The Truth About Dubai Real Estate Investment Americans Need to Know!

Competition is fierce, but that does not scare me. I think that my competitive edge comes from immense confidence. What Dubai is doing is unlike any market in the world. I'm all about my relationships with the developers and the people I work at the developers offices and with my clients. Welcome to Season 7 of The Dubai Connect podcast hosted by myself, GG Benitez, a first-generation Arab-American realtor licensed in California as well as here in Dubai, a certified international property specialist guiding global investors into Dubai and the greater UAE. I cannot believe that this is the seventh season and today we do things a little differently and I'm in the hot seat being asked questions. Stay tuned. Hello, GG. First of all, she's behind the camera, but she's one of my favorites here at Podster. Hi. Hello. Okay, so we're just going to get down and break through the entire process and we're going to find out who is GG and how did she make a play in the Dubai real estate market. So what is the origin story? Great question. Thank you for asking because my sense of fulfillment is far greater than being a real estate agent. I'm not just a real estate agent. I am a first-generation Arab-American. My mother is Iraqi. My father is Jordanian Palestinian. My mom is actually Chaldean, which was a minority from Iraq, and I was born and raised in the United States. I had never been to the Middle East and three and a half years ago I came to Dubai and within 24 hours I changed the trajectory of my future. I was so entranced with what Dubai was doing and it was absolutely against everything I had understood about Dubai from the media that we are privy to growing up in the United States. I had so many misconceptions. I felt a calling because I am Arab-American. I felt that I was being called to something greater than myself, to connect Dubai and the United States. It just happens to be that real estate is that vehicle to do so. But my greater umbrella and sense of fulfillment comes from breaking misconceptions, opening the eyes of fellow Americans and other global citizens to understand what Dubai is all about. In terms of that, have you ever felt competition within this region while you're advertising it to the potential buyers outside? Oh yes, real estate. Are you asking with regards to real estate? In Dubai, the numbers keep climbing. We hear 30, 40,000 licensed registered real estate agents in Dubai and then many that are performing unfortunately illegally that are not registered, not RERA-certified. Competition is fierce, but that does not scare me. I've always been in competitive markets. Before I engaged in real estate, my second postcol graduate job was in pharmaceutical sales. If you know anything about pharmaceutical sales, that is an extremely competitive market. That really prepared me because I was sitting and talking to cardiologists and persuading them to prescribe my company's medication over the competitors. Cardiologists are some of the most educated, powerful people in any industry. To be able to have a conversation with my little bachelor's degree and them much higher educated about medicine, it gave me a lot of confidence to be able to speak to people and to understand what I'm speaking about very clearly first, not to be unintelligent with the points that I make, because you would have been called out very quickly and kicked out. After that, I owned, I started a PR firm. For 20 years I've been the CEO of a public relations agency where I represent global brands, celebrities, and influencers and secure them on national and international media. That is another very competitive market. Come to real estate in Dubai, it's fiercely competitive and that is why differentiating yourself from the competition is key. So is that what gives you your competitive edge, your previous work history and everything? I think that my competitive edge comes from immense confidence truly. I think that's one thing that I have had instilled in me and I hopefully instill in all three of my children as well. Well, they're not children, they're adults now. Educate yourself on whatever topic you're speaking to. So for example, when I was in pharmaceutical sales, before I walked into a doctor's office, I had to study clinical research studies so that when I walked in, I knew the difference between statistically significant and just significant and what was a differentiator between this medicine and another medicine. I learned very quickly: understand what you're speaking. As you have knowledge, knowledge gives you confidence. My confidence, it's not so much that I'm competing against someone else. It's that I know myself. I know my offerings. I know my differentiators. I don't think myself like I want to get more sales than this other real estate agent. I just know that for my demographic of investors that I'm guiding, I believe that I have significant differentiators that would allow me to stand and rise above others. Awesome. So then why Dubai specifically? Great question. I live in San Diego, by the way, which is considered America's finest city. When I first started coming to Dubai, people said, "Are you crazy? It's so hot there. What are you doing? It's the Middle East. It's a 16-hour flight. You live in San Diego." Right now, I'm actually living in La Hoya, which is the jewel of California. It's perfect weather year-round. It's stunning, gorgeous, coastal. But Dubai allows me to explore my roots as an Arab. What Dubai is doing is unlike any market in the world. That's what happened when I first came here and I said, "Okay, I need to do this. This place is calling me and I need to do something." When I started to study and research all the different industries, I realized that real estate was doing extremely well. We knew record numbers were happening. Major migration, population expansion, tourism consistently outpacing the year before. Why? What was going on? What were the fundamentals that were shaping the real estate market in Dubai? That was my first question: uncovering the why. Then I said, okay, I get it. I understand now about the GDP. I understand about the initiatives that are in place. The Sheikh's vision, that he wants to make Dubai the greatest city in the world. I understood all of that very easily. The Master 2040 plan, the Sheikh's story, how Dubai came to be and what the future plans are. The next thing was okay, now I get it. That's the why of Dubai. There's money to be made. There's harmony. There's safety. Ultra-high net-worth individuals are moving here. Major companies are setting up their headquarters here, including American companies. So why weren't Americans, when I first started a few years ago, why had they not caught on yet? I went to uncover why and the same reply came up over and over again. Americans were intrigued. They started watching these different Netflix shows that were talking about Dubai. They saw the bling, bling, bling and the money, money, money. They wanted a piece of it, but they were missing a connect. Ding, ding, ding. I get it. And I love that. That's where I came in and said, I'm going to fulfill that. I went and now I have my license in California. I'm working with investors in Southern California. I'm Middle Eastern, so Middle Eastern Americans are heavy into investing in real estate. I basically went on this whole quest across the US and my Canadian friends and family, asking what is your hesitation? What are the questions you want uncovered? What are your objections? What has caused you to not make the move? Even though you know the money is being made in Dubai real estate, why are you not? I started coming to Dubai months at a time. I had a lucrative business. I left that lucrative business. I invested heavily into spending months at a time to meet from the top on down. I didn't start from the bottom up. I went directly to the government. I went directly to the DLD. I had the DLD on my podcast, asked all the questions I needed to understand about the safety of investing in Dubai and the process. I had attorneys, international accountants, top-tier developers. Not any developer. Who are the most reputable ones? Who have the most proven track record? I applied that to my real estate. I want proven track record. I want data. When I want to go talk to an investor, I need to have all this to be able to present why Dubai over, let's say, California or Spain where I spent a lot of time. So that's the why, the how, and then the where changes depending on the time that we're talking about. Dubai is one of the fastest-moving real estate markets in the world. The Dubai Connect podcast is now Season 7. I even have a playlist dedicated to first-time investors that really goes through the steps A through Z of how to buy, what's going on, what are the fundamentals, what's driving the economy, what does the future look like, answering questions about the safety, about the Golden Visa, about financing, about property management. When they're ready to make the decisions about where to invest, they can reach out to me and my team and I help guide them. So why just Dubai and why not the other six emirates? Yes, great, right? Dubai, which a lot of Americans think that Dubai is the country. Dubai is an emirate in the United Arab Emirates. I am talking about the other emirates too. We have Abu Dhabi. Amazing things happening there with Disney coming there. We have an NYU campus there, which Americans love hearing about. We have so much happening in Abu Dhabi as the capital of the United Arab Emirates. There's the F1 track there. Let's not. Oh wait, what is that? The F1 track. Yes, Yas Marina. The F1 track. Yes. There's so many. Actually, Abu Dhabi, a report just came out that said that the number one tourist by nationality in 2025, I believe, were Americans. Americans are definitely catching on and coming to Abu Dhabi. Ras Al Khaimah has also been another emirate that I've talked about and helped guided investors in. What is the main anchor in Ras Al Khaimah that Americans particularly love? The Wynn Casino. Okay. Because the Wynn Casino in Vegas, I mean, in California, that's what you do on the weekends. You get on the plane, you go to Vegas, you go to the casinos, particularly Wynn, you come back. There's that familiarity and it brings more of like, oh, I see, this is like what we have here. We know that the numbers, we know what happens when a casino comes in. It's the first and only gaming casino in the entire GCC. Then I've sold in Umm Al Quwain as well. So I am touching upon the other emirates, but Dubai is Dubai. For a first investment, as they're starting to build their portfolio, the safest, most tried and true, where the most transactions are happening and the greatest numbers are there, would be Dubai. So why is it just real estate then? Why not other asset classes? It's a great question. Real estate is that thread that easily ties around the entire globe. People understand it very easily and 90% of wealth is built through real estate. We look at what's happening in a lot of the world right now. You know, there's a great example. I had a great salary in my position as pharmaceutical sales. My daughter right now has a great salary. She's in medical sales in Manhattan, New York. My other children are graduating college soon and will come out. What we know is, especially if you're American, taxes eat into your salary significantly. No matter how much you make, if you don't know how to invest it, you cannot create wealth and generational wealth. Most importantly, passive income. Real estate is an opportunity to do that. It's a language that everybody in the globe understands. It's a proven language and there's no better place right now to build your real estate wealth. No greater opportunity regardless of your income class to build your real estate wealth. No easier city, no more transparent city, no safer city, no more lucrative than Dubai. Amazing. So what do you think? What do you forecast for the future when it comes to the real estate market in Dubai and in this region? It's not even about what I think. It's what we are seeing. When I go back to talking about Dubai being a very transparent real estate market, there are portals, including the DLD website, where you can see the trends and you can see the increase of price per square foot. This is where it's important to work with someone who has boots on the ground and not just through Google. For example, I say this a lot. You just look at a Google map and you say, "Oh no, this is 45 minutes from downtown." Do you know what the vision is? It's not about where I think. It's about trusting the Sheikh and his vision and the Master 2040 plan, the D33 agenda, and making sure that my guidance is based on those. Because of the proven track record that Sheikh Muhammad bin Rashid al-Maktum and the entire government has had on creating the best lifestyle, economic opportunity, stability, and safety in Dubai and in the greater UAE, that gives me faith to continue to follow what they are envisioning. When I guide an investor on a certain particular area to invest in, it's because that is part of the Master 2040 plan. The government is placing infrastructure, billions in infrastructure in certain areas, the metro connectivity right where the RTA is going to be. Then it comes down to which developers have the best profile and understanding that as well. Dubai just hit 4 million residents. They're growing at a rate of 200,000 new residents a year. The GDP forecast got upped even more than it was before. Dubai is constantly being rated as the safest city in the world, the cleanest city in the world, the best city for travel in the world. We know that the entry points for real estate are very competitive compared to other global markets. When you look at the trajectory, looking at the track record and what's been proven, we know that we're starting to mature, but there is so much opportunity and growth to happen. Every day there's a new initiative that is announced that continues to surprise us and make it even more attractive to work, live, play, and invest in Dubai. Honestly, I'm getting so excited. What is the process then? What is the entire buyer's process? How does one start with your guidance and how do they see a little bit of return on their investment? What is the process? Great question. Thank you. I do address this on The Dubai Connect podcast. I'll just go through it A through Z. I specialize in off-plan projects right now. That is where I would suggest for someone who's coming in for maximum capital appreciation to invest in, because we're getting you into an underdeveloped area, pre-construction, at pre-construction prices. The first and foremost is for me to understand what is an investor's goals. What is success defined in their eyes? Because that's subjective and everyone has a different definition. What's their timeline? What are the price points they're comfortable investing in? Are they looking for the Golden Visa? Are they going to need financing? Are they looking for long-term rentals or Airbnb? All this goes into play to help determine the options that are best suited for this type of investor. Once we gather that information, establish an understanding and rapport, then we find them, let's say, the project or opportunities, whether it's commercial, residential, that they are interested in. Then we have to submit what's called an EOI, an Expression of Interest, which is a fully refundable deposit and their passport to just show that they are interested in this project before the launch day. Then on the launch day, when units are allocated, let's just say God willing, they get their unit or units, we proceed. Whatever the EOI amount will be credited towards the 20%, typically 20% down payment deposit on this project, and a one-time 4% Dubai Land Department fee. Then that client will be on a payment plan to the developer through an escrow account that's managed by the Dubai Land Department for their safety during the construction period, which is an average of 3 to 5 years. A few months before handover, the clients and I will discuss the next strategy. Are they looking to secure financing? Are they looking to just hold on to it, pay that final amount due on handover, rent it out long-term, short-term? We start planning and strategizing. Whether it's putting it on the market, marketing it, or securing financing for them. Regarding the sweet spot, if they're looking for capital appreciation, that's typically right before handover. I always say don't get into Dubai real estate market thinking you're going to be a flipper, unless you consider flipping being right before handover. You got to hold on to it 3 to 5 years, ideally a little bit more. That asset will continue to gain value. Now we're renting it out. Right now the numbers stand anywhere between 6 and 9% average for long-term rental returns, a couple percent more for short-term rental returns. We continue to build their portfolio here in Dubai. If they're looking for the Golden Visa, my team and I help them secure their Golden Visa where they can sponsor their spouse, their parents, and unmarried children. Do you only specialize in off-plan projects or do you also specialize in projects that are ready? Most, the majority, the vast majority of my demographic, my client base are investors. From an investment perspective, it would be off-plan. That may change over the next several months. Of course, I have clients whose off-plan projects are coming ready. Where I'm lucky is, as I mentioned, I have a sister company here in Dubai and we have team members. So I will be collaborating with the other team members that are locally based because I split my time between Dubai and San Diego. We will help them with the marketing and selling. We have specialists that are dedicated to that as well and even rentals. We have specialists on the team here in Dubai that are dedicated to renting. That's what I meant by having that ecosystem. Right now from an investment perspective, off-plan is the way to go. But then I'm going to be selling those off-plan projects for them in the next couple of years or renting them out. Okay. Now someone is looking to live here, move here, or they have capital and they want it to work for them right away through rental income and they're ready to make a purchase and they're okay bypassing that premium that they're going to have to pay the original owner. I have team members that are specialists on that. Whatever the client's needs are when it comes to Dubai real estate, I have somebody within my team that's a specialist in that topic. Awesome. And what is a common mistake that you and your team see potential investors making? Something that's coming up repeatedly that I actually feel really bad about are investors from Canada and the United States that are calling me and asking me to sell their projects, but they're not projects I would ever have sold to them. They were just under the impression they purchased either directly through the developer or online or through an agent they no longer have a relationship with. They come to me and they want to purchase. They want to sell this project and I say, "Well, first of all, why don't you go ask the agent that sold this project to you?" "Oh, I lost touch with them." Dubai real estate is a very transient business. People come in, they don't make their money in 3 months, they're out. Someone purchased directly through the developer. Very short-sighted. You purchased directly through the developer. What's your exit strategy? The biggest mistake I see, especially if you're based in North America, so you are 16 hours away and you don't have boots on the ground, is not understanding the exit strategy and just thinking buying anything and buying it cheaply and then you're stuck with a project in the desert. How are you going to make money off of it if you can't sell it or rent it out? It's like the lack of information paired with no knowledge of how the industry works or how the market works. There's a problem with short-sightedness and I can pretty much weed out those clients when they come to me as well. But sometimes they'll be shopping brokers and they're looking for the ones that give a quote-unquote discount. Top-tier developers don't give discounts. That's called a kickback, which is illegal, by the way. If a broker is willing to conduct themselves illegally and not prove their value to you themselves and give you a kickback, is that broker going to be in the business in 3 years when you come back and need your project sold? Or do you want someone who values themselves? Commission is paid by the developer anyway. You want someone who's there to hold your hand since you are all the way across the world to help you make the best decisions to gain the most return on your investment. Are you allowed to like name-drop developers that you personally like working with and you would promote? I mean, I'll just drop a few and you actually I don't even need to name-drop them. You can go into my podcast and you can see a pattern. I won't speak negatively of a developer, but I will share that you can see a pattern of who I speak positively of and why. Remember how I said when I first came here, I went straight to the top. I went straight to the government. I did a lot of research and I continuously, that's why I come here every couple of months to vet the developers and vet the developments and look at the numbers, look at the data before I start promoting anybody. Any broker has access to any and every project. I do believe that I differentiate myself with the relationships I've built with sales directors at the developer offices and that is advantageous for my clients. I'll give you an example. I was up all night long with a sales director for one of the top-tier developers with a client in America who had so many questions that are very typical of American clients. Safety concerns. I ended up falling asleep in this WhatsApp chat and I woke back up and this sales director, who has thousands of agents under her, was still going back and forth with my client and ended up closing the deal, helping close the deal. That's relationships. That's long sight. That's what I bring, again from my pharmaceutical sales background, from my PR background. That's the positive being an American. We're very relationship-based. There are lots of rules being an American real estate agent. For example, exclusive buyer agreements and not being able to have kickbacks. I bring those positives with me and I implement them here. What I do that's very different is I'm all about my relationships with the developers and the people I work at the developers offices and with my clients. I'm turning 53 years old this year. I've already proven myself with different careers. Children all out of the house. They're all in college. I did my job with that. My sense of fulfillment is not by making the most amount of money for myself. It's about in 2 to 3 years when these clients are selling their projects or renting them out and they say thank you, you guided us properly. That's where my heart gets warmed up. There are so many important decisions that have to be made before we do that. I will always say: we know location, location is key when buying real estate in Dubai. Developer, developer, developer is just as important. We're talking about Emaar, large developer in the UAE known for the Burj Khalifa, known for master communities, trusted, proven success, also with their branded residences, The Palace, The Vita, and The Address hotels. Nakheel for Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali, and other communities. Mirage, Omniyat, Expo City. I love Expo City. They are a government developer. So when you talk about safety and you talk about future vision, that's the Sheikh's baby, Expo City. Sobha, they are known as the palace maker. Mr. Menon is known as the palace maker. Very known for top quality. Ellington is one of my favorite developers, also award-winning. A newer kid on the block is Beyond. Beyond is under the Omniyat brand and Beyond is killing it with regards to their awards because of their design, their premier plots, high quality, and the projects that they're working on. Those are just some. That's not to say that there are boutique ones or new ones that will start that I don't find to be potentially profitable for my clients, but I will do my due diligence before I recommend them. Amazing. All right, GG, thank you so much for your time and I'm definitely looking forward to Season 7 of The Dubai Connect podcast. Thank you. Thank you and thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share a little bit of my story. For all of my viewers, thank you for helping support and allow The Dubai Connect podcast to become ranked as one of the top Dubai real estate podcasts. I'm excited to continue to provide value in Season 7. Please make sure to subscribe, like, and follow. If you're ready to make an investment choice in Dubai or one of the other emirates here in the UAE, you can WhatsApp me. My contact is right in my description. Happy New Year.