Why International Investors Are Looking at Dubai Real Estate | Taxes, Rentals & Relocation

Cintia Arnhoffer:

I found great developers. I just made a contract with a developer who are building office buildings like commercial, and the funny thing is that if you are buying an apartment for $110,000, you can make about fifteen thousand dollars rent a year. But if you are purchasing the same size of office, you are making double or triple the price of the yearly rent.

Dylan Silver:

Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today we’re joined by Cintia Arnhoffer, broker in Dubai. Cintia, thanks for joining us here today.

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Greetings from Dubai, and thank you.

Dylan Silver:

Cintia, what types of deals are coming across your desk these days?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

I’m working mainly with international investors, so those people who would like to invest their money here in Dubai. We don’t have taxes on the property income, so this is a great deal. So it’s mainly people are looking for apartments which they can rent it out for long term or short term. And these days I’m also dealing with a lot of office deals, that they are looking for offices to rent.

Dylan Silver:

Give us an idea of what the market is like from a rental side and then from a purchase side. If someone wanted to get an apartment, I can imagine ultra luxury, but I can also imagine there’s another end of the spectrum. What does that range look like?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Yeah, exactly. This is my favorite question usually which the clients used to ask me: “Okay, you know what? Send me over your listing and then I will pick something.” I’m like, “Listing? There is three hundred thousand ongoing projects in Dubai; which listing?” And everybody thinks that it’s so expensive and it’s only for those who are like flooded in money. But actually, the property prices start from a hundred and ten thousand US dollars. And from one hundred and ten thousand dollars, you can get an apartment—a studio apartment which is 35 square meters, fully furnished. The building has a 24-hour security reception, just like in hotels. Each building has gym, pool, and you get your own parking spot for the apartment.

Dylan Silver:

One of the things that immediately comes to mind personally as someone who’s lived abroad is the transition from living internationally or wherever someone is living to then moving to Dubai and having that continuity: where do I go for this? What school is available if I’ve got children? I have a business over here; I’m gonna move it over here. What do the taxes look like? Do you help folks with some of those loose ends?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Yes, everything. So if anybody would like to relocate to Dubai and would like to open a company here, they need an office, they need a visa, Emirates ID, bank account opening—I take care of that. I also help exchange a driving license. We can go together and find the best district where they can put the kids to school. So I offer the full services. I can also find their home, or if they have an investment and they need someone to manage the apartment to get it rented out or get the tenant moved in and out, we take care of everything.

Dylan Silver:

There’s a lot to dig in there. We talked about property management. We talked about assisting folks with that transition. I want to first talk about what that transition looks like. Let’s start with the initial conversation, that consultation. When someone is reaching out to you, do they have an idea of a timeline that they want to move in? Do they have an idea of the type of property they want to rent or purchase? Or is this very much, “Hey, I’d like to learn more about you, but I’m not sure where to start”?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Yes, interestingly enough, people used to call me to find a solution for their taxes. Because as soon as you open your company here in Dubai, it gets a license and address here, so the company only gets taxed here in the UAE, not where the owner lives. So in the beginning, it’s usually for tax purposes. But then clients come over, they open their company, they come to Dubai to get their visa and open their bank account, and then they fall in love with Dubai. They spend a week here and they’re like, “Should we move here?” So usually the transaction is from saving the taxes, coming over here, it’s like, “My god, tax-free, and it’s clean, and it’s beautiful, and it’s safe, and the weather is amazing, and the service is five-star everywhere, and people are nice.” So kind of they get the benefits later when they see it for themselves. And the property comes then: “Okay, let’s find an apartment where we live.”

Dylan Silver:

One of the things that immediately comes to mind as well—and I want to talk about property management, but we’ll get to that in a second—when folks are making a move like this, it is challenging because of all those moving components. But you’ve done this so many times for folks. At this point, is there one central hurdle or mistake that you see folks making when they’re considering a move like this?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

When you try to relocate to Dubai, you go automatically on ChatGPT or you search Google search, and there is so many, many, many misconceptions and so many different options, and they are trying to find the cheapest option. But the cheapest option usually is the painful option. So if you are dealing with an agency which is relatively quite new, or they are not here a long time ago, or you are dealing with specific nationalities who are not familiar with your home country’s laws, regulations, or taxes, then you can end up in trouble.

For example, I have European clients. So when you move from Europe, there’s a specific procedure and then you have specific European taxes you need to comply with and you have to be familiar with it. But let’s say you’re dealing with someone, a nationality who had never been to Europe—they have no idea about this, so they cannot advise you the best. So I think the better is to find someone who are familiar where your country of origin is or who are here since a long time.

Dylan Silver:

How long—and this is really my ignorance speaking here—how long can folks stay if they’re from Europe or from the States with their tourist visa?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Tourist visa is usually thirty to ninety days, depends on your nationality. For example, I’m Hungarian, I’m European, so I can stay ninety days in the country. So it’s usually like that. I get the visa upon arrival, so I don’t need to do anything; I just land in the airport and then they stamp it in my passport. And then if you set up a company or you purchase real estate, you get a visa for two years. You can get for five or ten years. There is no citizenship and no passport available.

Dylan Silver:

The two years—is this something where you make the purchase, you have to get the visa in your home country, your destination of origin before going to Dubai? That’s typically how that works, right?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Yeah, but in Dubai it’s the other way around. You only get a visa if you are an employee, you open your own company, or you purchase real estate, okay. So then with these actions you can get a visa.

Dylan Silver:

I wanna pivot here and talk about the culture. We see videos online and how luxurious Dubai is. You mentioned something: the friendliness of people. Walk us through that. What’s that culture like? What’s the day-to-day lived experience for folks in Dubai?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Yeah, it’s a real culture shock coming from Europe. I lived in Denmark for thirteen years and they are not the warmest people on earth, but it’s okay. And then I come here and there’s hundred and seventeen different nationalities. And to be honest, being a woman gives a lot of benefits. Just a very simple example: I had to do something about my company, I had to renew my license. So I went to the government office and I was number 308, 10:00 a.m. in the morning. I’m like, “My god, 308 people in front of me. I’m just gonna be the entire day here.” And then somebody turns around and is like, “Madam, madam, ladies’ ticket, ladies’ ticket.” I’m like, “What?” So they took me out of the queue and they gave me the VIP ticket because I’m a woman, and I could skip the entire queue and I was served first.

Dylan Silver:

That’s amazing. I think there’s a lot of ladies who are listening who are thinking, “Huh, that sounds like an expedited process. I’d like to do that as well.” When we talk about that level of service, right, and how that impacts day-to-day life—I wanna get granular here because I’m in the States, and one of the gripes that I have from being in the States, having lived abroad, is that depending on where you’re at, we’re sometimes cold, although I’ve heard that if you compare us to maybe some places in the world, maybe Denmark, maybe some other places in Europe, we can be warmer. For your clients who are in the US and comparing that culture, the US culture, then moving to Dubai, what’s that transition like and what have their remarks been?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Yeah. Most of my friends or clients are from Florida. I don’t know how, but it just happened to be. They are amazing, they are nice. They have a lot of misconceptions and they have a lot of fears and doubts in the beginning: “It’s an Islamic country, it’s an Arab world, we don’t know.” We hear a lot of things, and the media is usually just giving a lot of bad news. And then they come here and it’s a completely safe city. I think it’s the safest city on earth. So they can go to the beach, they can leave the iPhone, the car key, the wallet, everything on the beach, they can take a walk, go to eat, come back an hour later—nobody’s touching anything. There is no stealing in the country. And this is such a cultural shock in the beginning. And you go and people are nice and then it’s clean, and there’s practically no criminality in Dubai.

Dylan Silver:

That’s amazing. And it’s interesting you mentioned Florida, because I have a running joke about Florida, in a good way, that Florida is the Dubai of the United States, and specifically Miami. It feels like they’re trying to become that in a lot of ways.

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Yeah.

Dylan Silver:

Do you think that there’s a connection there between the mentality of the entrepreneur that’s in that South Florida area that wants to live that type of lifestyle with the type of person who is in Dubai, and do you see a lot of entrepreneurs in Dubai specifically maybe for that reason?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Yeah, I do. I think those people who really just want to work, they want to make a great success and they wanna earn money—they are fed up with the taxes and the regulations changing and complying with the rules, and then suddenly you can shift one eye to another and then you make mistakes by just not properly being informed, and administrative things just getting worse and worse and harder and harder. And then when you come to Dubai, everything is just made very smooth, easier and faster than before. And also, you’re not suppressed with the taxes. So whatever money you make, it’s yours. We have no personal income tax. We have no taxes on dividends. So kind of you are being rewarded for being an entrepreneur, while in the US or in Europe you’re just killed with the taxes.

Dylan Silver:

It’s definitely a real thing. It’s definitely a real thing. I wanna pivot here and talk about property management. You mentioned earlier rentals and managing those properties. That’s challenging in many ways. What do those relationships look like?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Yeah, so we do take care of the rentals. So here, if you have a property and you would like to rent it out, the long-term rent is very safe. So, for example, all the electricity, the water, the AC, and all these kinds of bills are under the name of your tenant. So if I’m your tenant, I go and I present my visa and my Emirates ID and all the bills are under my name. So if I don’t pay and I leave your apartment, I don’t leave you with the bills. I’m not allowed to leave the country until I fix these issues and then I pay my debt. But you as an owner, you’re completely safe. Also, usually tenants are paying every three months; tenants are paying three months or six months upfront for the rent. So this also gives a bigger income for the owners and they like it, or even one year sometimes. If you have an office, your tenant needs to pay one year upfront.

Dylan Silver:

There’s some huge advantages there. What really piqued my interest is they can’t leave—the tenants can’t leave the country if they’ve got an outstanding bill as a tenant. That is in stark contrast to what we see here in the States, where you’ve got squatters, you hear these horror stories: rent out a short-term rental, they squat there, they don’t even pay, right, for future weeks, and now they’re there indefinitely. Of course, that’s not happening in Dubai. Are there ever—or is it very, very uncommon to have cases where there are tenant issues?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Tenant issues, for sure. You can always call the police and they are acting within a few hours. The police is very helpful and really servicing us. So they are really here to help. So there could be some tenant issues, for sure; I can hear it here and there. But usually those people are relocating to Dubai who have money or who want to work. And then those people who are busy, who are building a business, who want to make good money—they are not creating issues. And I think that’s the safest point in Dubai: you cannot live here unless you are working, and then there is no unemployment status in the country.

Dylan Silver:

I didn’t even think about this going into this, right? There’s no unemployment happening, right? If you’re there, it’s because you’re working, you’re entrepreneurial, there’s no money coming from the government to folks who are on a welfare state. Having seen a lot of that myself, and I’m sure having seen a lot of that yourself in some capacity in Europe, is that somewhat shocking? Is it shocking to see everyone who’s out there truly working hard and entrepreneurial first and thinking about creating wealth for themselves and their family?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

It’s so much easier to get around, because we have this common reality that we are here to make money and we are here to build Dubai together and we are building a future together. So when you have this kind of society, this is way more stronger. And that’s why it’s more peaceful; that’s why there is more agreement, because we are here for a common purpose and we don’t have to pay taxes for those who don’t want to work. And because that’s pissing people off these days: people are not working, they are home, and then I have to take care of them. Why? I have my own family to take care of, and I can decide if I want to do charity. Why am I forced with the taxes? So I feel like it just creates a very disciplined and very safe environment.

Dylan Silver:

When you look at your life up to moving to Dubai and then your life post-moving to Dubai, is there any one thing, any one either mentality change or lifestyle change for you that really sticks out?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Yeah, sure. I moved to Dubai—I was doing well in Denmark, I had my own company, I was earning good money, I had already savings before I came here. The one thing that really changed for me is the mentality I need to work as a woman. So in Denmark, I was working mainly with Americans and Europeans, and when you’re a woman, you need to be really strong and loud and cold and strict to get ethics presence or somebody actually taking you serious. And then you have this habit of being strong and just like NASA. And then I come here and I’m trying the same force and nobody’s doing anything, and people stand up and leave me and they don’t take me serious and they don’t talk to me. And they’re like, “My god, what’s happening?” Because here, if I want to have anything done, I don’t need to be in my masculine energy. I just need to be myself and I need to go, and I honestly say, “Look, I need your help. Can you please help me with this?” And they love to help. If you’re a woman, they love to help. Men, they just love to help you out. And then it’s like, “Sure, sit down, take a coffee, I’m gonna handle this for you.” And I’m like, “Wow, that’s so much easier for me.”

Dylan Silver:

Goodness. That’s a huge benefit. When you’re looking at—you mentioned that change, right? But then you also mentioned how you not only get services and maybe questions answered faster, but you don’t have to be as forceful, right? Does this have an impact in general in other aspects? Like when we talk about the way that you might approach your clients overseas, right? And are you realizing that, okay, well this is having a spillover impact, it’s making these conversations go better because instead of me having to be forceful and think about that all the time, now I’m basically in a flow state? Do you see what I’m saying?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Yeah, I agree. This is exactly how it works. I just feel more relaxed. I feel like I’m more myself. And I truly believe in Dubai and I truly love to be here. So when I need to sell something, I don’t need to—sometimes you don’t believe in your product. That’s the worst for a salesperson, when they don’t believe in their product. And in the back of their mind there is this thought: “My god, am I really rightful to sell this?” And then when I’m closing someone to buy a property here, I truly believe that this is the best decision they ever make, because for me it was the best decision to relocate here.

Dylan Silver:

Want to create more competition for you, Cintia? But I’m sure there’s some ladies and also some men in the States who are hearing this and they might be realtors and they might be involved in brokerage and they’re thinking, “Wow, this sounds interesting.” If someone wanted to get active in brokerage in Dubai, what would be your advice or feedback to that?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Yeah, opening a real estate brokerage company can be only done if you actually open an office here, and you need to get a licensed office and also you have to pass a local broker exam. So for this, you actually have to relocate and have an office. But I do have a solution for those who don’t want to relocate. Let’s say they are in Miami, they want to add a Dubai portfolio into their own portfolio, and they still want to earn commission: they can do it via my brokerage company, and I provide all the legal background, I get the contact for all the developers, I get them all the marketing materials, and they just need to advertise and we share the commission.

Dylan Silver:

I’ve actually come across those deals. I’ve had someone—it was either a podcast guest of this show or someone in our sphere reach out to me. They were in, I believe, Florida, and they had one of these deals. And that was the thought that came across to me: how did you come across this deal? How did you find this deal over here? I mentioned earlier I felt like Florida is our Dubai on some level, and that people who are entrepreneurs, especially young entrepreneurs in the States, end up going to Florida. Now I’m thinking they go from wherever they are, middle of the country, to Florida, maybe now they’re going to Dubai. Do you see all of real estate on a global level becoming more interconnected? I feel that way. Are you seeing that firsthand as well?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Yeah, Oppenheim just opened their first office here. It’s one of the largest real estate companies in the US. So there’s more and more coming right now. My broker number is 96,296, and I got it like four years ago. So there’s so many brokers, and I think more and more people are interested to invest and interested to work with Dubai real estate. It’s not only just it gives great commission, it’s also tax-free and it’s a great product. So as soon as you’re a broker, you really give something to your clients which is valuable.

Dylan Silver:

I want to talk about taxes here for a second. And I know we can maybe not get super, super granular because neither of us are attorneys here, but we are real estate operators. When people are looking at taxes and tax strategy, I hear, especially in the States, you hear about Puerto Rico, you hear about Dubai, you hear about tax havens, you hear about even states that don’t have a state tax and so forth. Have you heard from folks who’ve moved from maybe a Texas or a Florida where there is no state tax going to Dubai? Do they still have their federal income tax obligation, to your knowledge?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Yes. So they do have to pay their personal income tax, and the first hundred and eight thousand dollars are tax-free, and everything above, they have to pay the taxes in the US. And then with the US citizens, it’s a little bit tricky, because as soon as we are getting a visa for them and opening a bank account, they have to declare that they are US citizens, so they have to pay their personal income tax. So it sucks.

Dylan Silver:

The first hundred and eight thousand—no, that’s a big deal. That is a big deal.

Cintia Arnhoffer:

That’s not so bad, actually. But still, the company is going to be tax-free because the license and the address is here. And just because the owner is a US citizen, it doesn’t mean that the company is going to pay the taxes in the US. So the company’s taxes we can save.

Dylan Silver:

Hmm. Very interesting. Okay. Long term: you mentioned the visa process is two years, right? So you get a two-year visa. What are most folks doing when they’re staying long term? Renewing every two years? Is that how that looks?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Yeah. And then also if you’re investing above a five-hundred-thousand-dollar property, you get a visa for ten years. So then it’s easier.

Dylan Silver:

Very interesting. There’s so much that we could continue to talk about, but as we’re coming up on time here, I wanna ask you about maybe the most common investments you see people making. You mentioned rentals; you also mentioned apartments for themselves these days. Which is maybe the most common purchase you see folks doing?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

I have seen studio apartments and one-bedrooms, starting from $110,000 or $180,000. You can get a nice one-bedroom apartment fully furnished, and that’s the easiest to rent out, to be honest, because the population is growing by 500,000 per year, and it’s mostly single people relocating to Dubai. They are setting up their company and they take in their family a bit later on. So studios and one-bedrooms are the easiest to rent out, and that’s the easiest to sell here.

Dylan Silver:

We are coming up on time, Cintia. Any new projects or activities that you’re working on? Also, anything you’d like to mention directly to our audience?

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Yeah. I found great developers. I just made a contract with a developer who are building office buildings like commercial, and the funny thing is that if you are buying an apartment for $110,000, you can make about fifteen thousand dollars rent a year. But if you are purchasing the same size of office, you are making double or triple the price of the yearly rent.

Dylan Silver:

Hm. The office space is doing very, very well.

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Yeah, two, three times more expensive to rent an office than an apartment. And here in Dubai you cannot mix and match, so your apartment cannot be an office and your office cannot be an apartment, so you cannot use your private apartment to be your office. And then just last year, 156,000 new licenses were issued just in Dubai. So it’s like an incredible amount of new companies are opening. So I personally believe that office space is the best investment these days.

Dylan Silver:

Amazing. Amazing. Cintia, thank you so much for your time today. Thanks for joining us.

Cintia Arnhoffer:

Thank you so much.