The plane is climbing out of Dubai, and you are already wondering what a flat there would cost. Keep the thought, and give it a proper test once you land at home. This checklist shows how.
What a short stay cannot tell you
A week away shows you the sea, the food and the views. It leaves out three facts that decide whether a flat suits you for years.
The first is the service charge. Owners pay a yearly sum towards the building’s upkeep and shared areas, and you cannot read that sum from a hotel balcony. The second is rent. You do not know what the flat would earn from a tenant, or how long it would stand empty between tenants. The third is resale. You do not know how easily you could sell, or whether anyone has bought in that building lately.
A fourth gap is easy to miss: you saw the place on holiday. Ordinary weeks, with traffic, summer heat and a lift that is out of service, look different. Each gap can be filled at home, with records and a few direct questions.
Eight checks to run at home
Sale and rent records answer most of these questions. On dataHabibi, each building has a price history taken from the Dubai Land Department register, with a rental yield beside it.
1. Count the sales. Check how often flats in the building changed hands in the past two years. A building with many sales has a market. A building with one has an anecdote.
2. Match the size. Compare only flats with the same number of bedrooms and a similar size.
3. Read the spread. Line up the sale prices for that size, from lowest to highest. A wide spread means that floor, view or condition matter. Find out which.
4. Check the launch price. In a newer building, set the first sale prices beside recent ones. The gap shows how the building has done since it opened.
5. Find the rent. Look for rents on flats of that size in this building. If you find none, you cannot yet judge the flat as a rental.
6. Work out the yield. Find what share of the price one year of rent covers. Suppose a flat costs AED 800,000 and brings in AED 56,000 a year from a tenant. That makes a gross yield of 7 percent, before costs.
7. Take off the costs. Deduct service charges, repairs and empty months before you trust that yield.
8. Follow the direction. Are recent sales rising, flat or falling against a year ago? If you see a forecast, treat it as a band of outcomes.
Plan the budget before the dream
Decide first how you will use the flat. If you stay a few weeks a year and let it the rest of the time, the rent checks matter most. If you plan to keep it for family visits, the running costs matter most, because an empty flat earns nothing.
Then set a ceiling. List what sits around the price: furnishing, the service charge, repairs, flights to visit, and a cash reserve for months with no tenant. Take the reserve out of your savings before you fix the budget. Say you hold AED 1,900,000 and want a reserve of AED 300,000. Your budget for the purchase and set-up is then AED 1,600,000, not AED 1,900,000. If you earn in another currency, remember that exchange rates move, so the cost in your own money can change before you pay.
Do this sum once, in writing, before you view anything. It stops a pleasant viewing from moving the limit.
When to hold off
Wait if you cannot explain why two similar flats in one building sold for different prices. Wait if the building has had only one or two sales lately, or if the plan works only when prices rise. Wait if you could need the money back soon, or if you have not seen the area in summer. Waiting costs a few months. A poor purchase can cost years.
Keep the feeling, then test it
Holiday feelings are real, and they matter. They are just not enough to buy on. Keep the eight checks on your phone for the next flight, and look up each building’s price history, rental yield and forecast on datahabibi.ae.
