UAE Real Estate Investing Explained | Dubai Property, Airbnb Demand, and Development Opportunities

Eve Mila (00:00)
Well, there is a lot of development still to be made, especially in the area of the UAE where they’re going to build the casino. So they have the company called Wynn on board. If anybody doesn’t know the company, Wynn. Wynn makes big hotels for casinos all over the world. Macau, Monaco, Las Vegas.

And so the area where they chose to build their casino is still relatively untouched to Western style development. So I think that that would be a wonderful opportunity for the right person.

Michelle Kesil (02:10)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Eve Mila or The Money Mermaid, who is a commercial and residential real estate agent focusing on the UAE. So excited to have you here today, Eve.

Eve Mila (02:30)
It’s a pleasure to be here, Michelle.

Michelle Kesil (02:32)
Great, let’s dive in. First off, for those not familiar with you and your work, can you share what your main focus is these days?

Eve Mila (02:40)
Yes ma’am. So in the last four years, I have focused all of my energy as a property investment advisor in the UAE, which focuses primarily in the areas of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Ras Al-Kaima for international investors and the country, although currently under siege.

is still a very, very lucrative investment location and there is a lot more to come from this country.

Michelle Kesil (03:10)
Awesome! And what made you choose that location for your business?

Eve Mila (03:17)
Uh, during the pandemic, I realized, um, I would have to pivot from my original business. I had a business that I started in 2016, which was a swim instruction company. And the throughout the time that, uh, I was a youth, my mom was trying to convince me to join her in the Miami real estate market. And I resisted and resisted. And so during the pandemic, I went.

to the UAE to visit the World Fair and I ended up falling in love with the country and I ended up staying there and the last five years I’ve been living in the UAE. I just came back for the holidays and then of course we all know what happened so I had to stay a little longer.

Michelle Kesil (04:02)
Yeah, wow, amazing. And so how did that journey look in getting properties there and getting into real estate on that side of the world?

Eve Mila (05:00)
That journey was a little bit tumultuous in the beginning, but I’m a quick learner. I have this ability to memorize maps. And so a lot of people that were in the real estate industry in the UAE met me in the first month and a half that I was there. And all of them were desperate for me to join their teams. And when I realized, okay, there is a very unique

desperation to have English speakers and Americans joining these real estate teams. That’s when I realized I really need to learn the industry and I ended up staying. And the longer I stayed, the more I learned and the more I fell in love with the country. So that definitely helped me see the country as a very lucrative investment opportunity.

for the people who are looking into international spaces for investment. that’s what it became.

Michelle Kesil (05:58)
Awesome. So are you mostly helping other Americans invest over there?

Eve Mila (06:03)
We have a lot of clients who are Saudi, but my American clients, normally they come back around election period. So they see investment opportunities abroad during election periods more than other people. Like for example, my British and European clients, they were pretty much determined or.

ready to buy or they had already an idea what they wanted to buy versus the American clients who they would explore. But they would be like, wait until November 4th or 5th and then, you know, text me again, which I understand why we as Americans are more cautious with a market outside. But ⁓ I do have a couple of clients that are mostly based in New York and California, a couple of Floridians, a couple of

other southern states, but the majority of my clients in the UAE are Saudis and UK or other Europeans.

It’s still very new for Americans.

Michelle Kesil (07:07)
Awesome.

What?

Eve Mila (07:09)
It’s still very new idea for America.

Michelle Kesil (07:11)
Sure. Yeah. And so what does your role look like in your job and real estate over there?

Eve Mila (07:19)
My position as a property investment advisor in the UAE is to guide potential buyers to make sure that they make the decision that makes the most sense for their goals. So if somebody actually has the idea of moving to the UAE in some future point, that would look different than somebody who doesn’t have that plan. Somebody who wants to just invest and just have an Airbnb over there or somebody who wants to open a storefront.

Those are all different. And there’s also a lot of opportunities as far as development. So if you want to buy land or if you want to buy a building, there is a variety of options and each of those individuals needs to be heard in a different way so that they could be catered to exactly the way that they need to find the unit or product or project that suits their needs and their goals.

So that’s where I step in. And once they have made that purchase, if they’d like to stay on with me as their advisor, I help manage the property. I help maintain the property. I help to make sure it is rented and properly cared for.

Michelle Kesil (08:32)
Awesome. And how is the market doing in the UAE?

Eve Mila (08:36)
Well, when I first got there, there was a lot of buyers and there still are a lot of buyers, but those skeptics, those ones that always wonder where are the, where, where is the opportunity for the lowest investment and the highest return? They always thought this bubble will burst, this bubble will burst. So unfortunately that did end up happening at the last day of February.

But that does not discredit the fact that this market is still a very lucrative market. So right now the values have dropped a little bit more than they were prior to the summer when the whole situation with Iran was starting to develop. However,

There is going to be a casino built very soon, which is going to be the first casino in the entire Middle East. And there’s also going to be a Disney built in the Abu Dhabi area, which is again, the very first Disney in the entire Middle East, which will already be joining in with Ferrari World, Warner Brothers World, Legoland, and a lot of other brands who have made.

UAE their home versus any other part of the Middle East because they are not catching up with the Western market in the way that the UAE is which makes it so lucrative.

Michelle Kesil (09:59)
Yeah, absolutely. And would you say that those that invest there get good returns or they get like what they’re looking for?

Eve Mila (10:43)
Whatever you are looking for, you’re going to find it. Why? Because you have to keep in mind that in the UAE, are not, they are not as secluded as we in the United States are. Yes, we do have a lot of options when we’re traveling. We can go visit a lot of states, but where the beauty of the UAE is its unique position in the global space. Because the majority of countries are within

four to five hours, be it by flight or by road or by train or whatever it may be that you want to reach another destination. Meaning that when you have a visitor coming, they could be using your Airbnb for a couple of days, for a week, and it could be a perfect weekend trip.

Honestly, you can’t find even one open hotel room or Airbnb during New Year’s Eve, during big holidays. And that makes it unique because you have customers from everywhere flying in on a daily basis. Millions and millions of customers pass through the UAE, whether it be for a transit stay to, you know, 24 to 48 hours.

or a long weekend or a week long trip or even longer some in some cases, because believe it or not, a lot of American and European companies are now moving a headquarters to that region of the Middle East and specifically the UAE, be it Abu Dhabi or Dubai. And they do bring employees to stay there sometimes a month, sometimes six months.

sometimes a two-year contract and all of those people need spaces to live at and so it could be an individual who rents your apartment or it could be a company that rents the units collectively for their employees. So that keeps you in business all year round not exclusively during holidays because of course it is a desert so it’s very hot in the summer.

but there’s still so much potential throughout the year.

Michelle Kesil (12:49)
Yeah, absolutely. And what has been the biggest challenge in getting set up over there?

Eve Mila (12:56)
One of the first challenges as a woman is getting accustomed to some of the standards, so to speak. But once you kind of move past that barrier or you find, you know, let’s say your tribe there, because there is a variety of groups of people, sometimes there could be some clicky vibe in the UAE, but…

once you move past that or once you find your space, your tribe, your group of people, then it becomes so much easier to adapt as a woman. But even as a woman, there’s a lot of free things that they offer you, very similar to any major city of the United States. So sometimes you got to be, you know,

careful what kind of offers you accept because People will always want you around in that country for whatever ulterior reasons So that was a little bit difficult to navigate because it’s not the same as our country where we’re protected in the same ways so um That was a little bit of a learning curve for me. Um I actually had to limit

my exposure to certain types of clientele because of that, because I was having so much language barrier that I don’t even feel like it was language barrier per se. It was like more of a cultural barrier than anything. And that was a little bit hard to navigate. So some groups of people, I, just had to kind of step away from working with them due to the fact that it was just, I was doing a lot more work for what.

what I was expecting in return. then once we were doing some of the things to get the ball rolling and close the deal, started getting a little bit, we started, things started getting a little confusing and it just, well, I’ll just, I’m gonna just say that that was a cultural barrier that we just couldn’t cross. So that’s why my focus became UK and Europeans as well as Americans and Saudis because they were a little bit.

more prepared to write a check than a lot of other clients. And they were easier to talk to for me. So it was just, it just made sense.

Michelle Kesil (15:06)
Yeah, it’s definitely a different world to navigate.

Eve Mila (15:09)
Yeah, it was extremely new for me because I had never been to the Middle East before I decided to go there. It was actually the first ever World Fair held in the Middle East. So that is what attracted me. But staying there taught me a lot. Taught me a lot about the Middle East in general. Taught me a lot about the culture. And it was like I said, it was a learning curve. I had very little

interaction with those cultures before I went to the UAE and so it was very new to me.

Michelle Kesil (15:41)
Yeah, absolutely. And what are you most focused on solving or scaling to next?

Eve Mila (16:27)
Well, there is a lot of development still to be made, especially in the area of the UAE where they’re going to build the casino. So they have the company called Wynn on board. If anybody doesn’t know the company, Wynn. Wynn makes big hotels for casinos all over the world. Macau, Monaco, Las Vegas.

And so the area where they chose to build their casino is still relatively untouched to Western style development. So I think that that would be a wonderful opportunity for the right person.

Whoever wants to get involved, you take a plot of land for a 99 year lease and the shake, which it would be like a kind of like a king.

he will approve your projects and they are happy to extend your lease past 99 years and depending on whatever project you plan to develop, you could make incredibly huge returns because being next to casino has historically been a good investment as you could see across the country, across the globe, wherever there’s a casino.

the businesses that are around that casino or built around casinos make just as much money as a casino, if not more in some cases. So that would be a wonderful opportunity for people who want to develop, for people who want to create businesses there because they are going to need more Western style businesses, more Western style food, shopping, hotels, et cetera, et cetera.

So that is where I see a huge space for improvement.

Michelle Kesil (18:13)
Definitely. And is that something that you’re working with your clients and providing the support to create that type of space?

Eve Mila (18:22)
I am. So I do have a couple of clients who are hoteliers in different parts of the world. And one particular hotelier that I am very close friends with, he is actually a Nigerian British man. He has a little chain of hotels in the UK and in Nigeria. And he’s been considering spreading to

the UAE and he has not even considered Dubai or Abu Dhabi due to the expense for land, which again, for us Americans, especially us Americans that live in the expensive areas, New York, California, Florida, it’s not that expensive for us. And it’s still developing. So.

This particular person, he’s looking into more affordable areas, but there is still a lot of space in Dubai, in Abu Dhabi to purchase large swaths of land for all kinds of development, be it a master community, be it a mall, be it a residential community, building, whatever it may be. Even theme parks, there’s still plenty of space even for that in the UAE.

Michelle Kesil (19:34)
Wow, that’s pretty wild that there’s such this demand and opportunity for development over there.

Eve Mila (19:40)
Right now, the three major nationalities of people who are purchasing the most land, plain land, I’m not talking about residential units or commercial units or ready properties. I’m talking about the people who are buying the most land are the Chinese, the British, and the Saudis. Americans are on that list, but we’re a little further behind than we should be, if you know what I mean.

Michelle Kesil (20:04)
Yeah, understood. Well, thank you for sharing all of that. And before we begin to wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more, where can people find you?

Eve Mila (20:13)
Anybody could find me on Facebook or Instagram to reach me the quickest. So the Instagram you could find me on is Themoney.mermaid on Instagram and on Facebook it’s, Eve at one group, which was one of the brokers that I was working for. And they always told us, talk about all the celebrities, the American celebrities that live here.

Listen, you guys could research that yourself. I’m just here to ease the path for you. And that would be the easiest way to reach me. You could also email me at themoneymermaid at gmail.com. And you could also find contact information on my Instagram.

Michelle Kesil (20:54)
Perfect, we’ll appreciate your time and your story. Thank you for being here.

Eve Mila (20:57)
Thank you so much for inviting me, Michelle.

Michelle Kesil (20:59)
And for those tuning in, you got value, make sure you have subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Eve who are building real businesses. We’ll see you on our next episode.