Real estate investment in Dubai: How is it done?
While rental investment is largely democratized in France, for those seeking to diversify their property portfolio abroad. Indeed, Dubai is the ideal place to buy real estate, whether for a main residence or to transform it into an Airbnb! Its luxurious environment makes it a city of choice, especially since prices are still very attractive, unlike in the West! And for good reason, Dubai is renowned for its very attractive taxation without taxes and its interest-free loans. It is a real paradise for anyone looking to invest their money!
How is a real estate purchase in Dubai carried out?
The functioning of real estate sales in Dubai has changed considerably in recent years, especially since 2002. Everything has been done to facilitate financial transactions and increase security for you, buyers. They also reformed the Land Department, equivalent to our notary offices, and professionally trained real estate agents, now supervised by the RERA.
If you want to become a landlord in Dubai, you will have to follow several mandatory steps.
1. Define your purchase project with a real estate agent
The very first step to take will be to contact a real estate agent in Dubai, The Dubai Life will be there to welcome you. We will take care of establishing your purchase profile, and listing all your criteria and expectations in order to better target our property searches. During our first interview, we will ask you to provide us with several necessary information:
– What are your available liquidities, your contribution or will you have to resort to a financing plan?
– What budget will you devote to this real estate investment?
– What type of investment are you targeting: rental or residential?
– Do you have any neighborhood preferences? We can define it together.
– When do you want to make this purchase?
– What properties for sale on The Dubai Life caught your eye?
We will also need to collect all your personal information such as your first and last names, your telephone, email and postal contact details.
The expertise of our agency
It is thanks to the collection of this information that we will be able to begin the search for the property of your dreams! Thus, we will always choose properties corresponding to your profile, and we will guide you in optimizing this investment. Once we are certain of our choices, we will send you a first selection via your email.
Also note that our real estate agency is able to submit properties designed by all real estate developers in Dubai without you having to pay any commission! We put at your service our contacts, our experience and a follow-up of the management of your file until the final transaction! All our advisers are bilingual, Arabic, English and French.
2. Meet and exchange
We advise all our buyers to travel to Dubai, if only to get to know the country, to see the extraordinary opportunities you can do here, and to make sure you have made the right choice!
You might be tempted not to come this far, but honestly, Dubai’s sheer size can’t be sold on paper alone, nor on the internet. By being present, you will be able to contemplate the masterful works built in our city, skyscrapers reaching summits, such as the Burj Khalifa. You will be able to fully immerse yourself in the lush environment as well as the way of life of the inhabitants. This will be an opportunity to test everything you haven’t been able to do elsewhere, latest generation attractions and breathtaking visits!
You will be completely taken care of from your arrival in Dubai territory until you take off again for France. Our teams will take care of you wherever you go and we pay special attention to your desires and needs.
However, if you have already experienced Dubai, and already have a bank account here, we will take care of your file remotely. Thanks to the virtual tours, you will be able to live the experience in complete immersion from your home.
3. Accommodation visits
Our first dates always go like this:
– We will introduce you to Dubai and its real estate sector.
– If you wish, we can show you the must-see tourist sites.
– And finally, we will visit the apartments of your selection.
Don’t worry, if you don’t find your happiness on the first day, we will accompany you until we find the ideal property! The visit of the apartments can take place over several days, if you have not found the desired property.
If you decide to make your apartment visits accompanied by another real estate agent, we advise you to take a few precautions. Always check that the agents are registered with the RERA, the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, and remember to ask them for their broker number, which you can easily verify by looking for it on the internet.
In addition, if you have found your property on your own and want to buy it, never forget to check all this mandatory information such as the fact that his passport is valid, just like his ID, and that he is up-to-date with his payment of charges.
Finally, although this practice is less and less common, we strongly recommend that you never pay a deposit by hand without any written record from the seller. You may never see this money again, it is for all these reasons that we urge you to contact our agency, The Dubai Life, in order to avoid any worries of this ilk.
4. Create a bank account in Dubai
It is not mandatory to have a bank account in Dubai to start investing, but we strongly recommend it, even if you can carry out all transactions from France. The vast majority of our buyers open an account in Dubai, we support them in all the steps.
On the other hand, to cash your rents more easily, this type of account is essential, especially since opening an account is very simple, why deprive yourself of it! Note that we can also take care of the rental management of your property, but we will detail all this in a next paragraph.
If you wish to open a bank account in Dubai, you will need to provide a photocopy of your valid passport, your last 6 bank statements certified by your banker, your last 6 payslips and your purchase contract. It’s disconcertingly easy, and we will also support you in the constitution of this banking file. Upon receipt of all these documents, we will contact the banking office to finalize the final administrative procedures. You will then officially own a bank account in Dubai!
5. The sales agreement
Our agency, The Dubai Life, takes care of preparing the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which is equivalent to the sales agreement in France. This act recalls the price of the property, the amount of the commission, the date of the transfer, and the passport numbers of the seller and the buyer. If you cannot transfer title immediately, you will need to pay a 10% deposit to reserve your property.
The seller is obliged to provide a No Objection Certificate (NOC) which guarantees that he can sell this property and that the payment of all his charges is in order.
6. Transfer of ownership
When we have gathered all your personal documents necessary for the transfer of ownership, we will schedule an appointment at the Land Department, the equivalent of notary offices in France. The notarial commission is around 4% of the total amount of your property.
In summary, here is why you should invest in real estate in Dubai
The attractiveness of Dubai in terms of real estate is well established, especially since 2002, when the authorities authorized foreigners to own real estate in full ownership (the Freehold). Since then, Dubai has grown steadily and buyer interest has followed this upward curve. To give you an idea, growth has increased by more than 10% over the past 6 years.
Dubai is the ideal place if you want to invest in a very interesting real estate market. Indeed, the rates offered, as well as the services are much more attractive than in London, Paris or Singapore! Taxation is exceptional, you will not pay any tax. The apartments offered for sale are of a very high standard. The returns from your rentals are very attractive, between 5 and 10% net!
And this is just the beginning, the Dubai adventure has only just begun! The city is experiencing a boom that is not ready to stop, developers are overflowing with inventiveness and the projects built in 2022 are pharaonic.
