Fixed vs Variable rate Mortgages

[Saleh Saif]

Dear BiggerPockets community. Hope everyone is having a great journey in real estate so far.

I have been looking for an answer for this question for a long time now, so I thought: "There is no better place to find the best answer regarding real estate other than BiggerPockets, and I'd love to share the discussion with the community, so here we go.

Background:

I am a rookie real estate investor and I live out side the USA, so financing rules, regulations, and options are way different.

Financing rules and regulations:

I live in the UAE (United Arab Emirates). The government's regulations dictate that: "The minimum down payment for your first property under your name is 15%, the second property 35%, and the third or more 50%. This regulation has been in effect after the 2008 crisis, which hit the country (specially Dubai) very hard.

Financing Options:

After shopping around for financing, I was able to find two options:

• 1. Fixed Rate Mortgage.
• 2. Variable Rate Mortgage.

Fixed Rate Mortgage: A type of mortgage with a fixed interest rate on the whole tenure of the loan.

Variable Rate Mortgage: A type of mortgage with a changing interest rate, depending on the country's central bank interest rate.

Problem:

Of course, as every savvy investor will tell you: "Never take a variable rate interest mortgage", because in this case, you are killing one of the real estate wealth generators, Loan Pay down, which only works if the loan had a fixed interest rate.

Here is the issue I'm facing. The longest fixed rate mortgage I was able to find had a 7 years tenure, where the variable rate mortgage can take up to 25 years tenure. This makes the variable rate more attractive, since you will be cash flowing with easy monthly payments, but having a variable interest rate.

So here is the main question: 

Would you rather take a 25 years variable rate mortgage, or a 7 years fixed rate mortgage (assuming 3.25% interest rate, and 15% down payment for both options)?

Special thanks to the BiggerPockets community:

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank this amazing community for teaching me all about real estate from across the world, and opening freedom doors and excitement in my life. Thank you so much for changing my life to the better.

Cheers!