Dubai real estate investment

[Sonu Sundar]

I am a USA citizen and do not have much knowledge or trips to Dubai, but interested in investing in Dubai Real estate. 

CAn some one shed me some lights on how foreigner can invest in Duabi, which firms that I can go through, who are reliable and keep my investment safe and able to get some decent returns, and what are the tax consequences for earning potential from outside the country?

appreciate all the input.

Newbie

[Morgan Nilsen]

Dubai is the highest volatility market i have come across as an investor. This means it can be very profitable if you buy at the right time, but can be brutal if you buy at a peak. The markets offer low to medium gross yields that max out around 7% if you buy in todays market. This is significantly lower than the mid west in the US.

A really nice thing over there is that rents are often payed once per year.

Dubai have a very consentrated power and decision organ which leads to very low predictability. Its awesome to see how fast Dubai is changing, but in real estate investing you want slow and steady. I admire the rulers of Dubai for their vision and ability to put those into life. But it make it hard to predict the future. For that reason my money is elsewhere.

You are almost never alowed to do your own renovations, and have to pay an application fee to get approval to do work on your rental. The labor is cheap but is usually terrible quality.

You have very little insight into the governments plans for development and i have seen that have amazing impact on some areas and terrible impact on others.

If you are going through with the purchase i wish you good luck and urge you to consider traffic patterns. Traffic is horrible at peak our in certain areas and you will do well to look into that.

Last i want to say that i have not really seen rents fall significantly in many markets, but in dubai i see it frequently. So buy with good margin for reduced income.

@Charles Rosenbaum can you please elaborate on why you say its considered one of the safest places to invest? My current understanding of the market make me disagree completely with that statement, so what have i missed?