The Ultra Wealthy Have Their Own Separate World of Real Estate

Joe Weisenthal (0:00)

Hey there, I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:01)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:02)

We wanted to let you know that if you're a fan of the show, there's more to Odd Lots than just the podcast.

Tracy Alloway (0:08)

That's right. In addition to this, we have a blog, a newsletter, and a Discord.

Joe Weisenthal (0:12)

Yep. Go check them out. You can find the blog and newsletter at bloomberg.com/oddlots, and you can chat with fellow listeners 24-7 at Discord.gg slash oddlots.

SPEAKER_3 (0:26)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

Joe Weisenthal (0:43)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:48)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:49)

Tracy, we did that episode recently on the big potential development in Northern Egypt.

Tracy Alloway (0:56)

Yes.

Joe Weisenthal (0:57)

And I'm sort of fascinated as a topic by these like huge gleaming mega cities, many of them being built in the Middle East, tons of money pouring into these sort of just absolutely jaw dropping skyscrapers, luxury buildings, things like that.

Tracy Alloway (1:13)

Yeah, I think we spoke a little bit about it on that episode, but it's sort of the Dubai blueprint that seems to be being copied and multiplied across the Middle East. And the question that always comes up is, well, how big can these markets actually be? Like how much demand is there for multimillion dollar properties in tax havens? And it seems like the answer is more than you would think.

Joe Weisenthal (1:38)

These cities are kind of weird to me because I never get the impression that, and you lived in Abu Dhabi, so you can correct me if I'm wrong, but it doesn't seem like there's like that much going on. Even when I see like photos of people there, like friends stopping there, like it always looks a little quiet. Am I wrong?

Tracy Alloway (1:56)

The way I used to describe living in Abu Dhabi, and I should just add a massive caveat here, which is I left in 2018 And my understanding is that since then, Dubai has been booming in particular. There's been a lot of immigration from Russia, lots of people moving there as part of the tech industry as well. But the way I used to describe living in Abu Dhabi was it was kind of like living in the suburbs of Texas in the sense that it's very hot, everyone drives everywhere, you don't really see people walking around on the streets that much, and you spend a lot of time at the shopping mall or the swimming pool.

Joe Weisenthal (2:32)

It doesn't sound so bad, I'd take it.

Tracy Alloway (2:34)

It's a nice lifestyle, but yes, there isn't a ton going on, although they have made efforts to change that, they've opened museums and things like that.

Joe Weisenthal (2:43)

Yeah, no, but to the point though, when you see the price tags on what a penthouse in one of these buildings are going for, or just how much money is being developed or to some of these buildings, it's absolutely eye popping.

Tracy Alloway (2:56)

You see these headlines, and it's not just one apartment sold for 100 million, it's like five apartments sold for 100 million, and I think that's the surprising thing. The other thing that's been happening, I don't know if you saw, but in Dubai, they opened that Mercedes-Benz tower. Did you see that?

Joe Weisenthal (3:13)

No.

Tracy Alloway (3:15)

I'm trying to, this is a difficult topic for me because I think my personal taste veers so far away from this direction. I'm not even gonna mention the fact that I obviously couldn't afford any of these properties, but it's an interesting one. I don't know, it's kind of gleaming.

It's got lots of lights.

If you look at photos of the interior, it's very modern. It's very clean and light, and it has magnificent views of the Dubai skyline. I'm not entirely sure I would want to live there. But again, it's a moot point because there's no way that I would ever be able to afford it.

Joe Weisenthal (3:50)

It definitely, now I looked it up and it definitely looks a lot different than what I imagined where I've never been, but what I imagine your place out in the middle of nowhere in Connecticut looks like.

Tracy Alloway (4:00)

Probably the polar opposite.

Joe Weisenthal (4:01)

Okay, I wanna learn more about this sort of, this world of real estate for the ultra rich around the world and some of these cities and the business behind these extraordinary gleaming towers. Some of them are nice cone shapes. Some of them look a little bit like Jenga towers of some sort. I'm really excited. We do have the perfect guest. We're gonna be speaking to Hiten Samtani. He is the founder of ten31. It's a new real estate media company, former editorial director at The Real Deal and knows real estate really well and people who know real estate say to read Hiten. So thank you so much for coming on Odd Lots.