The State of Real Estate: Highlights from Bayut’s Fifth Webinar

We’re back again with the highlights of the latest episode of ‘The State of Real Estate with Bayut’.

For the fifth session of the highly popular Bayut webinar session, which took place on 5th May 2020, we had respected guests from the UAE brokerage community sharing their insights on how Dubai’s property market compares with other leading global real estate hubs including London, New York, Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Our CEO and Head of MENA for EMPG, Haider Ali Khan, also elaborated on the group’s latest funding announcements, unicorn status and merger with OLX in key markets including Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon, the UAE and more.

WHO WAS PART OF THE BAYUT WEBINAR?

The fifth Bayut webinar session for The State of Real Estate featured distinguished delegates from the real estate industry in the UAE. The charismatic Spencer Lodge returned as the moderator and our CEO, Haider Ali Khan joined as the main speaker. 

For the panel discussion, we had Calum White, the Managing Partner at Positive Properties; Nazish Khan, COO of Fidu Properties; and Husni Al Bayari, the CEO and Founder of D&B Properties.

A lot of great insights were shared at this Bayut webinar, which also included an interactive poll. If you missed the episode, you can watch the complete video below.

ANNOUNCING THE MERGER BETWEEN EMPG AND OLX IN KEY MARKETS

The session started with Haider Ali Khan sharing the amazing news of the merger between Bayut’s parent company EMPG and Netherlands based OLX Group in certain key markets including Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon and the UAE. He also shed some light on how EMPG has secured $150M (AED 550M) in its latest investment round, taking its valuation to over $1 billion, making it one of the select few companies to attain the coveted unicorn status in the region.

He highlighted how this news was extremely important for the region and discussed the group’s plans to use this funding towards “introducing new services, enhancing data transparency, and deepening market intelligence for both consumers and business users.”

He also shared his hope that we would hear more such success stories in the region to aid the growth of the tech industry, support digital transformation and attract global talent. Reminiscing about the incredible journey of Bayut from a small three-member team to this current milestone, our CEO also urged entrepreneurs to stay positive, look ahead, have a plan and invest in their teams.

“You need to have an outlook of five years and beyond. While it is important to focus on tomorrow to manage the day to day operations, it’s essential to have a larger vision of where you want to take the business. Once that’s in place, the road is not an easy one. And if it’s an easy road, then you’re on the wrong road.”

PANEL DISCUSSION: DUBAI’S POPERTY MARKET VS. OTHER COUNTRIES

This week’s eye-opening panel discussion focused on the off-plan property market in Dubai and highlighted some of the key benefits of investing in the emirate.

The panellists also discussed how property prices in Dubai compared to key global real estate hubs such as Singapore, Hong Kong, New York and London and why investing in the emirate offered good return on investment. 

PROS OF BUYING PROPERTY IN DUBAI

When comparing the UAE property market to the rest of the world, the panellists unanimously agreed on the fact that Dubai offers many advantages. When asked about how Dubai compares to cities like Singapore, New York and London, Husni Al Bayari elaborated on how these markets have a lot in common with each other. However, what sets Dubai apart from the others is the quality of life, infrastructure and security.

“We(Dubai) have a lot of advantages over other cities. Dubai offers the opportunity to grow a lot more. What the city has achieved in the last 20 or 30 years is amazing compared to what the other cities have done over the centuries,” he said

Nazish Khan concurred with Husni and explained that Dubai is one of the best places to purchase luxury properties because of the fantastic price per square foot.

“Dubai is selling the same luxury product, 70% cheaper than cities like London or Shanghai,” he said.

Nazish also commented on Dubai’s tax-free status which is a major advantage over other cities. 

Affordable prices are one of the main benefits of buying luxury property in Dubai, compared to other parts of the world. Areas like Palm Jumeirah and Emirates Hills which offer some of the most spectacular amenities including private beach access and exclusive golf club memberships are still cheaper than Manhattan or Canary Wharf! The space that you get for the price is also substantially bigger in Dubai compared to other cities.

When Spencer Lodge invited the audience to share their thoughts on how property prices in Dubai compared to the other cities in the world, through an interactive poll, a large majority believed that Dubai offered the best property price. This opinion is in line with the study conducted on Numbeo, which showed that Dubai offered one of the best price per square meter for apartments compared to leading cities around the world.

ROI IN DUBAI FOR APARTMENTS AND VILLAS

Another topic that was discussed in detail during this Bayut Webinar was the return on investment (ROI) in Dubai compared to other cities.

According to Calum White, Dubai offers investors a much higher ROI than other cities in the world.

“In cities like Edinburgh, you can only expect a net rental yield of 3%. In Dubai, you are still seeing an ROI of 7% to 8%”.

Following this discussion, Spencer opened up another poll to evaluate the attendee’s thoughts on the rental yield in Dubai. Most of the audience members also felt that compared to other cities such as Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Mumbai and Sydney, Dubai offered the best rental yield, a fact which has been confirmed in Numbeo’s study on the cost of living around the world. 

As evidenced by this data, the ROI offered in Dubai is quite high compared to other Asian and international markets. This data is also in line with the consumer trends on our Q1 2020 Dubai market report which showed that International City offers a very high average ROI of over 9% for apartments while emerging favourite JVC offers a rental return of 6.5% on average for villas.

The Bayut Webinar wrapped up with the panellists sharing their thoughts on the popular areas to buy villas or apartments in the Dubai real estate market. 

Nazish and Husni were both of the opinion that Dubai Hills Estate is the best area to buy villas in Dubai. Town Square and other communities near the Al Qudra area also offer great villas for sale in Dubai. For investors looking to buy apartments in Dubai, the areas of Dubai Creek Harbour and JVC make good choices according to all three of our guests.

If you are interested in purchasing a property in Dubai, now is a great time. The industry remains positive about the market’s growth despite the difficulties encountered over the last two months At Bayut, we remain committed to ensuring that the UAE real estate community has all the right tools to navigate through these times. To get to know more about everything we offer, here’s our guide to all of Bayut’s products and services.