Women in Dubai Real Estate: Sobha Spotlight

Hi. I'm GG Benitez, a licensed California real estate agent as well as a certified international property specialist here today to share information with you about how and why to invest in Dubai. I have a very special guest with us today from one of the top developers in Dubai, Sobha. Cassia, please show. So over the past year, one of my favorite aspects of this entire business that I'm doing of connecting the United States to Dubai real estate is understanding who the big players are and establishing really strong relationships with them. And it's been really quite joyful to get to know you, Cassia. I find you so fun. You educate me sometimes, you know, in a no-nonsense way, different way. But I, you, I find you so raw and amazing and smart and sassy and hardworking and responsive. And you've taught me so much. And so I really, really enjoyed you. And you came out to San Diego and I got to introduce you to some of my investors there. But I have enjoyed you and getting to understand your personal story as someone who lived in the United States and made the move to Dubai. And I want to get into that before we get into Sobha. So tell us a little bit about your background and what brought you to Dubai. Okay, I was born in Russia. Then we used to live in California, in Los Angeles, in Beverly Hills. Then moved to Dubai. So my mom, she came back. She still lives in California. But me personally, I like to live here. I like how the city is very vibrating. I believe you. Notify is vibrating, dynamic. And it's like, for me, this is the best city in the world. How many years have you been here now? 16. 16 years. So you have the choice to live in. I believe your mom lives in Beverly Hills area, right? And you live there for how many years? For seven. And then you have the choice between the two. And I know you come back and visit, but you prefer Dubai. Yeah, I was going back and forth between USA and UAE. But I prefer to live here. Again, it is very like, for me, it's very understandable market. It's very, I, I, I 100% understand what I'm doing here. 100%. I see myself in the city. And what input I give, and what input both, both reciprocal. That you have, that you, you are an expert at what you do. You've worked your way up. And then actually, this was really interesting when you were telling me your story that you started in construction here, right? So tell me a little bit about that because that's fascinating. A woman in construction in Dubai. Yeah, tell me about that. So I started as a sales manager, account manager in one construction company together with one woman who actually already used to work in this field. Me, never. I'm not an engineer. So as you know, my education is in show business. So I'm not an engineer. Like, obviously, I didn't know nothing about construction. So she, her brother opened a company for her to start this thing. And so basically, we started together. I was doing sales, and she obviously was doing a lot of company establishment. A lot of things. So the construction company we were doing, not the major construction, the minor construction, which is kind like exhibition stands and like that. So in a year and a half, we became top five key players in Abu Dhabi market and top six players in Dubai market. And for you to understand with who we were competing with, the companies who built Dubai, companies who have 50 years, out of 50, 55, 56 years Dubai. So 50 years here. And yeah, we've been competing with them for one and a half. Here I was doing sales. We became key players. Incredible. And from that, then you transitioned into working with Sobha. Yeah, okay, yeah. So just to back it up a little bit, part of my journey is to really understand who the top developers are because there are so many developers and it can be quite confusing because I'm really dealing with foreign investors that just hear about Dubai but don't know one developer from the other. They may hear some of the names that you see on the buildings that have been here for so long, but they don't. They get confused. And they're being marketed to in the United States and Canada by different names. And they don't necessarily understand who has the stronger reputation and why to choose one over the other. And what I've definitely learned in my research, from coming over to your experience studio, from working with you, from seeing the projects you've developed, is that Sobha is reputable. High reputation for quality. High quality craftsmanship at, from the palace maker, palace maker. And what's really important from an investor standpoint, delivering on time. And this, if you ask anybody in Dubai, that is what makes Sobha unique and different, right? Absolutely. So tell us a little bit about the founder of Sobha and how he was known to be the palace maker. Yeah. So a little bit, going to tell you a little bit again about myself. So I was doing construction for four years. And obviously, I won a lot of tenders. Starting with all government entities. All government entities, okay? The whole process. Like, yes, all government entities. You see, let's say Dubai municipality, Dubai Police. I won all these tenders. RTA. Wow. Going to let's say developers because we have exhibitions called CityScape. So you know in CityScape you have all this exhibition stands. So I've built for them. I won all tenders within these four years. But not Sobha. Why? Because they have their own production and own construction. I was trying so hard, okay, working on this account, but I just couldn't win. All the time I get this response: we have our own construction. We don't need it. We don't need it. Okay, we'll give you a tender, but I don't think so you're going to win it because we have our own construction. Obviously, our cost and our quality, like, we just cannot compromise giving some like a third-party company. So obviously, after four years, I was done with construction. And by that time, all these companies, let's say developers, the Emaar, they all knew I'm an incredible sales. Okay. So I got invited for a couple of job interviews. I came to interview first. You know, you have in the big structures, you have like certain circles. First, HR, then head of HR, then this. This. By the time you reach that, let's say your direct director, it takes like some levels. So obviously, I came. They said, like, first circle. He told me, like, first round. He told me, like, okay, why should we take you? And I was like, yeah, because I closed that many deals in this market that probably you couldn't even dream of. And he's like, it's not, and you know, your CV is very confusing. Yeah, okay. And he's like, your CV is very confusing because obviously, I moved a lot. Yes. And I used, I lived here. I lived here. I was born in Russia. And then what did you do in the US? And why you live here? So CV is very confusing. Which deals? Exactly. Close is absolutely. It's not non-real estate deals. So I don't think so, took it forward. We took it forward. How many years you been at Sobha? Four. Four years. And this is that. By the way, that means a lot, right? Because one thing I noticed in the real estate agencies here is that because so many people want to be a real estate agent and come move here from all over the world to make that Dubai dream, right? Because it is such a lucrative business and top sector, that there seems to be a lot of move. Well, how do you explain that? Like, turnover? So I'll talk to somebody and then three months later that person's not there, or 6 months later they're not there. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is exactly what's going on in Dubai real estate market. And that's why, for me, I'm making sure that one of my first questions to everyone I work with is how long have you been here? Because I don't also don't want to invest, you know, my time and energy, get to know you, and then I call you and you're not even there anymore. So I love the fact that not only have you been there so long, but you've moved the ranks up. And now you are the sales director, right? So you have your team of sales managers. And your work ethic is unparalleled. I think that's something you and I have bonded over, right? We are not. We are no-nonsense, you and I. Yeah, this is my favorite. That's my favorite word, by the way. Now, we are no-nonsense, and your work ethic is incredible. And I love your personal story. I love that you are multicultural, Russian, lived in America, lives in Dubai, chooses Dubai for the lifestyle and the business. And you're a businesswoman. You were supposed to go into medicine, right? Isn't that because your mom, your mom, my mom wanted me to go. But you did it. Yeah. It's so hard for nothing because I wouldn't become, I wouldn't become something really big, and if I wouldn't, then why would I even start? Yeah. And so obviously, you found your niche. Now, I'm going to show a little bit of the video of the experiential studio. And actually want to do a whole thing on that because what I love about Sobha is that you're very transparent with what's behind the wall, yeah, right? And you show that you have the seven layers and why those seven layers are important, right? Like for being waterproof and soundproof and all this about quality. So Cassia, knowing that Sobha is probably one of the highest quality, and I'm sure you would say the highest, right? It is. It is. Tell, explain to us why is that important for an investor, for an American investor, a Canadian investor? Why should that be versus picking maybe some another project that's less expensive but is not reputable for their quality? Explain to our viewers why that's important. Yeah. Again, because Dubai is very dynamic, very fast-growing city, super fast-growing city. Obviously, all construction, it's just tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, you know, very quickly, very fast. And obviously, you have to compromise something. Either you compromise a little bit on quality, maybe not a little bit. Someone compromise not a little bit. But you have to compromise something because you have to deliver a lot of buildings, a lot of apartments in a very short period of time. Yeah. Not like, for example, in Russia, they can take their time up to 20 years, which is absolutely fine, you know? But in Dubai, no. So you have to like one, two, 3 years. You have maximum 3 years. You have to deliver some highrise building. And that's the average, by the way, 3 years for an off-plan project, right? Yeah. Well, for Sobha, not for others. Yeah. Yes, right. No. Within like one and a half year up to three years, I would say. I say so. Cue. Why quality is important for investors. First of all, what your investor is planning to do with this property. So are they going to rent it? Or they going to flip it, resell it later on once it's ready? Or they're going to rent a little bit and then resell? So if I'm going to rent it, as you know, in Dubai we don't have any kind of taxes except 4%, which goes to DED. We don't have any type of taxes. So you basically just have to pay service charge. Which is like, which is, what's the average service charge? It is 19 dirhams per square foot. Basically, you can choose. You can pay it quarterly, but normally pay, which is extremely well, very inexpensive. So it's maintenance charges, service. Usually beach front properties, they have high service charge because of the sea. But if it's somewhere in the center, in the center, it also depends if it's a service apartment or if it's a non-service apartment. It's like kind of hotel apartment. So obviously in hotel apartment, there will be higher service charge because you have all these hotel facilities, amenities, and stuff like that. So after you pay, after your investor pays the service charge for the property, he gets net ROI, net profit. Okay, net profit. Okay. So from this net profit, if, for example, he rents it, if he rents it, he has to pay maintenance if something goes wrong with the property. And this is where all expenses start. Because if, for example, there is a leakage, if there is constant leakage, like I had in my property, like obviously from another developer, I had in my property. AC leaking all the time. After 6 months property, like we got handover. After 6 months, AC started to leak, and it would not just never stop. Behind every day, all the laborers in the house every day. So obviously, who's going to pay? The owner, the owner is going to pay. So it reduces your net profit. This is why some investors come and they say I don't care about quality. Why you showing me this experience center? Because I'm not planning to live in it. Yes, you're not planning to live in it. But whoever going to live in it, you're going to pay for it. Exactly. You're going to pay for it. And if you want a good maintenance company, you're going to pay expensive sometimes. So I know the story. I met this story. I met these people whose service charge plus maintenance cost was higher than the profit. Yes. Than the profit. Than the price that they rented the property. Exactly. So this is crazy. So this is why this is very important. This is number one. Plus, for resale. Plus, for resale. So to whom you're going to resell? You're going to most probably resell to another investor who's going to rent it later on. Because if they going to flip it, they will come to developer and buy. So they will buy from like, let's say second-hand, just if they going to put it for, and it out. Yeah. Or to an end user. End user is the person who's going to live there themselves. Which, that is, that's getting higher and higher, right? The amount of end users now that are purchasing. Of course, of course, because of the population grow. Yeah. Because of the easy mortgage. Now also, they give mortgage for non, for nonresident. So obviously, people think okay, why would I rent and pay this crazy money for the rental if I'm already here? For example, live 5 years. Doesn't look like I'm going to live anytime soon, like so. Yeah, yeah. Doesn't look like. So I'd rather pay mortgage, yeah. And pay for my apartment. But again, to pay for my apartment, I will choose very wisely for what I'm paying because I don't want to pay. I don't want to take mortgage for 25 years and then in two years the property just, you know, so. So, so, we're talking about the increased ROI because you have less maintenance charges because it's high quality. And then the resale. And if you're reselling it to people that live here in Dubai. So let's say an American or a Canadian buys a property. They want to make sure that there's a long-term strategy. If they're not, you know, when they're ready to flip it, people here know Sobha. Sobha is a known name. And it's correlated with quality. It's correlated with craftsmanship. You have that reputation and customer service. Yes. And backward integration. We have everything in-house. In-house. So we have factories. We have our own production. Yes. Obviously, we outsource some things. Like appliances, let's say if it's Siemens appliances or Miele appliances, we don't produce. But it's still top name appliances. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we can afford it. Because we have our own construction. Because usually when you come to a developer, so the construction company and developer name, it's two different names. Usually construction company, some third-party company. Why all let's say delays happen in by the time of handover? Why a lot of developers delay the buildings? Because okay, so they come, construction company cannot do it on time. So they fight. They apply, let's say they file the case in the court. Court takes eight months. And then you cannot access your own construction. And all, of course, you know this because you, you've had experience with this, okay? Yeah. So all the circumstances, then two years delay, three years delay. We really have projects in Dubai. Obviously, I wouldn't tell you the name. But we have projects in Dubai which been delayed 8 years and 10 years. 10 years for Dubai. Yeah. Imagine 10 years for Dubai, which is just 55 years. It's like 14%, right? Yeah. It's like a quarter of the life of the city itself. So obviously, your interior looks old because today Dubai it's not yesterday's Dubai. Absolutely. And that's why I wanted to have you on, to share again your personal journey because I admire you and just adore you. And the professional aspect of our relationship of helping guide my investors about why Sobha is one of the top developers that I recommend from an investor standpoint. Obviously, you already know for the end users that are moving here that they have that great solid market. But just letting the Americans and Canadians know that this is someone to get on your radar. And in another interview, we can talk about your upcoming projects, which I share a lot about in my newsletters and on my Instagram. And the availabilities that you have in some of the current projects. You know, we could spend a whole half an hour talking about Hartland and the lagoons that you're creating, the crystal lagoons, and the whole master community and the top British schools that you have there. And for why that's important with the population migration, why that community that you're creating with the greenery and the sustainability and the ease of transportation to the rest of Dubai, and how that's such an incredible area. All Sobha projects is in prime location. Prime location. That's important. Like, seen or you remember what first I told you when I met you? When you choose the property in Dubai, you have to consider three points. And you were like, okay, which ones? It's like location, location, location. Yes. Location, location, location. Otherwise, if you go wrong with location, you just have like a house in Dubai. Dub. It doesn't work. Your money is not working. The property is not working. It just wouldn't work. So let's close this up then with the top locations that Sobha is in. Yeah, which is master community, Hartland, and Hartland II. Why it is top location? Because it's Muhammad bin Rashid City. And as you know, Muhammad bin Rashid is our president, president of Dubai. So obviously nothing bad, we get this name. And on top of it, it's just 5 to 7 minutes, maximum 10 minutes, from downtown, Burj Khalifa, Dubai Mall. Which is like, obviously, very crowded area, very dynamic area, not a lot of people want to live. And it's like, kind of, yeah. Now it's kind of stone jungles. And after the pandemic, again, as you know, all fashion change towards realizing and want the retail stores, the grocery store right there, the gyms right there, clubhouse, all of it. Yes, okay? Yeah. So this is definitely prime location. And by the way, Muhammad bin Rashid City at the moment, for the past two years and at the moment, is the highest rental return. Highest rental return. So personally, I buy only in that area. Real that area compared to the purchase price. Compared to purchase price. Okay. So, for example, if you're talking, I was recently buying an apartment. And I wanted to buy in the beachfront, not I mean in the Marina beachfront, in the on the beach, okay. The property cost, costed 2 million for one bedroom with one bathroom. Already big, big, big, big minus because it's, like, for me, because I don't see, for me, I wouldn't rent one bedroom with one bath. So for me it's like completely. And it's two million just because it's next to the sea. And basically, you can rent it 120,000 dirhams yearly, which is around 5% rental return, okay? Which is still high, by the way. Which is still high, high compared to other countries compared to the US. What I'm dealing with in California, it's very high, okay? But compared to Hartland, then it's not a Hartland. So I bought in an in, um, neighborhood, okay? And so it's 10%. So it's the same rental return, 130,000 per year. But I bought it 1.350, 1.3 million. So it is 10%. Incredible. That is huge news. Okay, so Hartland, what other are your top locations? Okay. So another project which we have in Jumeirah Lake Towers, which is JLT, which is absolutely established area. It's very popular area. It's not new area. It's established. So we have a tower over there. We have Sobha community. Now people also changed their mindset towards villas because, yes, actually, if you could track now, the purchase of villas has significantly increased. Exactly. And we can compare it with our first community, which is Hartland. Okay. Literally, villas increased in like price increased for up from, for start, from 40%. Starting. So my client who bought two years back villas for 12.6 million sold this year, not this year, sorry, last year for 20 mil. Which is. And important to note, important to note, for people that ask, well, is this the height? It is not. This. Dubai is not in a bubble according to the UBS bubble index. Dubai is still considered a fair buy because still price per square footage is still quite affordable, especially compared to all the top luxury real estate markets internationally. And you have the population increase. You have Dubai being a top tourist destination. You have the casinos coming out. Today it was announced that now you have the MGM and the Aria that are coming in, Vegas-style casinos right next to the Burj Al Arab. So what is that going to continue to draw? So there's still this opportunity. It may not be the same increase in price per square foot that you've had for the past two years. But it's still projected to be significantly higher than, for example, California. Yeah. So the past two years, this massive increase was just because of the pandemic, right? So obviously, the market a little bit dropped right before, right during the pandemic. During the pandemic, but still Dubai, and I mean UAE in general, is what I consider the number one country who got out of the pandemic with the very less outgoings. Yes. Compared to, let's say, Los Angeles. Until now, so I've been, they, we still suffering. Yeah, still suffering until now compared to the UK. And I said this in my last interview. Why is that important for foreign investors? It's that safety of your investment. Dubai was able to recover so quickly. What you guys were for one month, I think only that you had to stay home, and that's it. And what does that mean? That businesses, the real estate market, personally, lifestyle, where it's not affected. You're. And that was a disaster. That was unpredicted. Who could have known? But because Dubai runs like a business, because it's so efficient, and you were able to recover quickly, right? Yeah. So going to the prices though, there's still significant room and projections for that. In, tell you why. Because we still didn't reach price per square foot compared to 2014. You're not even close. At least, at least, you'll have to reach this point because market is not static. It goes up and down. So at least you'll have to reach that point. And then yes, then we can talk maybe start talking about kind of bubble, kind of balancing. But so far it's nothing like that. Fantastic. Yeah. And population growing. And we have, if you seen in, you can see it in the Internet, Sheikh Muhammad, Sheikh Muhammad plan, development plan called D33, yes. So it's going to continue growing. It's going to continue bringing a lot of people, a lot of investors. And after the pandemic, a lot of international big companies opened their branch in Dubai or in the UAE in general, opened it like, or move their headquarters. I believe it's like 75% of Fortune 500 companies now have their headquarters here. So Dubai's become the global business. This is global market, 100%. 100%. DFC is, yes, international financial center. So it's drawing businesses here, right? And so that's the population, business, global hub where East meets West. It's incredible. And then you have the D33 plan. So your GDP continues to increase. Your economy is stable and safe. And there's so much promise here for investors. We got to wrap it up. But I want to come back and circle back to we talked about Hartland, we talked about JLT. What are there any other neighborhoods when you talk about prime locations that you want to discuss about where Sobha is? We can discuss Sobha One, which is like, Royal Atlantis, okay? And we can absolutely going to discuss Sobha Reserve, which is a villa community. It's a little bit further, obviously. It's a villa community. Cannot be, right? Be more of a suburban life, yes? Yeah, right next to Burj Khalifa. But it is a good community compared to what we have so far in Dubai. Fantastic. So well, thank you, Cassia. I feel like we need to do a couple more interviews because there's so many questions I have. But you know, you're one of my favorites. And I'm glad you took the time. And congratulations on all of your success. Thank you. And thank you for all of your time, educating me so I can continue to educate my investors. Thank you, thank you. I hope you are securing valuable information out of my podcast and YouTube series. Please make sure to like, subscribe, follow, and share. Good.