The Truth Behind Dubai’s Real Estate Boom

Hi. I'm GG Benitez, a certified international property specialist and a licensed realtor connecting global real estate investors with the incredibly lucrative opportunities of Dubai. And this is season 4 of The Dubai Connect. Today I have a guest that I've been trying to get on my podcast for at least two years now. Please help me welcome Dr Anan Menan. Which I'm a little scared. Welcome, Dr Anan. I'm so excited to have you here. I have been watching you for a while now, and your eloquence and the way your passion towards Dubai is absolutely invigorating to me. And so I have been wanting to have you on to share so much of your expertise. But I'm going to start off with this question: why Dubai? Okay, I'm going to answer that with another question. Okay, why not Dubai? Okay, we are a 53-year-old country. We got our independence in 1971. However, it's from the year 2000 when Sheikh Muhammad stood up and brought his father's vision to light where the Dubai that we have today got noticed by the world. In 24 years, we've done this. He talked about your highway systems, your infrastructure. He said you can't do this with money. There's at least 100 other cities that are more richer than Dubai. He said this is love for your people. You can only do this when you have love for your people. When Sheikh Muhammad was interviewed on this and he was asked the same question, he says why everything so quickly, why now? He said why not. I want the best quality of life for my people now, not 20 years in the future. And if we have the ability to do it and we have demonstrated to the world that we can do it, why would we wait? Why would I let my people live an average lifestyle for another 20 years just so I can keep the world happy and have their nod of approval that you guys are growing well now? Fantastic. So we are going to lead the world. This is as simple as that. Another statement of Sheikh Muhammad to show you how he thinks, and this is the spirit of Dubai. He said the future belongs to those who can imagine it, who can design it, and who can execute it. It's not something you await, it's something you create. The singular difference between Dubai and any other city on the planet, including Singapore, which held the accolade for so many years, they're all leaving Singapore and coming to Dubai today. So this is the single greatest difference. All cities, literally all cities on the planet, are organic. What that means is they grow based on geopolitical situations, based on the growth and attractiveness for business and ecosystems in those regions. So they are heavily dependent on each other. And what is happening there, Dubai is an engineered city. We create our city and we create our future. So what's happening in the US, what's happening in India, we've got our eyes on it. But it's not going to slow us down. We were the first city to have a minister for happiness on the planet. Oh my goodness. And it is a woman. And it's a woman, a minister of happiness, a minister for happiness. You're only charged with ensuring people in this city are happy. Are you kidding me? This makes me want to cry right now. And it's a woman because who understands better families, who understands children, who understands grandparents. We are in the Middle East. I like to put it differently. We are no longer in the Middle East. We are the center of the world now. Agreed. Yeah, everything even if you think just from connectivity, right, we really actually, Dubai really is. We are the crossover between the East and the West. However, everybody from around the world is now coming into Dubai. So I like to see us as the center of the world. And again, being in the Middle East, most people who have never traveled to this part of the world, you yourself as an example, you completely change your perception in just one day. So what we have is what is thrown through us by media and then the gossip snowballs that creates a lot of noise. Dubai is supposed to double its population in the next 15 years, right, by with regards to the Master 2040 plan, right? And we're seeing the numbers. We're seeing how many new residents moved to Dubai last year, what the trend is for this year, etc. In addition, Dubai has become a top tourist destination because yes, there is that fancy, luxurious waterfront, incredible lifestyle with the hotels and the restaurants and such a variety. But into that we know the numbers don't lie. Population is happening. And that leads us into this: how does that present an opportunity for global real estate investors, particularly from the United States and Canada who've been priced out of the market there? We know real estate is how to build wealth, generational wealth, right? Absolutely. We know studies have been done on this. I mean, there even quotes about 90% of the wealth is built through real estate. But in a lot of countries around the world, if you even compare Dubai to top global cities, the price per square footage is still quite affordable. The opportunity for capital appreciation is significantly higher than other top cities. Rental yields, short term, which is being squashed in a lot of cities, right? And no property taxes. So we can get into some of the numbers, statistics, and actually one of the videos I saw on you that I loved the way you shared is the Master 2040 plan, the vision, the D33, and what does that mean for investors? Okay, if you remember I did mention something about Dubai being an engineered city. Yes, this is all part of that great masterstroke. You see, we have the Centennial plan which is the Dubai 2071 plan. It's when the UAE becomes 100 years old as an independent country. So what you're seeing now is the milestones leading up to 2071. 2071 is way into the future. We need to plan our 10 years and then the next 10 and then the next extent. So you'll see more of these plans coming out. So everything we're doing is going towards that now. Money follows people. Businesses follow people as well because businesses thrive on demand. When people are not there, there is no demand. You wouldn't go into the middle of the Amazon rainforest and set up a corporate building because there are no people there. So money and business follows people. And the people today are coming to Dubai. We are growing our population by 70% in the next 10 years alone. Actually, 9 years now. That's an average of 280,000 people coming every single year to Dubai. And we will go to 7.8 million by 2040. Can Dubai handle it? Which yeah, 1000%. 1000%. And actually, that's an interesting point you brought up. So before I go onto the D33 plan and the 2040, I want to introduce a concept which I'm sure your listeners are going to relate to easily. It's called a frame of reference. Okay, humans can only understand something if they can relate to it, either through a personal experience or they have seen it or someone has told them about it. Okay, that's what we call a frame of reference. Now our frames of reference are usually historical. They're in the past because it's something I should have known about, I should have heard about, or I should have experienced. Now, that's in the past. So my frame of reference is usually in the past. One challenge. The second challenge is my frames tend to be local or regional. When I haven't traveled to another part of the world, I have no way of interpreting that part of the world. Now, this is the unconscious trap into which all humans fall, including those who are going to be listening to this podcast. I only understand real estate the way I see it in the UK, the way I see it in the US. I don't understand it the way it's happening in Dubai. I've never been to Dubai. So the only frame of reference is what they understand. Which means for me to understand Dubai, it must fit my frame of reference. But why would we want to do that? We want to educate you and expand your mind and your horizons to understand the future. So when you have frames of reference that are historical, and when we are investing in the future, how does a historical frame of reference help you to come to grips with the future? It just doesn't make sense. Wow. And most people haven't even thought about this. And just by dropping this into the podcast you will open minds. I love that. And actually, speaking about that past and future, a little thing that we're talking right before the interview started is I have a passion for Europe. I love traveling to Europe a lot. Americans, you know, it's that Europe because when you go to Europe, there's it's the history, right? It's the museums. It's like Rome is an outdoor museum. And people will say well Gigi, why am I going to come to Dubai? Dubai doesn't have that history. What did you say? Well, I did actually have a webinar with the UK and I was asked this question. And I could see quite a few heads nodding in agreement with the question. I don't think they like me a lot after that. But I'm going to give you the same response. I was asked the same thing: how come you guys don't have culture here, you don't have museums, you don't have galleries? Look at Europe, look at the Americas, look at India, look at China, Thailand. People go there to be a part of the heritage that's there. And I agreed. I said you're right. That's because you guys are history. You guys are the past. When you come to Dubai, you don't come looking for the past. We're a 24-year-old city as you know. Dubai today, we're 53 years old as a country, but the Dubai of today that has caught the imagination of the world is 24 years old. But what we do have is the Museum of the Future because we will show you the next 200 years of the future. So when you come to Dubai, it's for the future, it's not for the past. People who are relocating, the millionaires and the billionaires of the world who are bringing their families here, are they bringing them here for the future or for the past, right? The future. So what is the thing that they should be considering? The future of the city, not the best. I loved when you shared that. So that was a great time to bring that back in. When you're talking about that, speaking of the future, if you could dive more into not only the Master 2040 plans but how that affects when I'm advising a client and I look at different projects, I really make sure that it's lined with the Master 2040 because in you know with my experience and my expertise, if the Sheikh's vision is part of this, it's a high outcome, low risk investment. Yeah, and may you share more about that please? Sure. You see, Sheikh Muhammad recently, I think it's about 3 months ago, he said when you bet on Dubai, you bet on success. There you go. Okay. And because he knew exactly what he was talking about. Now, since we are about the future, what we need to understand is we are now targeting becoming the number one city on the planet, and we will do it. There's no question. Number one city in the planet. How? Okay, because there are economic criteria. For example, last year the economist survey, the global power city index, GPCI, we ranked number three on the planet. And they had four major criteria with sub criteria under that. The first criteria was the stability of the economy today. The number one stable economy on the planet is the UAE. The US, World, and News Reports last year, we were number two. Switzerland was number one. We are now number one. When you have volatile economies around the world, this is a huge reason why families want to come and be here. Because everybody wants to be in a stable economy. The multinationals are all coming in here because they want to set up operations in a stable economy. And that's the reason why the millionaires and the billionaires of the world are moving here. And the highest number of migrations in the world, 6,700 millionaires and their families is coming to Dubai last year. We already topped the charts at 4,500. So when you have that, so in according to that survey, one was the economy, the stability and the growth. The second was new job creation. When you talk of new job creation, we're not saying we have 4,000 chefs in Dubai, we need another 800. We're talking of diversification, new industries coming in. So what happens then is your economy sits on multiple legs and is not going to be dependent on one or two major ones. Where if there is a global issue in that, your economy tanks. We are not like that. We are diversified. So if one is not doing well globally, which does impact us because we are a global city today, we got the others to hold us. And actually along that same line, there's a misconception that Dubai is dependent on oil. We have no oil, right? Dubai has no oil. That's not the industry that Dubai is turned on. Dubai's not been in oil from the year 2000. What are some of the top industries for Dubai? Yes, hospitality, retail, IT, business setups, manufacturing is now coming up in a big way, education, healthcare, tourism, and lifestyle-related industries. AI is a massive thing coming in here. Knowledge capital, we are building alternate technologies that will manage the world. That is the future of Dubai. That's what we're getting into. The biggest airport in the world. We're into logistics. We're now getting into manufacturing. So there is just so much much happening in Dubai to hold us an economy. You will never, you can go to any podcast, you can do any research. You won't find one article that even whispers oil connected to Dubai. Yes, and it's it's the North American, combining and placing Dubai as just the Middle East part of the Middle East. Exactly. And that's part of my that is really my goal. This is why I started The Dubai Connect podcast. Dr Anan is myself, as we mentioned. I already had my own misconceptions. And when I came here day one, as you mentioned, is when everything changed for me. The trajectory of my life changed. In fact, I had no interest in real estate. I actually have owned for 15 years a very successful PR firm representing global companies. And it was lucrative. It was doing well. I'd had it going for you know, 15 years. In one day, I said I have to be part of the future. Dubai is the future. It is the future. It was calling me. And that's when I found that I want to break the misconceptions of Dubai to North Americans. And real estate is just my vehicle to do it. And that's when I went and secured my licensing and my education in real estate to understand real estate. But my goal is so much bigger, Dr Anan. It really is to break those misconceptions and to help Americans understand what is happening in Dubai. Yeah, I think what we need to do is create ambassadors. Yes, that is that for me that's always been number one. We have our own businesses. We're making money. Life's brilliant right now. But more than that, it's being ambassadors for the city of Dubai. I say this to everyone. Yesterday I was at a launch of a brand in Dubai. And even there we had the who's who in real estate were at the event. And up on stage, the first thing I said when I started was very simply this. We live in one of the best cities in the world. It will be the best in the world. You can't come to Dubai. And I'm saying this to the Americans who are watching, to the Canadians, and to anybody who's watching it. You cannot come to Dubai just to build your career here, set up a business, make some money, all of which is going to be going to happen. You can't just bring your families here and create that life. Sell every single one of you here needs to become an ambassador for Dubai. You can't come to enjoy the benefits of the city but leave it to Sheikh Muhammad and the leadership to take the city into the future. That is not acceptable to us. Every single person in Dubai must be a brand ambassador for Dubai. This is the spirit of Dubai, and it echoes in each and every one of us here. We are all unified. Which makes sense why in such a short time we have gone into the, we getting into the future, and we will be number one. The economy survey which I was talking about last year positioned us at number three. Singapore was number two and Switzerland was number one. But we were at number three. So to finish that criteria, the first was stability in the economy. The second was a new job creation. The third was increase in population. Would you would you go to North Korea today? You wouldn't go, right? So people are only going to come to cities where they can see opportunity for themselves, safety, and lifestyle for their families, quality of life. And so they are all coming in here. So population growth is a very very strong indicator that there is an economy that is doing well. We are a soft power economy and city. We're not a power city or a hard city. We are a soft power city. We pull people in. And the fourth criteria was cost of home buying. Because when people are coming in with new jobs, when people are bringing families, they need homes. So one of the major influences to get people to come here is the friendly investment entry into home owning. And that's these were the four criteria. We went to number three. The goal of the 2040 master plan is to be the best city in the world. My view, I cannot support it. But based on everything I'm seeing happening here, we won't need until 2040 to get to number one. Based on the trajectory, it's happening. Look at what's happening here. We won't need it. You look at our airports. Look at our infrastructure. Look at what's happening. Look at the budget that Sheikh Muhammad just announced for. Please may you expand upon that? It's the largest budget in the history of the world. The largest budget in the history of the world. We had 272 billion is going to be invested in infrastructure and projects that will position Dubai as the most attractive city in the world. The direct revenue from that is 302 billion. But then of course there is the ancillary revenue streams that will come out from there. But of course, we are doubling our economy from 14.6 trillion to 25.2 trillion in the next 9 years. We have 9 years left on the 2033 plan. So show me which economy on the planet is going to double in the next 10 years? Show me which city, which forward-thinking city has actually published their agenda for the next 10 years and the next 17 years for the world to see? Not one. It's Dubai. Inc. Dubai operates as a business. It's very strategic. And that's how I always share it. It's Dubai Inc. But again, you see, you have to understand committing to something like that publicly, going out there and saying it, and the numbers so incredible, people are you, right. But then look at the last 20 years what happened. Sheikh Muhammad stood up in the year 2000 and said I will build the best city on the planet. Everybody laughed at him. No, no one's laughing now. No, they're not. No one's laughing now. Unless they're laughing their way to the bank. In fact, the people are leaving those cities that were power cities and they're all coming into Dubai. Dubai, we are opening three new business corridors. Latin America, obviously because of BRICS. It's India, China, and Russia. And who's going to stand against all three of them? And now you got Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran. Many of these countries are coming together. They are the answer. They will be the third punching power on the planet. There is the European Union, which, largely in most people's view, including mine, is gone. There's nothing there. There is the US still that can hold. But not not that strong at the moment. Many of the countries are moving away their national reserves are moving from the US dollars. So they're doing that. So it is shaking. And now you had the third emerging superpower, and they invited the UAE, and we are part of it from the beginning of this year. So we are opening Latin America. We're opening Southeast Asia, obviously because of China and most of those Asian countries, looking to Dubai. And we are opening Africa, which is the emerging economic giant on the planet. So three business corridors. We are doubling the number of cities in our trade map. We are adding 400 new cities in the next 9 years. 400 cities. That's almost 46 cities every single year. That's four cities a month. One city every week. Show me which city in the world is signing a trade agreement with a new city every single week? How then can you not expect the businesses to grow, the foreign direct investments to come in, the people to enter our city? Why do you think we're building an airport to handle 260 million passengers a year in Dubai South? Because we know what's coming. Now you got in my view, there's two types of people when you look at real estate: incredible winners and incredible losers, okay? The winners are coming in now. The losers are waiting and watching. Don't do. Not wait. I mean, this is the other thing: to buy such a transparent real estate market. You can see what's happening. It's not believe us. You are welcome to go and review the numbers. And so the numbers do not lie. And actually, let's transition now into the recent announcement by the Dubai land department and the government about the initiative for real estates, particularly okay. We now have the Dubai real estate strategy 2033. By the way, we also have the Dubai quality of life strategy 2033. We have the Dubai social agenda 2033. The Dubai education agenda 2033. So all of you, so you can see multiple strategies are all coming together. And all of this, to double your economy, you need infrastructure. Another word for real estate is infrastructure. How do you double your economy when you, I need more business parks here? We need business towers. We need warehouses. We need retail. Hotels, hospitality, clubs, beaches. We need retail, food and beverage. We need residential communities. We need residential towers. How do you grow your economy and double it without real estate growing? Yes, the second mistake a lot of people make is when they look at this phenomenal growth in Dubai, they do not connect it with the growth, proportionate growth of the economy. They separate it and look at it as an industry in isolation. If you look at real estate in Dubai isolated from the economy, it's not going to make sense. Good point. It's not going to make sense. But the reason this is happening is these are not greedy developers just coming in and launching communities, just launching. There's a need. There's a demand. There's a strategy. Yeah. Not only that, our communities are big communities. We don't do small things. Emaar has two communities which is worth almost 100 billion dirhams. Just two communities in the Dubai South area. Imagine launching such communities and not having people buy. You finished because you've sold a few units. Now the commitment to deliver is there, right. But where is the money going to come from to create the infrastructure? So based on the future growth plans, based on the belief of what we have done, we are launching. And look at every launch in Dubai, it's selling out in hours. Almost every launch is selling out in hours. Every 18 hours, there's a new launch on an average in Dubai. But this is not for now because we are heavily driven by off-plan. This is for the future. That is another frame of reference. When you look at the US markets, they're largely ready homes market, correct. There's almost no off-plan market. So my frame of reference is a home that's ready. I don't put money on sand, correct. But again, that is a frame that works in the US. Keep it in the US. Sure. So this is actually one of the obstacles that I've had is to really help counsel about off-plan why that's the better investment in many cases because you're getting in 20 to 30% less expensive. But then what I'm having a hard time with: remember how you just mentioned that everything is selling even before launch day, correct? Right. Is that significance of the EOI and a strategy to make sure to secure the prime unit and a unit at all? Because how many real estate agents do you have competing for how many units that are being launched at a time? Okay, we have about 18,000 real estate brokers in Dubai. These are the legal ones that we have. You know, there's always the references and people who are not listed who are working in the market. But the point is not about the 18,000. You have to remember, we're selling to the world, right? So when you're selling to the world, we will have a significantly larger number of people operating from within the business. When we are launching units, the number of units that's launching 60 to 880,000 units is a walk in the park that we're launching. Because the requirement in Dubai is between 60 to 880,000 units every single year for the next 17 years. So when you have that requirement, we have to launch. The challenge with most people, I'll explain this and then get back to the real estate strategy. Property works in cycles, okay? That's how everybody understands it. Not for Dubai. For the first time in the history of the planet, we have a city that uses a property wave, not a cycle. This is why I'm saying frames of reference don't work for Dubai because frames are past. They're history. We about the future. In a typical cycle in a fast-moving economy, you'll have about 2 to 3 years of an upward tick, right? Then once those what was launched 2 or 3 years ago starts coming in, you see a slow flattening, all right? No more launches from the developers because they know ready inventory is going to come out, which people bought from them. 30% 40 in Dubai 80% lesser than what I'm pricing now. So it's logic. No one's going to buy from me. They're going to go to them. So the developers hold back. And the ready inventory that comes in starts getting absorbed by the homeowners who were looking for the mortgages, which could not come on the off-plan property. So a new type of buyer emerges in that downward cycle, okay? Now in that moment, what happens is many of the early entry people are able to play with the pricing quite a bit because they have the advantage of coming in low. But now the prices are here. So that's what happens. 2 to 3 years, market absorption happens. And then the new cycle starts. In Dubai, we have no such thing. If you look at a typical property cycle, there will be a buyer market at one point and then there will be a seller market. That's how it starts with a seller market and then goes into the buyer market. In Dubai, both are happening at the same time. For the first time in the history of the planet, the sellers are dictating terms today. And the buyers are being given multiple opportunities for future benefits as well. And when you see all the handovers that's been happening, especially from last year, we are looking at probably 200,000 units being handed over in the next 5 years. I don't believe that's going to happen. About half of that will happen. But even with so so much handover happening, we're seeing launches at the same time. The launches haven't slowed down. They're getting even faster. The reason for that is we we have approximately 250,000 new people coming every single year into Dubai. We need 50,000 homes just for those new people. Average family size in Dubai is 5.3. Yes, you can get that from the CEC, Census and Economic Information Center. So five people to a family means we need 50,000 new homes just for the new people coming into Dubai. What about those who are currently renting, who have been here for a few years, have put some cash in their bank and are now looking to buy? What about the holiday home companies, which are really doing well now? We've had a 30% increase in just one year. They are approaching landlords closer to the homes being ready and saying give it to us. Let's manage it for you. So there is this huge demand and pressure in the market. So in a typical cycle, if we had the launches, handovers happening, and we say okay, let's wait for the handovers to finish in the next 4 years, is when I would start launching again, okay? But in the next 4 years, 1 million people have entered the city. And you know, Dr Anan, to that point, is that Bloomberg just actually published an article maybe a month ago saying that they had predicted a slowing down in the cycle. And they had to come back and actually say we take that back. The predictions, the ex, what is happening has defied our predictions. And CBR even said there is no slowdown in sight. There is no slow. This is the problem. I'll tell you, and I'm being very brutal about this. You have a lot of these global organizations. They look at historical cycles and then they try to interpret. Correct. MP Global came out 2 weeks ago, and then they said rents are going to drop because of the handover so. Yes, they have no clue what they're talking about. I'm sorry. I with all respect for them, a global organization, they don't understand the Dubai in the future market because just 2 days ago, articles have all come out saying 18% will be the increase next year. So who do I go with? I will go with intelligence that understands the models of business here than some remote sitting guy who has got good research ability but he's giving numbers that don't make sense. They'll have to take their word back again. Yes. And this has been happening over the years, over the years. People make predictions based on the mod like you said, that frame of reference. What you have here is we don't have fighting factions. The entire government and leadership is on the same page. There is no red tape. There is no being bought by a lobby group for another country. This is for the people of Dubai, right? Yeah. Today, Dubai has become the solution to the problems of the world. If you're in the Middle East, people don't know if they're going to wake up in the morning because of what is happening. We're giving you 17-year growth plans where you can plan your future, the future of your family, and your kids. No other city is giving you that. Taxes are killing people and breaking their backs around the world. We're giving you friendly tax structures that are actually encouraging people to move in here because you make more money that way. And you keep more of the money you make. Because even, for example, apples to apples comparison, Dr Anan, maybe I make in the United States the same money as my counterpart here in Dubai. But I get 30 to 40% taken from that while we still have homeless people in the streets unfortunately, whereas here the government continues to give to its people and provide to its people, not take from its people. You will not find one homeless person on the street. You will not find dirty streets. You will not find the graffiti on our walls. You will not find crumbling infrastructure. And the most important thing is that you just mentioned is the safety of our children going to school. As a mother of three, that's there are multiple things. We have become the safety answer to the world. We have become the economic answer to the world. We've become the answer to the taxes of the world. Setting up businesses and quality of life strategy. We have become an answer to the world. The money that you put into New York to buy real estate, the money you put in London, in Monaco, you'll get three times the property in Dubai. Now here's the amazing thing. I will go to London. I will go to New York. I'll go to one of the older cities like Mumbai, etc. I will pay three times the amount for smaller little units in buildings where the infrastructure is crumbling, the gym is in the basement, you're staring at a wall. The streets are not clean. There are cracks on the streets. Bridges are falling down. Government put funding of infrastructure to repair is extremely slow. Crime is as high as a skyscraper. And I'll pay three times the money for that when you can get three times the value of property in a spanking new city with world-class infrastructure that gives you the solutions to every problem that you have and promises you the best quality life. And we have an issue with that, right? You need to stay where you are and and no, come to Dubai. Hmm. But to touch upon that, and this can be a whole other topic, and I actually cover it on my Instagram, is the lifestyle, right? Like the restaurants, the shows, the beautiful beaches, the clean water, the gorgeous meeting areas. Or oh my goodness, I could sit in Dubai Mall at one of those restaurants and watch the Burj Khalifa show for hours and be mesmerized. Last night I was at Wasel Dome. They just opened up again. The evening shows at Wasel Dome. The Museum of the Future. The diversity in the cuisine here, right. And then when we say mall, you know, in the United States we think it's very different than when you go to a mall here. So it's all the safety, the economic opportunities and the investment opportunities, the education, and an enjoyable quality of life. Absolutely going to our metro stations. Yes, they look like the lobbies of five-star hotels in Europe. And the, by the way, and the smells in Dubai, every mall, every store, the oud smells, it's just intoxicating. Everything about this city, you cannot compare it to any other city on the planet. Now to go back to the real estate strategy because we keep going, please. There's so much for us to talk about. According to the real estate strategy, our vision now is to sell 1 trillion dirhams worth of real estate every year from 2033 onwards. Wait wait wait wait. 1 trillion. 1 trillion. 1 trillion. And the strategies published for the world to see. Will we do it? Absolutely. Like every other strategy which we published and achieved, we will do this as well. We are going to increase the volume of real estate transactions by 70%. For who? It's the world that's coming here. We real estate will contribute 73 billion to the Dubai economy. The vision of the rulers is 33% of the people here will be home owners. They will have their own home. Their future life is in Dubai. That is the strategy just for the real estate. We have multiple strategies just like this. Manufacturing was one that was not around but part of the 2040 urban master plan. We have now dedicated 168 square kilometers in Dubai South for manufacturing, okay? Let me just put that number in perspective. I'm using Singapore as an example only because I've been doing a lot of travel. I'm now looking after 12 Southeast Asian countries, okay. Singapore as a country is 734 square kilometers. 22% of the size of that country is just our economic zone. Wow. 22% of the size of that country. So when you look at our airports, when you look at the coral reefs that we are putting, the mangroves, when we're looking at how we are making the emirate green, mandatory for all communities now to be blue green, we are increasing our beaches by 400%. But that is not just ocean front beaches. Today we have a new concept of beaches, right? We are building our beaches and lagoons in the deserts. You do not have to come to the ocean front to have a beach experience. You can have it in the desert itself. Every major community, there is not one community that has been launched in the last 3 years and going forward that will not have a lagoon or a beach as part of the. So we are distributing even a waterfront beach experience right across our city into the deserts. Which which city is doing these things? This is an engineered city. This is the vision that we have. People who cannot relate to this because their frames of reference. This is what I'm talking about. Even with futuristic governments in any city, there's no way you're going to find this kind of growth potential anywhere on the planet. Which is the reason why today Dubai has been given the nod by everybody. Let's just look at COVID. One simple example. The two countries that led the responses in the COVID battle was Israel and the UAE, and then we became number one. The fastest city to open. No risk attached was Dubai. 4 months after the shutdown. It took China 2 and a half years. After that, but in 4 months we were open and running for business. Because when we lock down here, first thing about this city, people love the government. They respect the law. They respect the law. Which is the reason why the government is able to initiate things because they know their people are with them. We locked down our cities at 8:00 in the evening. There was an alert that would come. Everybody went indoors. And you could see the city getting sanitized. Where do you sanitize entire cities? That's how they did it here. And we opened in 4 months. And the long-term ramifications of that, actually that's probably when we saw in Dubai a huge amount of global investor confidence because this was an unplanned natural disaster. And so many of the strongest economies in the world suffered greatly, not just economically but emotionally and mentally and our children in schools. So when we look at, not only was that great, that Dubai was able to recover quickly from an investment economic strength standpoint, but what that means and what that translates to, you know, for children and for families and mental health. So that was that. And then the floods. How Dubai handled the recent floods. I'll talk about the flood but before that I want to tell you something else. What really brought people to Dubai after that? In 4 months we shut down. We opened. And when we gave the vaccines, we did not differentiate between the Emiratis, the locals, and the municipality worker whom you never see in the daytime who keeps our city so amazingly clean in. We did not differentiate with anyone. I always say this in my podcast: if something had to happen to my family, I wish they're in Dubai when it happens because my government will respond. Let's talk about floods. What happened? We had a flood and yes it hit Dubai bad, okay. 254 mm of rain fell in one day. Hmm. That's the amount of rain that falls in the UK in 6 months. If that much rain fell in London on one day, London would have been underwater. Many cities on the planet would have been underwater now. The first thing is this was not the cloud seeding which a lot of people thank you for addressing that. A lot of people said oh this is the cloud seeding. Said cloud seeding is controlled seeding, right? You don't you don't cloud seed to flood your city, okay? That's the first thing. Second thing is everybody, all the channels that talk, that measure weather, climate, all of the experts said this happened for the first time in 75 years. Now what does that tell you? When when something happens in 75 years, firstly, it's not normal. So don't expect a normal response to something that's not normal, right? That's the first thing. Second thing is people said no storm water drainage systems. How come you don't have them in the city? You don't build infrastructure for something that does not happen. It's as simple as that. People don't get it. So we don't have rain in this part of the world. So we build to sustain earthquakes. We build so that our buildings are insulated against sand coming inside because that's our ecosystem. So we build for that, which is the regular part of our landscape. We don't build for one rain in 75 years. Even when that happened, we already had a committee sitting in the government, and 2 days after the rain, Sheikh Hamdan has already announced an 80 billion dirham storm water drainage system. In 2 days. Days. Show me one city that responded so quickly with a solution. Now think of the solution. How ridiculous it is. We're going to put 80 billion into a storm water system for something that might happen again in 75 years. Exactly. Now, but that is how responsive. That's why I always say when something happens to my family, I wish they're in Dubai now. Let's again put that further into perspective. You have hurricane seasons in the US, yes. Of tornado seasons, storm seasons. And you know, and you know, they are happening every single year. You know it is happening. And still your cities are flooded, yes. So when there is something is going to happen for sure every single year with all the technology that you have, you can't prevent it. Why then suddenly a city where something does not happen has to be different? I think that's one of the most unfair judgments that people made on the city when they're their own cities with for warnings cannot handle it. You just had it recently again. So very very unfair. Now let's take it even further. I did my research, okay? If go to statista.com and if you look for from 2005, yes, from 2005 to 2022, 17 years, there were 3,000 major city floodings in the world, okay? That's an average of 170 a year. That's 14 every month. That's an average of 3 cities flooded every single week for the last 17 years. People didn't have an issue with that. But one flood in Dubai and they had the issue. In fact, I I actually will challenge. I don't think people had an issue. I think that people are mesmerized by how quickly. I mean, there were some social media viral videos. I'm talking outside Dubai in Dubai, no one has an issue with it. I mean, even yes, right. But even in the United States, when you saw how quickly we recovered, like, for example, we're getting images of the extremely unfortunate situation happening in Spain right now, which I spent the summer in in the south of Spain and Valencia's one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to in my life and unfortunately and there's a huge issue with the government right now and it's very sad. And so I do believe that Dubai continues to impress, yes, by how quickly it recovers from such as you said something that cannot have possibly between COVID and floods. Those are two situations could not have imagined or predicted. But how quickly it took care of its people and is ensuring that the future will never happen again. It won't happen again. When you have your season when when you have something happening every year, you're not insuring exactly. But that's that's my point. So that comparisons just don't make any sense. I'll give you one more. 254 mm of rain fell in Dubai on that one day. Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, exactly the same. 254 mm in 2 days. It took 2 months before 25% of the residents could come back to the city. It took 4 months before 50% of the people could come back to the city. It took 9 years to rebuild New Orleans. In 5 days we were, we all going to work. Incredible. I love that. And we are coming up to the end of the podcast. I'm going to ask you a question that I feel you are very experienced and an expert to answer this based on. And we're going to turn the topic a little bit. Based on your position doing real estate but also training real estate agents, when someone's in the United States or in Canada or the UK or Germany and they're maybe not even planning on coming to Dubai, how can they pick the best realtor to help guide them into this new market? Okay, I think there is due diligence that needs to be done. You cannot avoid that. Don't have the monkey see, monkey do or the herd mentality. A lot of people are buying. Let's buy. I have an agent because today Dubai is reaching out to the world. So you will have at least 20 agents contacting you. But do your due diligence. Firstly, every agent that contacts you, ask for their certification, okay? Second, ask for the legacy of the company. Research the company. What they have been doing. Everybody today, regardless of where you in the world, has got someone in Dubai, okay? Pick up the phone, make a call. Say I was contacted by this person from X company. Could you ask around and just let me know about them. There are people today who are known on social media. There are some very very good people in Dubai who are out there. You can reach out to any of us and we will tell you that is an amazing agency or I'm sorry. I'm not sure that's the best one to go with. So make sure that done. Second thing is make sure when you speak with these agents that they are sound in terms of their knowledge. Global trends, regional trends, real estate trends, data on real estate. For any and every bit of information they give you, simply ask them what's your qualified source on this information? Where exactly did you get it from? Someone tells you you can easily make 20% a year. Said wow, that sounds amazing. Can you tell me how exactly you decided that? Fantastic. Which report can you share with me that? And if they can't share it with you, you don't want to be working with these people. The other thing you want to be always careful about is most of these people, especially let's say the US, are going to come in as investors, either quick quick short-term investors or longer term. Always consider three things, okay? The mistake that is made by many of the brokers here or even by the buyers is they look at the entry exit. Looks attractive on paper. Currently we are at 17.62%. We'll reach almost 19% by December. So on paper that looks fantastic. That 17.62 is an average in the market. That means in some areas you're not getting 17.62. It is below that. And in some areas, it's even more. This is an average. You need to that's the first thing. So I need to check if the area that is being offered to me is it meeting the average or above? Because it's only the better ones that will go above the average, correct? So if it is not that, just don't take 17.62 across the whole market. One. Secondly, yes, that's the average. But there is the right point of exit. If someone tells you in 2 years, 3 years you can exit and you can make amazing money, true. But in which area? Because our communities are so big that the communities take between 8 to 15 years to complete. In some cases, so they have launches of sub communities or clusters which will be handed over every 3 or 4 years. So it is true that that area will appreciate. However, in 3 years time, the mall is not up in the community. The hospital is not there. Schools haven't opened. So while it looked great on paper when I was buying based on projection, at the point of exit, the community is not yet ready to offer a lifestyle. There are no buyers. There are no buyers. So you will have to drop your price or the leverage moves to the next buyer because he has advantage over you. So a good broker will will introduce you to the entry to the correct holding strategy and the right exit strategy. Never go with just that one. Never go directly with a developer. Because the problem with the developer is, again, if I am, I won't take any names because I don't want to sound political here. I'm developer X. Of course I'm going to tell you my product is the best in town and definitely I'm not going to tell you we had delays in certain communities or we have major issues going on. I'm going to tell you I'm the best. And in some cases, they'll even downplay the other developers, very unethical and way of selling. So a broker's role here is they operate within the market. Hmm. Even if you go to developer X and the product is actually good, the broker confirms to you yes, this makes sense. Even which unit within that development is most strategic. And then the post sale, a post sale service. Not only that, see you want to invest. You have X amount. You're going to X developer. Maybe there is developer Y who's got something as good or gives you something slightly different which developer X will never tell you. But a good broker will tell you this is really good. But hang on a second. Let's just check that one out also because they'll give you everything getting here but I know they'll give you this as well, okay? But Dr Anan, let's say then we advise our client that but then they go to directly to that developer, okay? Again, if a person who wants to go directly to the developer, firstly, has that intent from the very beginning, you cannot avoid these kind of people, okay? That's the first thing. Second thing is when they go to the developer directly, the guy will welcome them with open arms. He'll close the deal for you. After that, you're gone. He's not going to follow up for you. He's not going to be there to help you in the renting it out. He's not going to be there to help you to resell it. So that's a one-time transaction. So and and what was the reason to go to them directly? What is your benefit? You are not paying me anything as a as I'm being paid by the developer. And that's a misconception. I have had situations in the past 2 weeks, Dr, on where a client purchased directly to the developer then went on YouTube and started research more about the developer and one of my podcast episodes would come up and they'd reach out to me and say okay, we want you to work with us. We bought so and so project with so and so developer. And I said but you know, you've already bought. I'm not able to advise you now like I'm not your agent on this. It serves them right. It but it's it's it's really misinformation or lack thereof. And so I'm trying to get ahead of that by really helping them understand they're not paying our commission. The developers are. But you have the added benefit of, like you said, serving the market. Not a developer. Neutral advice. Strategic advice. And then the post sale service of helping you from the SBA to the Oqood, to timing the sale of your property, to building your portfolio, to strategically timing when you sell, like you said, whether it's a three-year or six-year exit strategy, stry to the rental returns, to the mortgage broker, to the international tax accountant and tax attorney. And that's what I'm doing at GG Benitez International. So yeah. I think one thing you could probably help educate them on is because, those, again, I'm going back to that golden thing, frame of reference. They come from markets where largely it has been ready home. So they've always had to shell out something. So somewhere in their own unconscious mind, the belief is that I need to be paying out something and I'm trying to avoid that. So that they tend to bring you because they don't understand the off-plan market. Yes, that's the first thing. The second thing is what I call skinny mentality. Skinny mentality is I want the most for the least. Hmm yeah, and it's never going to work. Then then you're going to get the least for the least. You get what you pay for. Absolutely. So what happens is I always ask my investors. I would say okay, what's really important to you? Is it the price or the cost? Wow, and most of them are not able to. What do you mean? Yeah wow, they don't get it. The price of the cost? It's the price of the cost because what you're at now is price. What I have to pay now. The cost is what you'll pay for the next 10 years when you're stuck in that project. Yes. Thank you. And with that we will close this out but I will say this was even greater than I thought it was going to be. There was even more. And I think we could do three more hours. We we just scratched the surface. I think we probably will have to do a few more before if I even leave. By the way, I bought a one-way ticket to Dubai. So I'm not even sure if and when I'm leaving. Yeah, no, the US has closed airports to you. They said she's going out there and she's promoting Dubai. We don't need her here. I'm going to show up at the airport with a blacklist of my photo. So I thank you for your expertise, your time, your passion, your shared passion about Dubai because I feel it in my heart, in my bones, and I'm I'm excited to be able to share the expertise that you've provided to my audience. So until next time, thank you, Dr Anan. Thank you for having me. Thank you. And with that, please make sure to like, subscribe, subscribe, share, follow and stay tuned for the next episode of The Dubai Connect podcast.