Buying Property in Dubai
Twenty years in the Dubai market, through the 2008 crash and 2020. I show clients what has actually held its value, and I say so when a property is not worth buying.
What I Do
Every case starts the same way: your budget, your holding period, and your exit.
Waterfront residential
Downtown and Palm Jumeirah have held their value through every downturn I have worked through. Dubai can build another tower anywhere, but it cannot build more coastline. This is where long term capital belongs.
Grade A commercial offices
A tenant who spends AED 500,000 fitting out an office signs for five or six years. Small cheap units turn over annually. The yield on the brochure is rarely the yield you collect.
Entry, hold and exit planning
Before I recommend anything I check what has actually sold in that building. We then agree a plan you can hold for three to five years, including a flat market. No exit plan, no purchase.
Twenty Years in One Market
I came to Dubai in 2006 and have worked in property here ever since, through the 2008 crash, through 2020, and through the boom that followed. I was the first person to join the development company I am with now, so I have seen it grow from one desk. In that time I learned which buildings hold their value in a bad year and which ones do not.
So I work in a specific order: check the numbers before the story, set money aside before signing anything, and say plainly when a property is wrong for you. I also mentor newer brokers, because buyers only get a fair deal when the people selling to them know the market.
Guides
Buying a property in Dubai
Who can buy, what it costs once the fees are added, off plan versus ready, and every step from reservation to title deed.
Why waterfront holds its value
What Palm Jumeirah and Downtown did in 2009 and 2020 that the rest of the market did not, and how to check scarcity before you pay for it.
Dubai property market cycles
Downturns are part of this market, not a surprise. How the last two behaved, and how to be the buyer rather than the forced seller.
Send Your Budget and Timeline
No brochures. A short conversation about your budget, your holding period, and whether Dubai suits what you are trying to do. I answer messages across about 18 hours a day, in any time zone.