Why Landlords Prefer Empty Homes Over Flexible Pay

**Tim Elliott** (0:00)
It's the Morning Drive, it's Mira Business FM, and Mario Volpi is here. That is a recovery for you, how are you?

**Mario Volpi** (0:06)
I'm very good, thank you.

**Tim Elliott** (0:07)
Nice to see you. Senior manager at EVA Real Estate here in Dubai, renowned for his weekly newspaper column in The National, a podcaster on the Dubai Property Podcast, and a lifelong supporter of Chelsea Football Club.

**Mario Volpi** (0:20)
Yeah, we haven't spoken about Chelsea, because obviously it's the season's over.

**Tim Elliott** (0:23)
We won't be today either.

**Mario Volpi** (0:24)
No, either, no, exactly.

**Tim Elliott** (0:26)
No, we, well, football last night, obviously, we're recording this and streaming this live the day after Spain beat France, in which France seemed to not really turn up.

**Mario Volpi** (0:37)
No, exactly, that was my sentiment. They seemed tired.
And I put it down to, yeah, Spain were obviously the better team, but I think France just were not on their game yesterday. So, yeah.

**Tim Elliott** (0:50)
It seemed that way. So, Spain make the final. Then, of course, tonight, Argentina take on the old enemy, which is England, or vice versa. You can phrase that however you will. But that looks to be quite an exciting game. I think there's a great amount of anticipation on that.

**Mario Volpi** (1:02)
On paper, a very spicy game.

**Tim Elliott** (1:04)
Could be.

**Mario Volpi** (1:05)
So, let's see what happens.

**Tim Elliott** (1:07)
So, look, here are the real estate headlines this week. I just want to run through a few things, just so that we don't forget stuff. New Tenant Credit Screening Service is live. We were talking about this. It's kind of a story from the end of last week, really. We were talking about it. A new consent-based UE pass credit screening service essentially allows landlords to vet prospective renters. It's a story that we're going to come back to as we learn more about that, I think. Have you heard about this? Property Finder launching its mortgage cash back scheme.

**Mario Volpi** (1:41)
No.

**Tim Elliott** (1:42)
Okay. Well, this is good to know. I'll tell you about it.

**Mario Volpi** (1:45)
Thank you.

**Tim Elliott** (1:48)
First time buyers get up to 1% in loan cash back ranges from 10,000 to 150,000 dirhams. It's a new scheme.

**Mario Volpi** (1:58)
So, I guess this is just banks wanting people to take out loans and are offering money back.

**Tim Elliott** (2:04)
Yeah, absolutely. But that's available now. It just popped up this week. To buy sales, here's DLD figures.
$4.2 billion in transactions across 2,734 sales figures for the week, okay? And as a notable sale, a luxury apartment on Palm Jumeirah, $20.6 million.

**Mario Volpi** (2:27)
Yeah, I mean, activity is there and people are buying. So, I just wish they were buying through me. There you go.

**Tim Elliott** (2:35)
Please.

**Mario Volpi** (2:36)
Please.

**Tim Elliott** (2:37)
Yeah, exactly. But that's the interesting thing. The activity is there.

**Mario Volpi** (2:41)
No, definitely. And look, despite the fact that some companies perhaps have decided that real estate isn't for them and a few brokers have went away in March, there's still a lot of people in real estate. There's still a lot of companies. So, the competition is still very, very high. And so, I jest from the point of view, wanting these figures that we see to come through the doors of EVA. I mean, obviously, we do deals as well. Everybody always wants that little bit more.
But whilst you were talking about those figures, it just came to mind a couple of things, which I think would be perhaps interesting to talk about.
When you look at the rental offers now from Abu Dhabi, putting the cap on any rental increases, and indeed, Dubai kind of following suit with their own sort of flexy rent. Yesterday, I was speaking to one of my agents who we were discussing her listings and trying to look at perhaps why she hadn't closed a deal recently. And she said, well, it isn't through the want of trying. And she was discussing a particular case, where the landlord, I mean, she's brought quite a few buyers, sorry, tenants, should I say, quite a few tenants. But the landlord is insisting on only one or two checks. Now, of course, we've been talking about flexy rent, 12-month, 12 payments.
Now, the credit scoring, so that the landlord can decide whether to give this kind of flexibility.
And I did say on this show that it's the take-up that really will be interesting. And although it was only a week or a couple of weeks ago, and it's still very, very new, I mean, landlords are just not interested.