• 13-16% returns.
• Property is relatively liquid with short term leases of month to month, or 3 months.

Dubai has a LOT of employees relative to the number of customers who need to be serviced. All of these employees, lower wage workers and lower middle management need …….

to live SOMEWHERE. There are entire restaurant chains, hotels and large businesses that want to provide standardized housing solutions for their employees. This is where you can provide a solution that is badly needed in Dubai: corporate housing.

Corporate housing has gotten a bad reputation over the years with unscrupulous arbitrage entrepreneurs renting out flats from unaware landlords and making bedspace sharing arrangements. There is a formula of number of people per square footage that needs to be followed as per the Dubai land department and government regulations. As long as your rental partner follows those regulations you can do well. Cut corners and it can result in fines and other negative consequences. You will want to work with an honest corporate housing entrpenuer partner who will follow the rules. You can often times also directly partner with restaurants, hotels and hospitals for corporate housing arrangements as well. This can be a very profitable business model.

The topic of off plan real estate contracts can be a book and video series entirely by itself. Our goal here is not to give you an exhaustive overview but rather a flavor of what can be done as an off plan real estate investor.

Off plan investments are basically real estate purchase contracts. If purchased in the right areas and the right projects returns can be very significant in to 15% to 25% range and sometimes ……..

higher. Hold time is 18 months to 24 months or longer depending on desired return. These contracts can be “flipped” after a period of time OR can be held to maturity to take delivery of your unit with built in equity. Takes due diligence and analysis like any other real estate investment. But if done right can be a significant driver of wealth in your real estate portfolio.

Off plan investments do carry risks though that are not associated with buying actual existing real estate.

There is the risk the developer does not complete the project or there are significant delays. This is where going with well reputed developers like Emar, Damac or Sohba among others can lower this risk.

Also the Dubai land department after the 2008 experience has put in controls such as putting investor money into escrow accounts and only giving to the developer after delivering inspected product on time at certain time intervals.

There is the risk that something catastrophic like COVID happens again and a development is delayed or stopped altogether. Many people lost money during the COVID fiasco with their off plan investments stopped in their tracks with no movement of construction. Whole unlikely another covid like event happens again you never know so that is something to keep in mind.

There are also other risks like changes in the area like another tower going up blocking your view, traffic growing beyond capacity of the local roads and other developments coming in and creating competition.

While these risks can not entirely be eliminated they can be managed by doing your due diligence and research.

On the flip side many an entrepreneur is getting very wealthy with off plan investments. Many developments sell out before they are even launched. Demand for Dubai housing units is sky high with no end in sight. It is such an easy place to get to and live for the long term that anyone with money can make a move here and do very well in business and real estate. For those reasons I do NOT see the demand for off plan real estate investments leveling off any time soon. In fact it only looks like demand for off plan real estate investments is accelerating.

I was recently at the launch of the Altitude towers for Damac and most of the units were sold out within the first 30 minutes. I have been to many such events and there is a circus like atmosphere with orders pouring in from all over the world. More on that later.

But suffice it to say off plan real estate investing can offer great potential returns and diversification as part of any real estate investment portfolio.

• Flipping properties for profit is about as old school as it gets.
• Find a distressed property and a motivated seller.
• Do your research on comps in the area.
• Buy well below market for the area.

Spend a small to …….

to medium sized amount of money to fix the property up.

Sell on the open market for a profit.

The key is to find a motivated seller.

I have worked with many motivated sellers in the United States. I have flipped over 40 homes, purchased many properties below market value and sold many homes for a profit.

There is nothing like the thrill of buying a house below value , fixing up and selling for a profit.

So why is flipping an apartment, townhome and villa in Dubai so profitable ?

Well first off there are parts of Dubai that are just plain old. Take for example the marina area. Some of these towers were built 20 plus years ago. And when you walk into them their ages show. Lots of browns , dark colors, and oddball tile patterns with lots of grout everywhere.

Today’s modern design involves a lot of whites, greys, and bright accents with modern designs. Gone are the days of the square tiles with old looking tired grout. You can immediately tell by walking into a unit if it has been refreshed and newly rehabbed or does it look and feel 20 years old just by the design sense and choice of colors. Dubai has thousands upon thousands of these types of old and tired looking apartments, townhomes and villas that are badly needing updates and facelifts. That means plenty of opportunities for us as fix and flip entrepreneurs.

So how do I perform a fix and flip here in Dubai and what do I look for ?

I start with location. Location and neighborhood are everything in Dubai. I look at prime areas like Jumeirah Beach Residnece, the Marina, the springs, the meadows, the lakes, the hattans and emirates hills as examples. There are thousands upon thousands of old and tired homes that are not even on the market but that will be coming on the market that will badly be needing facelifts and makeovers.

That represents opportunity.

Contrary to popular belief there are not that many people working the fix and flip business in Dubai. I talk to a lot of real estate professionals and there are lots of investors in the market parking money in Dubai real estate. But a lot of them are in buy and hold long term rentals that are managed by property management companies. They are mostly set it and forget it kind of investors. Which is actually a great way to make LONG TERM wealth. Nothing wrong with that at all.

There are also a lot of end users who bought a place a long time ago, they got tired of the way the place is looking and rehabbed the property to their own takes to suddenly find that there is a lot of market interest in their newly fixed up property. Now the astute fix and flip entrepreneur would look for another distressed sale situation, buy that new distressed place, fix the new place up and move into then liquidate their position in the old but newly appreciated home they rehabbed for themselves.  But 99% of people just don’t think or work like that. I do.