Dubai Property More Affordable Than London, New York

Bloomberg

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00:00Now turning to the UAE, because despite its record of managing to thrive during global instability, the Iran Israel confrontation does pose one of the most stringent tests yet for the countries neutral and open for business stance. We can get more on this with Clementine Monaro, whose House and House sales director. Clementine, it's really good to have you with me. Thank you so much for stopping in. This conflict, I feel must have been the first time for a whole generation of ex-pats that they've been exposed to the risks in the Middle East, particularly when you had those strikes on the US airbase in Qatar. Do you think that it's going to have a lasting impact on sentiment in the region of people living here and moving here? Investment sentiment as well, that for the first time they've had to really think about their safety? I think last week certainly there were some uncomfortable conversations that we were having, both as management, how do we empower our team to have conversations with buyers and sellers? But the reality is when there is geopolitical instability in the region, it only makes Dubai look safer. Yeah, and anecdotally, house and House Holiday Homes Department had a huge increase in Iranians seeking shelter in Dubai. Okay, that's really interesting. So Dubai is seen as a safe haven and that continues. Maybe this is even beneficial. What's been driving Dubai's continued price growth then? This has been the underlying trend, even amid the global headwinds, even amid the, say, for dollar soft dollar as well. I think Dubai is just an incredibly safe place to want to be. The Times reports at 16 and a half thousand millionaires have left the UK and 9800 of those have landed into Dubai. And I think what that is talking of is just brilliant infrastructure. The ease of doing business here just is seen as a really safe place to come. We mentioned the UK. I wonder with my UK correspondent hat on how much that's to do with Dubai benefiting from the Labour government in the UK dismantling the non-dom regime? Absolutely. But that's definitely what we're seeing. And even just the education now here has really caught up health care. I think people, even with things like the private school fees, VAT that went on, still much cheaper to educate your children here and yet arguably you're getting the similar quality of education. And so you're forecasting for that trend to continue. We are okay because that's a real worry for the Chancellor if more than one in four non-dom actually leave the UK. So that's really interesting. And then how does Dubai actually stack up globally when it comes to value and investor appeal? Because of course there are lots of cities where the non-dom is, but other rich and mobile people could go nuts. It Dubai is still so affordable to buy blends out an average of $418 per square foot. If you look, that's nearly half of Paris, which is $700 per square foot. And then London, 1400 dollars a square foot. New York, 1650, Singapore topping out at 1750. So it's almost four times cheaper to live in Dubai than it is in London. And that's not including the fact that you're also not paying tax on your income here. And is it the luxury segment that's driving things or is it also the mass segment? And how does it pan out? I mean, those are those numbers are over a blended average. But what we are seeing is that the mid level has been pretty buoyant, although with the supply that's coming in the next couple of years. That's a segment to watch. But the prime segment is absolutely flying.