What’s Next for UAE Property Investors?

**Tim Elliott** (0:00)
This is the Morning Drive, Property News. Mario Volpi is a Cine Manager at Eva Real Estate here in Dubai. He is a newspaper columnist, he is a podcaster. He's a voice known to many on the Dubai Property Podcast as well. So it's, you're a voice known to us as well, Mario. Good morning.

**Mario Volpi** (0:16)
Good morning, how are you doing?

**Tim Elliott** (0:17)
Good, thank you. Nice to see you. A little bit devastated for Egypt this morning, I have to say.

**Mario Volpi** (0:24)
Me too, but I have to say, I was more devastated selfishly for myself.

**Tim Elliott** (0:30)
Okay.

**Mario Volpi** (0:31)
Because I can't...

**Tim Elliott** (0:32)
Oh.

**Mario Volpi** (0:33)
No, because I did something stupid yesterday.

**Tim Elliott** (0:36)
I can't believe you did anything stupid.

**Mario Volpi** (0:38)
No, we just moved, and I was told when the Atisalat guy came to do the Internet, you're supposed to have a bigger router, where is it? And then I realized it was in the ceiling of the previous place. So I went to retrieve it, thinking that I was then going to use that router instead of the ones that we've got.
So I unplugged it, okay? And I plugged the new one, the bigger one in, and nothing happened. And then my wife told me, no, that's supposed to go in the ceiling, not on the floor. So I just put everything back, unplugged and plugged back in. And then the router didn't work very well. And for about 20 minutes, I was struggling, thinking I wish I hadn't touched my Internet, because it was working perfectly. Anyway, got it to work about 20 minutes before the game.
And then just the buffering, oh my God, I don't know what happened. So I was watching three seconds of football, and then let's say 20 seconds of just still.

**Tim Elliott** (1:35)
Yeah.

**Mario Volpi** (1:36)
And it was that stop, start, stop, stop. So that's why I was annoyed. So I didn't really get to see it, even though I was watching it.

**Tim Elliott** (1:42)
That's infuriating when that happens as well, isn't it? I know.

**Mario Volpi** (1:46)
So my wife went to bed because she hates football anyway. And I said, what are you doing? She said, I'm just playing on my phone. Well, you could do that on the sofa with me, at least. And she said, well, I hate football, so no. And I said, but I'm not even watching it. Look at it. And then she just laughed at me.
Which is a familiar thing for a wife to do. Yeah. So all these dodgy decisions that I read about this morning, you know, accusations of FIFA favoritizing, is that a word? It's a good word.
You know, of Argentina or unfavoritizing Egypt or whatever, these decisions. I didn't see anything. I missed three goals. I mean, I saw the first goal, but the others, and then because it was buffering so much, then the TV, I kept reloading. And every time I went back, there was another goal which I'd missed.

**Tim Elliott** (2:37)
This is not a pleasurable experience for you. Do you know what I did? This is almost as bad. I didn't have a buffering issue. I got to say, when I watched the first half, I thought, this is magnificent.

**Mario Volpi** (2:47)
Okay.

**Tim Elliott** (2:47)
This is a great return. I've got nothing against Argentina, but I just, I loved the idea, or did, of Egypt going through.

**Mario Volpi** (2:54)
Of course.

**Tim Elliott** (2:54)
For Mo Salah, obviously, and just as a nation.
And then my dad calls me, and then I've got work to do. So I called my dad back at half time, and I'm talking to him, and it went into the second half. And then I thought, oh, just get on with the work. And I went in, and there were 80 minutes. It was 83 minutes, and it was 2-2. And just as I walked in, it's 3-2. I missed the three Argentina goals, all the excitement.

**Mario Volpi** (3:21)
It's about the same, then, yeah. Oh, it's just for different reasons.

**Tim Elliott** (3:24)
What a game, though. I mean, the World Cup, I've got to say, as much as it's in the US, and they're not a footballing nation, they're a soccer nation, aren't they? Or they think they are. There's been some amazing games.

**Mario Volpi** (3:35)
No, it has been. And what makes it much better as well is I've got the team at Eva to sort of get involved a bit by organizing an office sweep, which, sweepstake, which is a very British thing. And often they didn't know, well, they didn't know what it was. They thought they could pick their own team. And I said, no, it doesn't work like that. You've got to put your hand in a hat and sort of randomly select something. I was, oh, I don't want to do that.