Discussion
s pushing up the prices. Hopefully there will be a big crash and they will all jump off the Burj.Si 330 said:
With the gloomy down turn in the UK housing market my brother in law who is an estate agent is thinking of plying his trade in Dubai for a year or two. Can anybody recommend a web site or companies he could approach for this line of work.
[Takes cover to avoid incoming abuse]Having been made redundant from my EA job in the UK, I shall be moving to Dubai at the end of September to start work with a firm there. In my experience they're not interested unless you're there in person (i visited for a week) once there i found it rather easy to get a job, although the salary is VERY commission based, far more than the UK.
As other posters have pointed out it is absolutely saturated with agents/developers, which is a little bit of a worry for me, but on balance it's gonna be far better than the UK market, which is totally on it's knees and likely to remain so for a while to come.
Best advice is to phone up a few places direct, as i got very little response just emailing a CV, then tell them you're (or b-i-l) is going to be visiting and try and arrange a meeting. Hamptons are there, Damaac are a big developers, Sherwoods are a UK owned agency, Cluttons are out there - there's loads, shouldn't be too hard to track a few down.
Best of luck to your bro-in-law!
An update on the Dubai property market for anyone considering leaving the UK to give it a whirl in the middle east....
In short - don't bother! If anything the market is more dead here than it is in the UK!! Been here several weeks and yet to speak to a serious buyer, everyone is trying to bail out of their property investments - not a good time!!
In short - don't bother! If anything the market is more dead here than it is in the UK!! Been here several weeks and yet to speak to a serious buyer, everyone is trying to bail out of their property investments - not a good time!!
oilydan said:
It gives me no please at all to say 'I told you so'.
....
Point taken! ....
Love Dubai, but it seems every man, woman & child has an apartment to sell at the moment and as the general feeling is prices are only heading one direction nobody is buying - feels ust like the UK market 12 months ago, ust hotter!!
Any alternative employment ideas gratefully received, otherwise it's
I was out there 2 weeks ago visiting two friends, one of which is an agent, she seems to be doing very well. i watched her tie up two deals with my very own eyes. and her colleague was doing one also. however saying that, although they live in dubai they are doing more work in abu dhabi and ras al khaymah. worth a look for you maybe?
rah1888 said:
oilydan said:
It gives me no please at all to say 'I told you so'.
....
Point taken! ....
Love Dubai, but it seems every man, woman & child has an apartment to sell at the moment and as the general feeling is prices are only heading one direction nobody is buying - feels ust like the UK market 12 months ago, ust hotter!!
Any alternative employment ideas gratefully received, otherwise it's
Maverick_JDL said:
Oily you really dont like estate agents do you!!!???
What makes you think that?!I have a couple of friends that are agents; they have told me the tricks that they are taught and have seen pulled. It's really quite amazing what these guys will do to screw you out of a few grand more.
this is not my point of view but can it not be argued that they are just doing their job. They are in most countries employed by a seller to get as much money for their property as possible!! as a seller i would want an agent that can squeeze that extra money. Also they paid in a way that the more they get for the seller the more they get for themselves.
Maverick_JDL said:
this is not my point of view but can it not be argued that they are just doing their job. They are in most countries employed by a seller to get as much money for their property as possible!! as a seller i would want an agent that can squeeze that extra money. Also they paid in a way that the more they get for the seller the more they get for themselves.
Our last agent gave a discount if we paid a portion of the rent (1 year up-front) in cash. He pocketed some and told the owner that he got 'knocked down' a bit.He then gave us the 'landlord wants to move in himself' story so he could put the rent up by 45% (government car set at 15% at the time). 'Pay up or get out'.
He also withheld our deposit until we re-painted 2 walls that 'wife' had put some (neutral) colour on, removed picture hooks and replaced light fittings (from Ikea) with the originals (from China). He still wanted to pocket the deposit after we had made the place 'as original' for his 'time' to sort out the finalising the contract.
He had no sympathy that we had laid lawn and didn't want to buy our turf (had to weed-killer it as we didn't want him profiting from it).
I have had to move house every year for the past 5 years because of these money-grabbing bastids, using the same old story that the landlord is moving in. They are letting the owners get away with this/helping them screw us renters.
Come to think of it, I can't wait for the big crash out here so these unscupulous landlords get screwed too.
And before anyone jumps to the conclusion that I'm just bitter; my company pays my rent so it doesn't affect me really (only moving fees) but loads of my good mates are in deep poo because of this situation.
Yeah that is complete fu*king ar*e behavior, and given those experiences myself I would also be less than impressed.
This may make you laugh but as ex Estate Agent in the UK, I am also not a very big fan. Mainly for me it’s a lack of professionalism and experience. Plus an attitude that for some reason most seem to think the world owes them something.
I was fortunate that I done pretty well from the industry on the basis of working with vendors/landlords and buyers/tenants in the same way I would want to be treated in any of those situations. Given that I have purchased property on a number of occasions and am a landlord I have a good understanding of what it’s like to be on that side of the fence. Most of my business was either repeat, referral or investor work.
The experiences you have had give everyone in an industry a horrible reputation, those experiences also probably leave people with same bitter taste left by those who dealt with agents in the late 80's and early 90's in the UK.
There are some good agents out there with integrity. Find them and I still believe they are worth every penny of what some will call very high fees. However and I agree on this, most don’t do themselves any favours.
I worked with a guy once who couldn’t understand why I done half the work for three times the financial reward. After about a year he figured it out and is now still doing very well in a sh*t UK market and I now refer all my contacts to him (still prob 2 a month and I have been out for nearly a year).
On behalf of all the decent agents out there I want to say sorry. If you ever need a decent agent in Dubai or the Uk, contact me here and I will put you in contact with someone who will not put you through this sh*t.
Sorry for the rant but that behavior really fu*ks me off.
This may make you laugh but as ex Estate Agent in the UK, I am also not a very big fan. Mainly for me it’s a lack of professionalism and experience. Plus an attitude that for some reason most seem to think the world owes them something.
I was fortunate that I done pretty well from the industry on the basis of working with vendors/landlords and buyers/tenants in the same way I would want to be treated in any of those situations. Given that I have purchased property on a number of occasions and am a landlord I have a good understanding of what it’s like to be on that side of the fence. Most of my business was either repeat, referral or investor work.
The experiences you have had give everyone in an industry a horrible reputation, those experiences also probably leave people with same bitter taste left by those who dealt with agents in the late 80's and early 90's in the UK.
There are some good agents out there with integrity. Find them and I still believe they are worth every penny of what some will call very high fees. However and I agree on this, most don’t do themselves any favours.
I worked with a guy once who couldn’t understand why I done half the work for three times the financial reward. After about a year he figured it out and is now still doing very well in a sh*t UK market and I now refer all my contacts to him (still prob 2 a month and I have been out for nearly a year).
On behalf of all the decent agents out there I want to say sorry. If you ever need a decent agent in Dubai or the Uk, contact me here and I will put you in contact with someone who will not put you through this sh*t.
Sorry for the rant but that behavior really fu*ks me off.
I will add my agreement as well - Complete sharks out here.
I fell on both two feet when I moved over 5yrs ago as I managed to secure an apartment that is owned by a member of the Royal family and cannot be seen to be coniving and devious.
As a result - I have been bound by every rent cap - the first cap came in just before my contract was up for its first re-negotiation and have been protected ever since. It is also well looked after and I have not had one issue since moving in.
My old company used to pay the rent directly so the benefited from the deal and now my new company pays me a set yearly amount (which is considerably higher than my rent) so I get to pocket the extra.
So, I have a lovely 2 bedroom apartment, in a great area (near Wafi) and 5yrs ago I was paying AED 46k a year - now.... I'm paying a whopping AED 56k a year.
We keep thinking about moving to a villa but the maths simply doesn't add up to move.
That said - I feel extremely sorry for those that have been buggered about - it simply isn't fair.
I fell on both two feet when I moved over 5yrs ago as I managed to secure an apartment that is owned by a member of the Royal family and cannot be seen to be coniving and devious.
As a result - I have been bound by every rent cap - the first cap came in just before my contract was up for its first re-negotiation and have been protected ever since. It is also well looked after and I have not had one issue since moving in.
My old company used to pay the rent directly so the benefited from the deal and now my new company pays me a set yearly amount (which is considerably higher than my rent) so I get to pocket the extra.
So, I have a lovely 2 bedroom apartment, in a great area (near Wafi) and 5yrs ago I was paying AED 46k a year - now.... I'm paying a whopping AED 56k a year.
We keep thinking about moving to a villa but the maths simply doesn't add up to move.
That said - I feel extremely sorry for those that have been buggered about - it simply isn't fair.
will_968 said:
Asterix said:
So, I have a lovely 2 bedroom apartment, in a great area (near Wafi) and 5yrs ago I was paying AED 46k a year - now.... I'm paying a whopping AED 56k a year.
Wow.I just agreed 145k AED on a 1 bed in the Marina...
Want to swap?
However, we're looking to have kids next year and will probably want to move to a 3 or 4 bed villa so we can have a guest room/s and a nursery (perhaps a more permanent maid/help). I also want proper garage space as I'll have the company 4x4 plus some proper cars and I'm hedging on a correction (huge crash - fingers crossed) in the property market and we'll buy again - We were extremely lucky to sell some property 2 months ago with a silly ROI.
Top tip - don't buy right now!
Gassing Station | Middle East | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff