Positive energy in the market owing to attractive prices and Expo momentum
DARREN MURPHY
Branch Director, Allsopp & Allsopp
WINNER BEST AGENT 2019
I think it is important to spread awareness that despite regional uncertainty such as the Iran/US fiasco, many people are still buying. I believe in Dubai, Expo or no Expo. Dubai is here to stay and provides a safe living environment with 365 days of sunshine and very small taxes. We will see very slow yet steady growth in property prices over the next five years. I would advise all sellers to opt for exclusive agents or work with two agents at the maximum. Currently, sellers list with many agents, thinking that the more agents they list with, the more viewings they will get and a better price. On the contrary, agents try and undercut each other and make it look like there are more properties in the market.
We cannot hide from what has happened in the Dubai property market over the past five years in terms of a price correction. But I have a strong feeling that we may now have hit the bottom of the market.
We are almost five weeks into the new year as I write this and I think this is the most active I have seen buyers in the market for a long time. Buyer registrations in January were up 65 percent compared to a year ago and I believe it is so because we are in the year of the Expo and prices are so attractive. There is real positive energy in the market at the moment, coming after record transactions registered by the Dubai Land Department in November and the whole of 2019.
There may still be price declines in certain communities which may contain older properties or very high supply but the core, sought-after villa areas are going to start seeing their prices go up.
We have already seen this happen in the new year in my specialist area of Jumeirah Golf Estates. We simply do not have the stock to feed the demand and consequently we are seeing buyers having no option than to pay more money.
I would advise anybody who is renting a house in Dubai today that if you plan to be here for at least three years and have the down payment available, then you should certainly buy property now.
I bought a villa in Jumeirah Golf Estates for AED3 million and it is now probably worth AED2.8 million. But it cost me AED200,000 a year to rent the same villa and I have been here for two years now. So, technically even though the property value has dropped, I have not lost compared to the amount I was wasting on rent.
The best thing about owning your property is that you can make it your own and never have to worry about the landlord getting back to you or refusing to pay for any maintenance issues.
My favourite quote in real estate is: “Don’t wait to buy real estate, buy real estate and wait”. It is true, even more so today as any prospective buyer will be purchasing at a time when property prices are so low. So my message to you is to buy property now.
If you are renting a house in Dubai today, plan to be here for at least three years and have the down payment available, then you should certainly buy property now.
Despite the current loss in value of my property in Jumeirah Golf Estates, buying was the best decision my family made. We now know the property is ours and as long as we have the holding power, the upcycle will always come back.
What does it take to be a successful agent?
I get asked this question all the time as if I have some sort of magic formula but sadly there is none. It is a combination of many factors.
Work Hard: This may seem obvious, but I mean really hard. This is a 24/7 job, so you need to be ready and available to respond to a client at any time as you can lose a client in a matter of seconds. Today, we live in a world where customers want immediate answers and action.
Be Knowledgeable: Know your product inside out and upside down so no question is left unanswered. Your customer is making one of the biggest transactions they will ever make, so they need to trust you and your advice implicitly.
Be Yourself: This sounds ridiculous, but it is probably the most important factor. I live and work within Jumeirah Golf Estates. Every piece of advice or any offer I ever make is always straight from the heart and is the complete truth. Even before I lived in JGE, I maintained the same ethic. I advise every client as if they are a family member. Any agent with a short-term mindset will never reach the top.
Award Win
Winning Property Finder’s ‘UAE Best Agent of the Year Award’ in 2019 for the third time in four years has been the biggest win for me yet. It was a year where we welcomed the first new addition to our family, so to juggle that and keep at the top of my game took a lot of hard work and digging deep along the way. Somehow, I managed to break the company record for the third successive year.
Due to my previous wins, I felt that despite my best efforts, Property Finder would give the award to somebody new last year. But the fact that the judges didn’t is so amazing and demonstrates the credibility of this award. There is no politics involved. It is awarded to a candidate the judges unconditionally believe is the best.
The agent who wins this award in 2020 will be truly deserving. It should be the aspiration of all agents within the market to win this coveted award.
