Good idea to buy property here this year?

I would but it is definitely a gamble. If you cant finish payments you will lose all the money that you already paid off on it...and nobody's job is secure here especially if you are in a senior position with a nice benefits package. Companies are gearing up for more Emiratisation and that means the seniors will be training them and later be fired (usually before the holidays at the very last minute). They are also preferring to hire cheaper labour and replacing older staff with big salaries. Since you have been here quite a few years as well you probably know all this already so its just up to you and your DH to decide to roll the dice or not. Good luck.

Oh and nothing traps you hear, unless you'll need the money. If it comes time to leave, you can still leave and own your property and rent it out....... Great perk, especially if you're from a deflated currency country like SA bye:

Hi there, it's a tough one as dubai is a very different market to other places, however we have bought a place this year and yes the market might go down a little, but as long as you are not wanting to buy and turnaround to sell anytime soon (within the next 3 years at least) it's a good time to buy as prices have come down and as we get closer to the big Expo 2020 they will start to rise. No cataclysmic crash will happen after the Expo 2020 as people have been saying thats purely one of those dubai tales you hear far too often. Hope this helps

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. I'm very impressed with your knowledge....which is way more up to date than mine ? We actually would like to retire out of here so that's another 15 plus years. DH is in construction which so far is stable enough. If you're buying a house here and have to leave before the mortgage is cleared, are you allowed to leave and continue paying from wherever you move to or rent it ? That's my concern really. That's what I meant in my post. At the moment generally speaking, as an expat who will live in the property you need 25% deposit, however an expat that is buying to let out needs 40% deposit. So if you live in it and put down 25% then need to leave the country for whatever reason it is likely that the bank would demand that you have at least 40% deposit in. This is the most likely situation at the moment, however who knows what the mortgage market would be like in 5 or 10 years time - could be better, could be worse, but it should always be in the back of your mind that if you have a mortgage on it when you leave the country you may well have to sell up or find money elsewhere to add to the equity in it. I guess you haven't been here for more than a few years if you are describing construction as stable. It's one of the least stable industries there is, unfortunately. I can almost guarantee that over the 15 year period there would be one, two or three major downturns here in construction where there are mass layoffs. It's easy to say it seems ok at the moment, but a year or two can make a huge difference and when it happens it will be very sudden and little time for planning. Certainly selling a house at that time could mean having to drop the price quite a lot. If you're planning 15 years though, I still think it could be a good buy if you have 40% to put down or at least access to be able to put 40% into it if needs be so you are not tied to selling it quickly when / if you need to leave suddenly.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. I'm very impressed with your knowledge....which is way more up to date than mine ? We actually would like to retire out of here so that's another 15 plus years. DH is in construction which so far is stable enough. If you're buying a house here and have to leave before the mortgage is cleared, are you allowed to leave and continue paying from wherever you move to or rent it ? That's my concern really. Oh my, construction, stable? lol Took the words out of my mouth! :confused:

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. I'm very impressed with your knowledge....which is way more up to date than mine ? We actually would like to retire out of here so that's another 15 plus years. DH is in construction which so far is stable enough. If you're buying a house here and have to leave before the mortgage is cleared, are you allowed to leave and continue paying from wherever you move to or rent it ? That's my concern really. Oh my, construction, stable? lol

Silk, how do you plan to remain here once your DH isn't working? VelmaDoo, DH's company (oil related) have just shed 7% of their workforce.

We actually would like to retire out of here so that's another 15 plus years. DH is in construction which so far is stable enough. If you're buying a house here and have to leave before the mortgage is cleared, are you allowed to leave and continue paying from wherever you move to or rent it ? That's my concern really. It sounds like you've made up your mind to buy. you need to check with your mortgage provider about what happens if you want to leave the country and keep paying the loan back. I think people have done this before so it is possible. As to timing a purchase, you will never be able to time the bottom, and this should not be your main consideration if you are buying what sounds like a long-term home for yourself. it is a buyers market at the moment, but you have to hunt around and hold out for a seller who *needs* to sell to get a good price. There is loads out there for sale where the seller has an unrealistic price in mind but is willing and able to hold out until he gets it. don't waste your time there. don't forget to include the price of refurbishments in your calculations, and ongoing maintenance costs when you compare the cost of buying vs renting. Also add on insurance for the mortgage that the bank will charge, plus your own insurance policies. Avoid off plan (imo). Good luck!

Large scale layoffs have already been announced in Houston's oil sector Friends who work in oil here tell us that there is definite cost-cutting going on. Oil companies used to be a dead cert for offering the old-school packages with paid-for housing and school fees, but they say that these sorts of perks are being slashed now. If staff numbers start to be cut, it will almost certainly happen out of the blue, just like what happened to the construction industry in 2008-9, when tens of thousands of people who thought they had secure jobs suddenly found themselves unemployed literally overnight.

At the end of the day, even if you expect to stay here longterm, are your jobs likely to be 100% safe? We considered buying, but the major concern if hubby lost his job was too much of a worry and the thought of having to leave within 30 days, regardless of owning a property here as well as other too uncertain things was what made us decide not to.

There has been a massive, practically catastrophic collapse in oil prices, from over $100 a barrel last July to under $50 a barrel at the moment. Who knows how much further it may go or if the market will recover somewhat. As DH says, people in Dubai seem to be strangely silent, even in denial, on the oil price drops. While it's true Dubai has little oil, much of the operating budget of the UAE comes from oil, as does for the surrounding Gulf states. If they have to scale back on infrastructure projects due to declining revenues, that could have a knock down effect on Dubai. And of course there's investor money, so much investor money in Dubai real estate was coming from other oil rich countries, and enough of these investors may start feeling financial pressures at home and will want to start selling their Dubai properties to raise cash. Large scale layoffs have already been announced in Houston's oil sector. Dubai has many subcontractor firms that support the oil sector one way or another, and I wouldn't be surprised if these firms start scaling down on staff. We could be headed for a trifecta of factors that could see another big swing in property prices similar to what happened in 2009-2010. Since you asked if it was a good idea to buy property here [b'>this[/b'> year, I would say no. I would wait at least another year to see what happens to oil prices and what the effect is on the Dubai economy before buying any property.

There was a very detailed thread on this not so long ago. Lots of good points were raised. I think the visa issue is a good one to consider. How many of us truly have job security here that we can guarantee for the next five years? We could all have to be out of here in 30 days! Considering the comparison scenario posed by annorman: equity in a property is only of value if you can move the property when you need to. If you can't, it can be the worst ball and chain you can imagine!

This is something we are looking into at the moment and I agree with previous posters who say you really need to be in it for the long term - 5 years plus otherwise it's really not worth it. But then you have to weigh up whether that might make you feel trapped, which is probably my major concern. If you're buying with a mortgage, you'd probably need to make sure you had at least 40% equity in it to transfer it to a buy to let mortgage when you leave otherwise you'd need to sell up. There's lots of really unknowns to consider like currency conversions, and the state of the property market when you need to sell.

I know this has been done to death but just looking for some current opinions please. We have paid over 700,000/dh in rent over our time here. We hope and plan to stay here long term. We reckon if we bought here now our mortgage repayments would be similar to our current (not high) rent. That logic is probably too simple I know! What do you think ? TIA Obviously there are numerous considerations to buying probably the most expensive item you will ever invest in i.e. property. I think the key factor in answering your question was that you "plan to stay here long term" - you've already been here for a few years and your intention is to stay here in the long term (which is usually defined as 5 years plus). If this is the case, I think that it would be a good idea to invest. This issue is something which is very close to my own heart and I had the same issue I had faced before I bought my own place. Yes there are well publicised issues with regards to the issues mentioned earlier in these threads but a lot of these can be mitigated by: - buying in an established area from a reputable developer which will always hold value (i.e. golf course / beach / marina views or in the close proximity to these landmarks) and continue to be well maintained - its now turned into a buyers market again and purchase values are down an average 15 - 20% across the board whereas rents are still relatively high (hence the yield on properties are presently very attractive to investors) - wealthy russians who have substantial wealth in their home country have lost close to 60% of their wealth in the last few months - a lot of these guys were buying up Dubai properties with petty cash. This is expected to create further value here. - if you will be staying another 5 years, do you really want to go through the uncertainty of 5 rent reviews (and possibly having to move at least twice in that period - I know people who have moved every year). - also the dollar is said to be on a 'bull run' right now against all currencies because of continuing global economic concerns, low oil price and a raft of geopolitical issues - this is projected to continue. Hence if you are paid in dirhams (pegged in dollars), generating a dollar income will create benefits against your home currency. I eventually took the plunge when I compared my own position with that of a colleague - he bought 5 years ago and paid around 750k in mortgage payments (not dissimilar to what I was paying in rent) but around 400k of that has reduced his mortgage loan (effectively savings) with the other 350 being paid to the bank in interest. On top of that he conservatively considers that his place has now increased by around 400k in 5 years so hence he has effectively built up a pot of 800k in savings from buying. Meantime I have forked out 750k in rent and have nothing. Also in another 10 years, if he continues to pay down, the mortgage will be fully repaid and he will own the villa outright. I know that most of us have no intention to staying for 15 years but I think if you plan on staying 5 years +, buying could still prove to be a worthwhile investment.

I certainly wouldn't. Regardless the location in Dubai: 1. You'll never get the UAE nationality or a long term visa in case you buy property 2. The quality of the houses is sub standard 3. The prices are artificially inflated If you're from a Euro country, consider buying in your home country, as the Euro is crashing. More Euro's for your Dirhams :cool:

I would !! As long as you buy in the right location and from a reputable developer to me its a no brainer.

As someone who felt trapped here by their property (finally sold the ******* thing) I would say no.

As a happy property owner here I would say go for it yes.