‘How Nigerians can own Dubai property’
A lot of Nigerians are coming to the UAE, particularly Dubai to invest in property. What have they invested in the most?From my experience working in property business over the years, Nigerians have invested most in hotel apartments, serviced residences, simply because it is easy to manage. If you live abroad and have a serviced […]
A lot of Nigerians are coming to the UAE, particularly Dubai to invest in property. What have they invested in the most?
From my experience working in property business over the years, Nigerians have invested most in hotel apartments, serviced residences, simply because it is easy to manage. If you live abroad and have a serviced residence you don’t have to maintain it yourself.
I’m not saying this is always the right way to go. You need to look at various different things and options. Emmar deals a lot with Nigerians, but maybe we could do a bit more to encourage Nigerians to invest more in Dubai and help them make the right decisions. I know that Nigerians love to invest in Dubai and we’d love to help them invest and make the right decisions.
If they were to buy regular living apartments, not serviced residences or hotel accommodation, would this be a good option?
They’re about the same. One is just as easier as the other to buy. It all depends on how you want to manage it. You can buy an apartment in a hotel pool and someone manages it for you. This allows the investor make returns from the hotel pool.
It’s not guaranteed always that you’re in the hotel pool because there is a waiting list. You have to apply for the hotel pool. Sometimes you get in and at other times you don’t.
But the big thing in downtown is the capital growth. At the moment, prices there are going up.
What is the going rate for apartments?
In Dubai Hills, we launched a few months ago and one-bedroom apartment goes for 1.2million dirhams. This is very good because the finishing and completion time are top of the line.
With a growing interest of Nigerians in UAE property, have you been able to come up with a special package for that market?
From what I know, no. We haven’t come up with any special packages for Nigeria. We might be looking at it, but I don’t know of any at the moment from sales.
What are the criteria for a Nigerian to own property in Dubai?
Even without a UAE residence visa, the person comes over, takes a look at the property. We show you the investments and go through everything with you. If you like the property in question, you sign an offer to purchase. Once you sign this, you go and you transfer the money in four days into the bank details we give.
It’s very simple. You don’t need to put anything down first. You only need a passport and a bank in Nigeria to transfer the money through.
What does Emaar Properties do?
Emaar Properties is a public listed company based in Dubai. We have many developments; we own majority of downtown.
In our new project we have the Rim neighbourhood and Dubai Hills which is one of our very big on-going projects. We have villas starting from 13million dirhams and we’ll sell apartments. All of these we target to complete by 2019.
Downtown is the most exclusive area in Dubai to own property. There are commercial, residential and serviced apartments like the Address and Vida which we own and they manage our hotels for us. We have the Address, Dubai Mall, the Address, Skyviews, Boulevard and the Address Fountain view. We also have residential apartments like Boulevard Crescent and another project, the Hills which will be partly serviced apartment and partly residential.
Downtown we own Dubai Mall, the biggest mall in the region which we built. We have the Dubai Fountains which are bigger than the Bellagio Fountains. Those have the world’s tallest building, the BurjKhalifa. We are building a new Opera House and the area around it will be called the Opera District. It’s going to be the first opera house in the UAE and will sit 2000.
Which project has taken the longest to accomplish and why?
Everything has taken more or less the same construction time, except for BurjKhalifa because it’s the longest building in the world. It took four years to build.
How have these projects attracted tourism over the years?
I’ve been here since I was 13. There were only 20 buildings on the Sheik Zayeed Road. The Dubai Marina didn’t even exist. Neither did downtown. With all the new hotels coming up, the sporting events taking place, these have all obviously boosted tourism in Dubai. Emirates is clearly a global brand and everybody knows about Emirates.
Your company built the world’s tallest building, the BurjKhalifa. What was that experience like achieving such a feat?
It’s amazing we have the world’s tallest building in Dubai. People want to fly to Dubai from all over to go up the viewing deck on the 124th floor and view the world from there or simply to just come and see it. It goes up over 150 floors.
Twenty-years ago, many people never thought of Dubai but Sheik Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai is an amazing person. He sees things others don’t and he puts the money in the right places.
The way the government is run here is top-notch and he supports development in the country and wants everyone to be happy. Therefore, he puts all the money into the country and that’s why Dubai is what it is today. We have a leader who really does believe in and loves the country. It’s his passion that makes Dubai what it is today.