norsk

Sounds reasonable to me..

scrubbedexpat141

Me too. I'd love a pay rise that big...the good thing is companies are always willing to pay 10,000 more than they want to because of something happening in 6 years time

mikewot

Yeah but the Expo is coming to Dubai, I mean The EXPO!! Look what it did for the last host country and the next one! Woo Hoo!! The Expo baby, it's just awesome that it's coming to Dubai baby! I can barely contain my excitement!!!!!!

NorthernLad

I remember reading China's Expo had something like 90% of visitors being domestic.

I expect SZR will be busier than usual come 2020.

norsk

let's hope they have completed the roadworks for the canal project by then

NorthernLad

After the time it took for defence roundabout, I would not bet on it.

MataHari

I am an estate agent...and I am not scum

We don't decide what the rental price of a property is, sometimes a landlord will ask us what we think they should ask, and I will advise him what the current going rate is. I hate landlords who are not willing to negotiate on the asking price, as it makes no sense for them to refuse an offer for 5000 dhs less and wait while the place is empty for the next tenant to come along.

There is a 5% commission, half of which goes to the real estate company. When you have a property through another agent, which happens a lot, 2,5 goes to the other agent, and you get half of half. It really doesnt make a lot of difference in the end to my commission if the rent is 140,000 dhs or 145,000 dhs. If I can negotiate the price down, I will do so.

I have landlords who will suddenly increase the rent when I tell them I have a serious client. I then have to tell this to the client, and that makes me seem like the bad agent. Honestly, it's a nightmare the way some landlords do business. Or landlords who in the final stage of the process suddenly change or add clauses to the contract. Or they suddenly decide that they actually don't want that nice Egyptian family. And I am the one to tell them the good news.

But clients are a pain in the ass as well. They withhold vital info from us, and we end up running around trying to arrange viewings for them, only to find out they have already seen it with another agent, they don't like that building (nice not to say in advance), they just took an apartment with someone else yesterday (nice not to let me know, just spent the whole day calling and emailing to arrange viewings), they turn up late, thus causing the whole schedule to go wrong, making me late for next appointments so my next client will be like oh typical agents, never on time...
I was working for a client the other week, when I spoke to the landlord of a property I thought would be good for him, the landlord told me already 7 agents had called him for this same client...so that's 7 agents working, spending time on the same guy, so 6 will defo not get a deal out of it.
Clients who never call you back after doing viewings, so you have to chase them, you have no idea if they are still looking or can you cross them out.

Anyway, I can go on and on. Yeah, there are really really bad agents around, but there are those that are trying their best, balancing between the requirements of both landlords and tenants.

I really love the job, I love the dynamics, I love dealing with different people, doing lots of things at the same time. It's more than a full time job, but that's fine. But it's not just real estate agents that ruin the market.

Millhouse

Spot on MH. If you look at the dynamics, estate agents are really incentivised to drive the prices down not up.

While they take 2.5%-5% of the rented price, that only happens if they rent the price. 100% of a lower fee is better than 100% of no fee. A good estate agent should really be trying to convince the landlord to push the price down so that can chuck in a punter quickly.

The thing that is driving up the rents is (i) greed, and (ii) increased demand. I'm not saying demand is outstripping supply, but in some areas it must be.

Oh, and casa de la millhouse will be you for tent come August -- at around 100k more that I currently pay. Good luck to the landlord - on those economics he may just start to break even from the 4.8m he paid for it in 2008.

gilsonmanuel

Thats a perfect approach and have a strong logic in it.

Blue Cat

The amount of people I hear about who are being given evictions notices is crazy, I predict another bubble as well in 2016 if not earlier.

Millhouse

I would guess it will happen a bit before 2016. We're pretty much already in bubble territory. The question is how much more can it inflate.

You shouldn't just look at absolute prices, but yields. Rental yield for Dubai *should be* around 7%, it is (according to the link before) about 4%. This means that (i) it's over priced, or (ii) rents are too low. While rents will go up a bit more before the bang, I'd be surprised if there is much more room for increases given the amount of new villas coming. That means the capital side has to fall at somepoint. Rents may not fall accordingly.

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/what-...l#.U1zQbtJlk9Y

I get around 5% on yield in the UK (and have seen 10% capital growth) - that's insanity, but still feels better than here... long term real estate yields in developed markets is around 5-6%. Here it should be higher.

weasel decentral

Do you honestly believe than anyone should be getting 7% yield in Dubai? I am fairly suspicious of the 4% figure also, unless it is gross yield.

Millhouse

Should be 7%, yes. Are they - no.

Why I think 7%... real estate in an emerging market, it's what I think a sensible investor should want. Of course, no one here cares about that as the choice is (-15%) per annum in pakistan due to rupee depreciation, or 0% in Dubai.

When I looked at it, they are getting around 1-2%. Many 2008 landlords are now around zero after years of losses and no capital appreciation.

I do get 5% in the UK.

weasel decentral

Maybe 1 or 2 percent at most, which makes me wonder why most of them are not in fixed term investments or bonds because they will do better without the ballache of renters.
Then again I am making the mistake of applying logic to the middle east.

Millhouse

There is a lot of kudos to owning property in Dubai. Much better than T-bills.

Don't forget, 1% yield is probably a loss to equity once the 5% mortgage has been paid.