the economic situations in that region or maybe wars, etc. So they are very, very influenced by the local or regional situation. We too are influenced because we are an international city. But not as much because we are an engineered city. Our city is growing based on a plan. This is not natural evolution like organic cities. And when you build your plans for 10 years, 16 years, 2040, and 45 years later, you're factoring into it global scenarios like wars, change of governments, economic tumbles, you're looking at pandemics. You look for all of that. You would never be able to 100% control it, but you anticipate those and you build your buffers in place. So you know when that happens, you're still engineered, and you're getting to exactly where you want to go, which is exactly what Sheikh Muhammad said: it belongs to those who can dream it, design it, and execute it. We are an engineered city. That is the difference. We know where we are going. And we are mapping every step of that process. We're not dependent on just the regional influences. Which leads me to another misconception: that Dubai is in the Middle East. Correct? The Middle East is geopolitically has a lot of issues right now: instability. True. And therefore that's going to affect the real estate sector in Dubai with you know what's happening right now regionally. Yes? Okay, this has been something which we've been hearing for a long time. Well, let me put give you the answer differently. Firstly, today Dubai has become the solution to the problems of the world. Today if you're anywhere in the Middle East, you can't even plan for tomorrow morning. You don't know if you're waking up. Is that kind of a situation? They're giving you plans for 10 years, 17 years, and 45 years. Why do you think the Fortune 500 companies are all making a beeline for Dubai? 196 of the Fortune 500 companies, that's 40% of the best companies in the world, are headquartered in Dubai now. The highest number of millionaires are migrating to this part of the world because they can actually see the future for themselves, the future for their businesses, and the future of this economy. So that is the reason why people are coming. So you can plan. If you look at safety that we are offering you today: today if I'm in the US, I don't know if my kid is coming back from school today. The phone rings and parents are jumping. And today we are one of the cities on the planet. Taxes: we are outclassing most of the economies on the planet. Quality of lifestyle: opportunity: we have everything here. We have become the solution to the problems of the world. Let's look in terms of what we said about the geopolitical situation here. Everybody felt that Dubai would be impacted by local and regional events. If you go all the way back to the Iraq and Kuwait War at that time, from 2003 to 2008, everybody said this is going to hurt Dubai. We had our highest years pre-recession from 2003 to 2006, till 2008. Those were our best years in real estate. In a baby market. Then you had the Arab Spring from 2012 to 2014. And a lot of countries in this region saw internal revolutions. And everybody said this is going to be a problem. All the money came to Dubai. We actually hit our peak of 172 points on the price index in 2014. And then Russia in 2022 in February decided to walk into their neighbor's yard. Everybody said this has. This is going to be World War II. It's global conflict. And therefore we are going to have issues in Dubai also. We've had record year after record year. And it wasn't because the Russians or the Ukrainians only were putting their money here. They were barely 18% of the market. 82% was coming from over 18, 180 other nationalities. Thank you for explaining that because that was actually another misconception that I've heard is that once the Russians stop investing here, then Dubai's real estate market is surely going to crash. Well, here's the good news. For the last two years, the Russians have stopped investing, taking the money out, and going to Bali and they're going to Thailand. Record 2024, 23, and 24 have been years that the world is still trying to figure out how did they manage. And we did that without the Russians. Yes. So again, like I'm saying, when you had that conflict in Russia, the money came here, and we had a record year. Then in 2023, Israel walked into Gaza, Iran got involved, Lebanon got involved, Syria was involved in a certain way. And everybody said this is home, close to home. We're going to have a problem. We smashed the 2023 record. Last year, and in 2023 we had 166,000 transactions worth 634 billion. And everybody said this has to stop. This is the ceiling. We crossed that on the 30th of September last year in just three quarters. And the strongest quarter, which is Q4, was still coming. And we did 76.7 billion from 266,000 transactions. So these misconceptions are there because I don't blame people who don't have access to the right data. But reality is far from that. So I'll go to another one then based on you know, I have these all written out. But I think the flow of this conversation is much more productive. Dubai is only for the wealthy. You're talking about ultra high net worth individuals coming and investing here. You're talking about Fortune 500 companies. I don't have that kind of money. So how am I going to invest in Dubai? It's only for the rich. Okay, let's take a look at what happened last year. The projection was 6,700 millionaires were relocating to Dubai. We had 170,000 new people who came to Dubai, right? So who came more, right? Okay. So that's not true at all. In terms of the global Power City index, which looks at how the new job creation, we are one of the highest in the world. We are anticipating a 70% increase in our population. That's another 2.5 million people coming. These are not the millionaires and the billionaires of the world. These are the working classes. I would say the mid-income range, slightly above that, all looking for an opportunity because they believe Dubai is the future. They're all coming in. If you look at the mix of units that came out into the market last year, 71.8% of those units were apartments. You had 29.3% of townhouses and only 4.3% with the villas and the high-end mansions. So this misconception that "I don't have the money, Dubai is not for me" is far from the truth because the reality is it is everyone who is coming to Dubai today. But in, maybe about 2% or 3% of that, would be the super rich who are coming in. That's it. Over 95% of the people coming in are coming in for the potential to become who they are. And by the way, many of them may not come here as millionaires, but they will continue to live here as millionaires. I love that. So now let's address this: "Well, in three or four years when all of these off-plan projects are handed over, there's going to be an oversupply of one beds." Okay, when all these units are handed over, there will be a shortage of supply. Let me explain why. We have parallel markets running in Dubai. People are comfortable when they look at a property cycle and they see that when the units are starting to hand over, they want the developers to pull back. That's the model they understand. In a typical property cycle, developers will start a cycle when demand is showing up. And for 2 to three years, there's a lot of the off-plan inventory. But come year number three and inventory is coming closer to completion, developers slow down. In traditional markets, why? Because ready units are available. If I launch a new unit now, no one is going to pay that kind of money. And the serious investors who came in early have already made their money. They will cash out. So developers hold back. And then the ready inventory becomes the market. And a new player emerges: the homeowners. When that is absorbed, comes the developers turn again. But in our market, we don't have a property cycle anymore. We have a property wave. Dubai is operating on a wave. It's almost like a tsunami, if you ask me. Now let's understand what's happening. We have a projected increase of 70% of population in the next 10 years. That's 2.5 million people coming in. We need roughly around 50,000 new homes every single year for that many people. We need 200,000 new homes just in the next 4 to 5 years to accommodate those who are coming in the next 4 to 5 years. So all the launches that you're seeing happening now is not for the next 3 to 4 years. Everything that launched from 2020 till 2024 are all in handovers now. Some of them in early phases of handover. Some will hand over 2 years from now. So everything coming into the ready home market now is to take care of the market requirement now and the 1 million new people who are coming in the next four years. But if I'm not going to launch today, after 4 years when all this inventory is been absorbed, and I have 1 million more people coming, are they going to sleep on our streets, right? So the launches of today are the requirement of the market from 2028 and beyond. The requirement of the market today has been taken care of from 2020 to 24. And that's the inventory available for people to buy today. What is being launched today by the developers in line with the D33 agenda is to make sure once we get to 2028 and all of this is going to be absorbed, we will have more homes coming into the market because an additional 1 million will come in the next four years. So this launch is for the future, not for now. So you cannot confuse the two together. Let's just look at a one simple number. Last year we had 28,300 units handed over. We had 170,000 new residents. Just new residents alone. Now the average size of a family in Dubai is 5.3. This data is from the CIC, Census and Economic Information Center. So if I have 170,000 people new coming into the city, we need 34,000 homes to accommodate them, either on a rental basis or if they want to buy it. 34,000 were required last year just for the new people. We handed over 28,300. We were short 5,700 homes last year just for the new people coming in. What about those in the city who have elevated their lifestyle and earnings, who are looking to buy? What about the holiday home companies that are coming in now and approaching owners and taking up their units? Holiday home demand has gone up by 30% in just one year. We are short of homes for the next 16 years. 5.15 million people will come in the next 16 years. We need 1 million new homes in the next 16 years. That is an average handover of 62,500 homes every single year for the next 16 years. We're only handing over between 20 and 25,000 a year. And having said that, Dubai, the developers, especially the main government-backed developers, the top tier developers, they do work strategically with the DLD. It is engineered. It is strategic. So there is a whole master plan and future vision in line to ensure this unhealthy balance. So that there is always a demand and a benefit for investors, but so that it's not so expensive for the residents as well because I believe Emaar's founder just two weeks ago announced that they're going to not worry so much about price increase but worry about and focus on delivering the units that they absolutely that is the need of the area. So what ends up happening is demand pushes price up as well, right? So it's not just the quality of units, luxury, ultra high net worth homes coming in that dries the average price up in the market. It's also demand, demand of course. I mean basic economics is demand, right? That's it. And the demand is in Dubai. We are preparing for the future. Another word for real estate is infrastructure. We are preparing the infrastructure for 2.2 million people to come in the next 6 years, and 5.15 million people to come in total over the next 16 years. You expect us not to launch and have communities? Correct. So along the same line with those numbers that you're talking about, another misconception is the traffic is going to get unbearable in Dubai, and they're not going to be able to manage the infrastructure and reduce traffic. Yes. Firstly, I would rather have crowded streets than empty ones, okay? That's the first thing, right? Good point. Crowded streets means the economy is doing well. People are coming. Sure. The second thing, the challenge, and it's a good challenge to have, is when people decide, okay, I think I want to go and live in Dubai, they can make a decision in a week or even in a month. Or if families are deciding, they might make it in three months. So the infrastructure will take longer to develop compared to people making a decision to come in. But having said that, again, the government is clear about what they want to do. I'll give you two examples here since you brought up the traffic. And we know there's traffic, it is. I mean, it is a real thing. It's not like we're, you and I both act as ambassadors of Dubai. We believe wholeheartedly that Dubai is a city of the future, not just for real estate, not just for investors, but for people to come and raise our families. We've discussed this. And the safety and the school and the lifestyle and traffic is bad, yes. Last year we had a 10% increase in new vehicle registrations. The global average is 2%. So for every one new vehicle, not renewals, new vehicle registrations anywhere in the world as an average, five are being registered in Dubai. So yes, we have the. However, around 4 months ago, Sheikh Muhammad announced the internal roads plan: 3.7 billion into 634 kilometers of internal roads. So we now building over the next 5 years, actually from this year till 2029, we are building 634 kilometers of internal roads in 12 different community areas where we are seeing urbanization expected to grow between 30 to 80%. So we know it's coming. We know the areas. We have 21 projects in these areas in the next 5 years to increase 634 kilometers of roads. We have the main road plan where 16 billion is being put in 22 projects so that we will be able to handle 6 million people on our roads. When is the 6 million coming in the next 6 to 9 years time? The roads are being built from now to handle 6 million people. This is what I love about Dubai, because it is engineered, it's on a plan, and we're moving ahead. Sheikh Muhammad last year announced the biggest ever budget in the history of the Emirate: 272 billion from 2025 to 2027. This year: 86.27 billion is being put into the development of the infrastructure here now. How is that being put? 46% of that is the infrastructure that we're talking about: the roads, the overpasses, the communities, the systems, emergency response, all of that. 46% is going into that now. We don't only want to build a city for business. So 30% of that is going into the social agendas, developing the social agendas. Parks, beaches for women, for children, for the elderly, lifestyle, lifestyle opportunities in the city, communities, cultural centers are all coming up. 6% is going into government transparency and innovation. And 18% is going into law and order, justice, and emergency response systems. We know 70% is coming, 2.5 million people are coming. We are beefing up our law and order systems. 18% of the annual budget is going into creating an emergency response and a safety-ready force. That is how we are preparing. With regards to the traffic situation as well, I don't think I can remember if you hit upon it: the Metro system, right? The 20-minute city. The idea, even you know, something that's new to Americans, the idea of a master community. Dr. Anan, correct. Of how Dubai's communities are based such that they create everything that you would need within a few minute drive, right? So these little malls and the universities, the hospitals, the women's services, all within your neighborhood. That's the concept of a master community. And then you have this Metro that continuously is expanding to create connectivity. We have the pods that are going to be introduced in the future. And we have the vertiports. So there's also this futuristic feel. I don't know if in America we had the show called The Jetsons. And I remember thinking, God, I wonder if I would be alive when I see these types of the way that they transport people. Well, inshallah, you know, if I'm here for another few years, I'm going to see it in Dubai. Yes. With all respect to America, the Jetsons stayed on TV. We made it a reality here, here in Dubai. A 24-year-old city is making it a reality. And so yes, the concept is micro-cities. When you are building and expanding into the desert or into the ocean, we have learned from the mistakes of cities in the past. So we had that benefit from them. So you're creating micro-cities so everybody doesn't have to come to downtown. You will have three downtowns in the future. When Creek Harbor is fully done, it will be another downtown like the downtown here. The Expo City expansion, it actually has Expo downtown. So you're going to have three downtowns. Which city has got three downtowns? So we are spreading people out. And each of the communities, especially the larger ones, are creating business parks and districts in there. They're creating artificial beaches, lagoons, and lakes within the community. You don't even have to come to the beach, correct? The beaches have come to you. We're creating parks, outdoor activities, everything is being. It's included: golf courses, schools, hospitals, retail malls, outdoor experiences, weekend activities. So you can live within the community without even having to exit. I'll share something else which is coming up. Most people are not even aware of it. It's called Cognitive City, okay? It is coming up in Dubai. It's going to come near the DLRC area, the Dubai Land Residential Complex area. There's a big developer going to be involved in it. I can't give names because nothing confirmed yet. But I can tell you what's happening. This is the future of Dubai. You will be coming home and as you enter in, you'll be greeted by AI that will tell you, "Gadida, welcome home. By the way, I just noticed your skin is 20% drier than normal and your heartbeat is 10% higher than when you left in the morning. Would you recommend that I call an ambulance to come in? Or shall I set up an online consultation for you? I also noticed that tomorrow being Thursday, you love your eggs for breakfast and we are short of eggs in the fridge. I've already ordered your favorite kind of eggs. I've ordered it from this supermarket. And I paid for it using your credit card." Wait. When is this going to happen? Please let me be alive for this. When, Dr. Anan? Please. It's early, but this is how we are thinking, and it is coming up in the area. Part of the urban master plan of 2040, you're going to have AI, technology, knowledge, and innovation coming up in the academic city area. Sahel Oasis areas. This is all coming in that area now. This is not something that you just dream of. You're thinking of building it. And so you're going to engineer all your development towards it. This is what sets Dubai apart from any other city: engineered rather than being organic. Wow. You got me so excited right now. I need. I need to be here for that. Okay. Well, let's go into a little bit now. Real, more real estate specific. Some of the misconceptions. For example, so basic, and you and I both know this, but for people that are still just in America understanding what's happening in Dubai: there is a misconception that you have to have a sponsor to purchase property in Dubai. It's actually the opposite. You buy property and now you can actually get a visa to live in Dubai. You don't need a visa. You don't need a sponsor to be here. We have so many international buyers. I own properties in Dubai. There's no sponsor in it. They're mine. Happy to send you my title deeds. You can even show it to them. So it is a misconception. It probably came out of the early years of business when yes, to register a company here, you definitely needed a local sponsor. They had to have 51% share. But even that is a thing of the past with so many free zones where you can have 100% ownership. Some of the mainland companies and certain key activities still require having a local ownership. You have to protect your country. Any country would do that. But it is a complete misconception that to own property you need to have a local sponsor. You can buy as many as 200 units and plots, yep, just by yourself. And you own them forever. None of this 99-year lease. 99-year lease is not for Dubai. It's there in Abu Dhabi though. Abu Dhabi has also created certain places as freehold. In Dubai, the commercial spaces are on the 99-year lease, but it is not on the residential. The residential is all freehold. You know, this went viral on our last episode. And so I'm going to ask you this again because why not, Dr. Anan? I am a buyer, global investor, and I believe that if I go directly to the developer, I'm going to get a better deal, a better discount. Okay. One: firstly, if you believe that you're going to get it because you go directly to the developer, there's two mistakes with that thinking. The first is not every developer will do this for you, okay? The premium developers, the recognized ones will not do it because you are coming for one unit. I've just sold 800 units to others. And in keeping one investor happy, I'm not going to upset 800. A few Mickey Mouse operations in the business could possibly be doing that. But then again, they do not define the industry in Dubai, okay? So very well said. That's the first thing. So just because you could get it from someone doesn't mean you'll get it. Now again, think about it. The premium developers protect their investors. And that's why they refuse to go down on the price. The small guys who try to do something like this, you already can see the intent of them as business people. You really want to put your money with someone like that? I would rather put it with someone where I know I have the confidence that no matter what happens, that developer is going to hold and protect my investment for me. That's the first thing. The second perception that they have is, "Oh, there is an amount that is going to be paid to the broker. So if I go to the developer, I'm going to actually get a discount." Like I said, not true. In some cases, you could. In many cases, it is probably a salesman who's making that promise to you, not necessarily the leadership or the management of the company. Now if you in case you feel that there is something that the broker is going to get. Firstly, you need to understand that it's paid by the developer. It's factored into the price already. So if I'm going to go to a premium developer and he's not going to come down on the price in the interest of the investors to protect them, and you, you are anyway going to be paying a price that has been factored in. So agency commissions for my secondary sales forces, so you've already got that factored in. If you have it there, why don't you use the wisdom of those brokers who understand the market far better than someone who's sitting 12,000 kilometers away? Correct. Now, thirdly, if you go directly to the developer, they are going to tell you that their product is the best in town. Now even if they do understand that there is another developer's product that really works best, way they never going to tell you that. So you don't have access to that information. You don't understand the lag of these developers. When you work with a broker, a broker will actually confide. Even if it tells you yes, this is it for you, you can now do it with renewed confidence because there's a second opinion that matters. Or we will tell you, "This is a very good opportunity, but just wait for a moment. Let's take a look at this one also because it might give you a little bit more in terms of one, two, and three. Let's look at both and then you make an informed decision." So that is the reason why today 80% of the market, or even more than that in some cases, is broker-led sales. Even with the developers, I can understand broker-led sales in the secondary market, because the developers hands off, right? But developer sales is over. Some of them it's 90%. Yes. So if it was not a good business model, and if what you are saying is true, Mr. buyer, that everyone can get it and from the developer directly, the broker market would not exist, correct? So it just does not make sense. So along the same lines, how about this misconception: "All brokers are the same. They're all made equally in Dubai." Okay. Again, that's a misconception. Firstly, when someone makes a statement like that, I would always counter them and I say, "Well, that's an interesting observation. How exactly did you decide that? You can't just throw a statement. It's like me saying all Americans are the same, all Canadians are the same. That is such a shallow statement built on absolutely nothing." And if I had to make a statement saying all Americans are the same, all cities in the US are the same, you have the right to challenge me to ask, "How exactly I came to that conclusion?" I would do the same with you. I would ask you, "When you say all brokers are the same, what exactly did you look at when you came to that conclusion?" So they have to be able to give me a fact, and then I can respond to you on that because my counter, if you come speculation, I'll simply speculate back and say that's not true. None of them. All of them are not the same. So another one of our videos, Dr. Anan, that has been getting a lot of attention on Instagram that we did last time, and I come across this issue quite a bit dealing with global investors, especially the new ones, is that the idea of an EOI, an expression of interest, is just a sales gimmick and has no real benefit or value. And I'll just wait for the brochure to come out on launch day before I make a decision. Okay. It's not a gimmick, but it's a sales strategy, okay? And it's not only in real estate today. When an Apple iPhone comes out, Samsung just had an announcement last week. They're taking advances and bookings, but the units will come out only in a week or two later. So going by the same logic that one of the best mobile phone companies in the world is just using a gimmick, okay? If you look at premium cars, you walk in. You cannot get it straight away. You have to book in advance. And you have to pay a token amount to show your seriousness. And you could even lose that if you change your mind. So if every premium industry is permitted to have this kind of a way to secure business, why does real estate have to be using it as a gimmick? You have the most prolific market in the world with so much of demand here. I as a developer have got people standing in line looking to buy. And I have to hold a unit for you while you do your research and think. Two weeks to four weeks to six weeks. I'll sell it to the next guy, correct? So in. If just like you want me to demonstrate I'm a serious player in the market as a developer, I need to know that you're serious with me as well. I'll take an example of a developer. I just won't take names. They launched a community, a very good community. They had 1,900 units. People will figure out who they are. But they are an excellent developer. They did a great job, right? They launched 1,900 units. They got 3,900 EOIs. For every one unit, there were two people ready to buy. Now this is something where it does a lot of things. And EOI isn't just securing the business for the developer. It tells me that the client is serious. And it also gives me good market intelligence. Which type of units are they putting EOIs for? Is it the studios and one beds, and the three beds are not getting that much? Because there are differences, right? For a studio there's an X amount. For a one bed, 20,000 more on that. For a two bed, 40,000 more. So based on the number of EOIs coming in, I can already see, this kind of community, even before I've launched, where is the attraction? It can allow me to make even some adjustments so the community becomes even more attractive. So it is a strategy. It is not a gimmick. Thank you. Thank you, very well spoken. I will because our time is coming up, which you and I could probably talk for hours. I'll end it with one last misconception. After the floods happened last year, and in the US particularly, we saw so many images that were over-exaggerated. Some were true. Some were not. But there was this misconception that went out there: that Dubai does not have a sewage system. Okay. It wasn't just the US. It happened in Australia. It happened in India. It happened in Singapore. It happened in Europe. It happened everywhere. The first thing that we need to understand is where were these images coming from? Social media. Social media has an opportunity where people keep repeating. They keep posting. They post a week later. They post two weeks later. So the perception is it is ongoing, whereas some of those are posts about what happened a few days ago. If you looked at the news channels, you would see it caught the news for 2 to 3 days. After that, it disappeared because the news channels were covering other things, things that were happening there. There was no more flood. But let's put that in perspective because I know I had a lot of people who were bashing Dubai at that point. And to say that Dubai does not have a stormwater management system is not far from the truth. There is some truth in that. But let's understand that and let's understand the response. Now, this was the first time in 75 years we had such a rain. What does that tell you? This does not happen in the region, right? You do not put billions of dollars into creating an infrastructure for something that might happen in two generations, right? So that is not good use of public funds because eventually those will all come from taxes, eventually, right? So it doesn't make sense. When you don't have anything there, what we do is we make our buildings to withstand earthquakes because we have Iran on a fault next door, right? Now that is a more real threat to us in this region than a rain like what we had. So we build for that infrastructure. We build to keep dust and sand outside of buildings because we have it in the air. We're in the desert. So our buildings are designed for that because that is our environment in which we live. That's the first thing I want to say. The second thing that I want to say is look at the amount of rain that fell that day. 254 millimeters of rain fell in one day. That's 6 months of rain in London. If that much rain fell in London on one day, London would be underwater, all right? Now let's take it further. If you look at the US and if you look at Europe, the US, every single year you have storm seasons, hurricane seasons. You know they are coming. You know 100% sure they're coming every single year. With all your intelligence, all your technology, and all your money, you're still flooded every year, yeah? Knowing it is coming, you haven't been able to build the infrastructure to stop it. And you're still flooded. You expect a city that has not had anything like this in 75 years to react and respond better than the most intelligent countries in the world? I think we're not being realistic there. Let me take it even further. I did my research. You can do this on Statista.com. Between 2005 and 2022 in 17 years, there were 3,000 major city floodings. That's an average of 176 a year, 14 major city floodings every single month. That's three to four floodings of cities every week for the last 17 years. Suddenly Dubai becomes unique, right? I'll take it even further. On the third day after the rain, Sheikh Hamdan has announced an 80 billion stormwater drainage system. Now that meant the moment that rain hit, we realized we cannot allow this again. They were already talking to governments around the world where they are known to have drainage systems because of the rain. Numbers were coming in. And 3 days later we have announced that we are putting a system. Which city on the planet responds so fast? Look at New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina. 254 millimeters of rain fell, the same amount that fell in Dubai. It took 2 months before 25% of the citizens could come back into the city. Took 4 months before 50% of the residents could come back. It took 12 years to rebuild New Orleans. In 5 days we were back. There was no sign anymore of it. I was here. There's no sign. So when people make these statements, it's not fact-based. Yes. And that's why we have you on. And that's why I have this podcast. And that is exactly what my passion and mission is, Dr. Anan, is to continue to share the facts and to clear misconceptions and therefore to open the doors and create a bridge between America and Dubai real estate. Just happens to be the vehicle, but it's much bigger than real estate. Here in Dubai, I'll just say one thing again here. As an ambassador in Dubai, we understand the world not being able to get who we are and what we're doing. And we embrace the questions because we know who we are. We are not working like any other city. We know who we are. The spirit of Dubai is alive in each and every one of us. So anytime these questions come, they don't offend us. They don't aggravate us. We understand. And we will seek to educate and elevate the opinion and perception of people. This is very important for people to understand. Recently there was a video in Dubai in which Idris Elba, the actor from Hollywood, everyone knows him. He was part of it. They show him as a frustrated young man in New York. He's got all these ideas in his head. He wants to do things. And everywhere it is, "No, that can't be done. That's not possible. It's going to cost too much. There's too much risk involved. No, no, we cannot do that. Just do what we normally do." And in that video we said, "In Dubai, when your idea is impossible, bring your impossible to Dubai. When it's a normal idea, we don't want it. Keep it where you are. Keep the normal there. When it's impossible, bring it to Dubai." Which is why you gave golden visas for these people that bring these ideas. It's not just through investment. So absolutely. Thank you, Dr. Anan. Another powerful, knowledge-filled episode. I love our relationship and being able to have you on to share all of the knowledge that you have. And with that, I welcome you just to subscribe, like, follow, and share this episode. And stay tuned for the next episode of The Dubai Connect podcast.