To Buy or to Rent in Dubai? Moving Beyond the Excel Sheet

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Success.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:01)
Real estate once again, this is Mira Business FM, it's the Morning Drive, and the question, to buy or to rent in Dubai?
I was very tempted to do the Hamlet thing, I'm not going to. Beyond the Excel sheet, Ajay Menon is the CEO of Luxe Vista Real Estate, here he is again in his, I was going to say, Ajay, in his full glory.

**Ajay Menon** (0:21)
Thank you.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:22)
You're very welcome. I don't know what I mean by that, but I think it's intended in the right way. So this is a huge debate, right? To Dubai or to rent, it's what we all do. How long are we going to be in Dubai? It's very transient society. Not so much these days. Are we going to be here two years, five years, 10 years, or like you and me?

**Ajay Menon** (0:41)
I've seen this evolve over the period. Basically, when I came, that is in 1997, it is always for a few years and then go back.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:49)
I'm here two and a half years, three years, can't do that.

**Ajay Menon** (0:52)
But nowadays when people are coming, they have a clear idea. They're going to be here for five years, ten years, they have an idea. Because it's not a quick buck and then get back home kind of thing.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:01)
No, it isn't. No, when did all these people start making these plans and why did they leave us behind, would be my question.

**Ajay Menon** (1:08)
The Y stability or the Y office.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:10)
It's probably the point.
Look, so this is a huge debate. But what makes you want to talk about this now?

**Ajay Menon** (1:19)
Because I've seen this happen again and again, the rental disruptions, the rents going up quarter on quarter, just before the war, it was just going one way.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:29)
Yes.

**Ajay Menon** (1:30)
So, and people again started talking about now, okay, maybe now it is a time to buy.
But this is still a much debated subject, should I rent or should I buy? Both have, it's got, but again, we are talking about people who are considering to buy, to either live in, not for renting. It's just to live or rent, right? So, it's not treated like an investment asset class.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:57)
No, it's not. It's much more of an emotional decision.

**Ajay Menon** (2:00)
It's a home. The idea is buying a home, right? So, traditionally people used to compare mortgage payments versus rent, and that's it.
Even the brokers, that's it. I mean, it just stops there. What is it better, paying the EMI or paying the rent?

**SPEAKER_2** (2:20)
Yeah. Okay. So, there is a lot more to it, I suppose. Let's break it down.
What are the hidden costs of renting?

**Ajay Menon** (2:28)
And that is what happens.
When the rent goes up, most people used to move. They used to go to a new place. But there's a lot of hidden costs associated with it. We are talking about the moving company cost, the security deposit cost, the agency cost, then you have the connecting utilities. Yeah.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:56)
Okay.

**Ajay Menon** (2:56)
Then you have to adjust your furniture. You have to probably buy new furniture because the new house might have an extra bedroom or something like that. So, that also adds up. Then you have to take time off from work. That's a big thing.
Then once you come back, once they move your product, everything is sitting in cardboard boxes. You have to find its own new places and stuff like that. It all settling down takes time. It's basically a disruption of your life as such.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:27)
I mean, it's a huge disruption to your life until you get settled down again. And then obviously there is the cost of that disruption as well. It might change your commutes.

**Ajay Menon** (3:39)
Longer commutes sometimes, change of schools. So obviously, they have to arrange new transportation to children. So especially with families with children, it affects a little bit more because the friends that your children made in the previous house, they're going to lose them because you might be going to an entirely different location.
That also means that you've lost your trusted nannies, your tailor, your little community that you have nearby your house. So rebuilding a new life, a new community, a new ecosystem, neighbors, it takes a lot of time.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:16)
It's interesting that I hadn't thought of it in those terms, but it is those little things that are part of your local infrastructure, your circle around you. As you said there, you're tailor, and I'm thinking, I don't have a tailor, but I know you get shirts made.