Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Buy Real Estate Club podcast.
Speaker: This is the podcast where we take the listeners' questions and present them to experts in the buy real estate industry so you get the answers that you're looking for.
Speaker: It's less about personal stories and more about impactful episodes so you get the absolute best answers independently, trusted, that you can actually act upon in the buy real estate industry.
Speaker: My name is Gregor Cook, I'm your host and my guest today is Connor.
Speaker: So, what we're going to do is a quick 30-second introduction.
Speaker: If it's your first time listening, we do quick five questions, and then we're going to go into real-life scenarios sent in by listeners from either via social media or via the form, which will also be down below on this podcast.
Speaker: So, Conor, real quick, just give them a quick 30-second introduction to who you are, and then we'll go from there.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: I've been working in mortgages now and in the industry for around 11 years.
Speaker: Being in Dubai now, quite feels like a long time, but I've been working in Dubai marketing mortgages for the last six weeks.
Speaker: There's a lot of transferable skills from the UK and dealing with clients doesn't really change.
Speaker: So it's me, my wife, my little boy and dog Rocco.
Speaker: We've all moved out here together just to really sort of have a big impact on the market because I feel that my skills I've got from London and how we've worked in that central prime location
Speaker: it's going to be more and more relevant now in Dubai.
Speaker: Definitely and we're going to come on to that because I know in London you were doing quite a few mortgages for people who were coming, you had businesses or employment in Dubai as well and also reversed that.
Speaker: So to start off with the podcast what we do is some quick fire questions.
Speaker: Now this particular podcast is going to be based on mortgages
Speaker: It's one of the biggest things in the Dubai real estate market and one of the most common questions people often have.
Speaker: I know for me as a broker, and obviously, Collar will deal with these all day every day.
Speaker: So all the questions in this episode will be based around mortgages.
Speaker: To get started, we'll use some quick fire questions to warm up to Collar.
Speaker: So, your personal favourite Dubai lender for mortgage?
Speaker: It does change, it does change here and there, but at the moment it's Mashrek.
Speaker: Mashrek, okay.
Speaker: The lowest interest rate you've seen so far?
Speaker: Again, there's many things involved in interest rate, but I'd say 4.74% of late is a good product.
Speaker: It's not just a Jewish rate.
Speaker: We'll go into that.
Speaker: Fixed rate or variable rate in the current market?
Speaker: Depends on the client, currently doing predominantly fixed rates.
Speaker: Okay, what percentage would you say?
Speaker: And around 5%.
Speaker: Which is the better interest rate on average than the UK market or the Dubai market currently?
Speaker: Currently UK.
Speaker: Your favourite thing about living in Dubai?
Speaker: The lifestyle.
Speaker: In particular?
Speaker: Going to the beach.
Speaker: You've got 5 million AD to buy your family home in Dubai.
Speaker: which area do you purchase in?
Speaker: Dubai Hills.
Speaker: Nice, interesting.
Speaker: Okay, so that's some quick fire questions to get warmed up.
Speaker: So, the next part of the podcast, we now go into scenarios which have been sent in via Instagram, LinkedIn, or just via the form below, which will be also on this podcast.
Speaker: So, all these are going to be based on mortgages today and the first one is from Amy which is coming via Instagram.
Speaker: Again, I'll put it on the screen so you can see the question as well.
Speaker: I've moved to Dubai from the UK and I'm ready to buy.
Speaker: I have 2.5 million AD in cash and a salary around 650,000 a year.
Speaker: How much roughly could I borrow?
Speaker: Okay, so...
Speaker: Out here, the way that it works is a little bit different.
Speaker: So they'll look at the monthly salary ra ther than the annual salary.
Speaker: So we'd look into that for her.
Speaker: And we have to assume, as it is right now, that there's no liabilities, because we'd have to look into that.
Speaker: But on average, you're probably looking at between three and a half to 3.8 million dirhams borrowing power plus the deposit.
Speaker: Okay, so in total, so she's got 2.5 million cash, so potentially about 5.56?
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I'd say that we have to assume there's no liabilities there.
Speaker: She's got credit card balances or credit cards in general, the limit.
Speaker: Any loans, car loans are very popular out here, so anything like that we'd have to deduct off of the monthly salary.
Speaker: But based on that information alone, 3.5, 3.8.
Speaker: So with that, what are the biggest liabilities that...
Speaker: that affect the amount you can borrow?
Speaker: Is there any particular one that stands out?
Speaker: Credit cards is the big one because people tend to open bank accounts with multiple banks.
Speaker: They'll get a credit card, they'll forget about it, but it could have a 100,000 limit on it.
Speaker: And the banks will take 5% of that limit, even if they don't use the credit card, and they will use that against them as a liability.
Speaker: So if you've got five credit cards with a 100,000 limit on it, you've got 500,000 credit card limit balance,
Speaker: they'll take 5% of that, even if four of them you've completely forgot you even had.
Speaker: So getting a credit report is really important because people forget that they've got credit cards.
Speaker: And is that credit card in, you know, Glover, let's say, she's from the UK, let's say she's got a, I don't know if this is your actual question, Amy, but I'll ask it anyway.
Speaker: So let's say she's got an Amex, 50,000 limit in the UK, will that come into play?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Just in the UAE.
Speaker: Okay, just in the UAE, okay.
Speaker: So hopefully that answers your question, Amy.
Speaker: Just going on to other liabilities, you mentioned car loans.
Speaker: Delve into that a little bit.
Speaker: It's very common out here for people to get car loans, get car finance, because everybody knows renting cars monthly out here is very expensive.
Speaker: If you want to make loads of money, get a car rental company.
Speaker: Top tip.
Speaker: Yeah, top tip.
Speaker: If you decide to go and get a car loan and spread that over the four or five years, whatever it may be, the bank will take the monthly payment as a liability and take that off of the monthly income.
Speaker: But the thing is that one's not as much of a sort of silent killer as such because everyone usually knows about that.
Speaker: But it's the credit card limit that's the big one because people just forget they've got these credit cards.
Speaker: They don't cancel them.
Speaker: And when they get their credit report they're like, oh my god, I've got four more credit cards here I've completely forgot about.
Speaker: And we have to then look at either canceling those cards or just decreasing the limits.
Speaker: If you can decrease the limits down to five on each card, it's gonna have a minimal effect on the borrowing power.
Speaker: Because lowering the limit can be done in a matter of hours.
Speaker: counting the cards down can take 30 days or even longer.
Speaker: Right, okay, that's good.
Speaker: So make sure you're better lowering the limits and just canceling the cards and then potentially canceling them later on.
Speaker: Yeah, we could always say at the bank, no, you're going to cancel the limit and you're going to cancel the cards down.
Speaker: But if you want to get pre-approval quick done because you're out in the market, let's just get them reduced and then we can look to cancel.
Speaker: Okay, interesting.
Speaker: Okay, so the second scenario is Pascal.
Speaker: So this one is based upon deposit limits with...
Speaker: buying a second property.
Speaker: So he owns a property, he's buying a second property for investment purposes, will he have to pay the 40% deposit as it's his second property even if he's not living in the property?
Speaker: So there's a general conception that you have to have a 40% deposit for a second property in the buyer.
Speaker: It's not always the case.
Speaker: If you haven't got a mortgage on the home you own currently, so if he's got no mortgage on this home he already owns and he buys a second property, he can buy it with a 20% deposit.
Speaker: if this first property that he owns has less than 50% borrowing, so he's got over 50% equity, there are some banks that will still allow him to buy with a 20% deposit.
Speaker: Ah, okay, so it's really, so for example, I know he says he's got a mortgage on his first property, but if that is less than 50%, he should be able to qualify for a...
Speaker: 20% more on the second property.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: But not with every bank.
Speaker: So it's very important to understand that all of these scenarios, they are bank dependent.
Speaker: And there's the whole market, which is what we've got access to, you're looking at a small percentage that could consider that.
Speaker: But a bank will still do it.
Speaker: And they're still going to be competitive.
Speaker: You're not going to have to sacrifice massively on interest rates.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And in terms of, you mentioned you've got access to the whole market.
Speaker: How many lenders on that fridge
Speaker: do you have access to?
Speaker: Yeah, so Dubai again is very different from London.
Speaker: In the UK we've got over 100 banks and it's absolute chaos.
Speaker: But the reality of it is, same as back home, there's probably 20 banks here, you use maybe 50% of them.
Speaker: So it's the same as at home, there was over 100 banks, I used about 12 of them.
Speaker: because there's a lot of banks that are in niche areas of the market.
Speaker: Especially because if you're one of the more expensive lenders, you have to then have a broader criteria to win your business.
Speaker: If you was to copy the Emirates MBD or the CBD of the world, and you copied their criteria, but your rate was 1% more,
Speaker: you're not gonna win any business.
Speaker: So they're the type of lenders that have to have a broader criteria, they have to allow probationary period, they have to allow for minimal time in UAE, things like that, the banks that are more expensive will use.
Speaker: So the reality is, you might do one or two deals with them every quarter, that there's sort of five to six key banks that you use more often than not.
Speaker: Interesting, got it, okay.
Speaker: So this third scenario has come in from Oman, just sent in via LinkedIn.
Speaker: I move to Dubai next month, Greg, with a young family.
Speaker: We are going to rent first.
Speaker: I need a three bed and have a budget up to 300k.
Speaker: Any suggestions on the best areas?
Speaker: So I guess I can kind of answer this one as well.
Speaker: One of the things that we were actually chatting about before we started recording about Dubai is before moving here, I didn't appreciate how many different areas
Speaker: that there were and especially if you're coming from like the us where travel time like i've got friends in the us who used to drive like four or five hours and it's like nothing for them whereas from the uk that's like that's like nearly like tops them south to north right um so one thing about dubai is like nothing's too far it's it is it's a city um equivalent size of i don't know if the uk maybe
Speaker: Manchester or something?
Speaker: Yeah, I guess so.
Speaker: Yeah, it's like equivalent to a major city maybe in the UK.
Speaker: US, don't quote me because I don't know the cities well enough.
Speaker: But nothing's really, really too far.
Speaker: So with 300k, you can get a decent, you'll be able to get a villa, a townhouse, definitely a villa in most areas.
Speaker: Obviously not like Emirates Hills or The Palm.
Speaker: You wouldn't be getting that.
Speaker: So it really comes down to personal preference and what you want.
Speaker: So if you've got children, I prefer being in a bit more of a community.
Speaker: So, busier places like downtown, Marina, the Palm, all those sorts of places are very touristy and very, very busy.
Speaker: For me, so my specialist area is Alfjan, and it's like a very tight-knit community.
Speaker: It's been there over 10 years.
Speaker: There's parks for children to play in, there's all the amenities.
Speaker: It's just much more of a family home vibe.
Speaker: So I'd be looking at places like De Mac.
Speaker: I know you said you'll move to De Mac 2, which you'll get for 300k, you'll get a lot of your money.
Speaker: You wouldn't even need to spend up to that.
Speaker: Alpha Jan, again, you wouldn't need to spend that amount to get a three-bed villa, but that's a fantastic community.
Speaker: There's so many different communities in Dubai, so instead of thinking, where should I move to, what I'd recommend to do is you get in touch with a broker.
Speaker: I don't personally do rentals, but I can put you someone who does and say, look, these are my requirements, these are my deal breakers, I want someone that's going to feel family orientated, this is my budget, what areas are best for me, and what they will do, they will give you a tour of the area.
Speaker: Because it's not just the property, it's also where you're going to be spending the majority of your time.
Speaker: So rather than giving you a specific area, that would be my suggestion, is that you actually go and tour and view a couple of areas, meet some that I've just mentioned as well.
Speaker: I personally have Dubai Silicon Oasis, which is one of the fourth most popular places to invest in Dubai.
Speaker: It's got all the amenities, the mall, restaurants, gyms, schools, everything in one place, and does have that family orientated feel to it as well.
Speaker: get in touch with a broker, tell them your requirements, they will advise you on the best areas for that budget as well, and on the rental side, and then give you a tour.
Speaker: I don't know if you've got, I mean, you've got a young family moving to.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, so for me, the big thing for us was the same as you, was the community feel.
Speaker: I didn't want to be in an area like you said Greg where you've got lots of tourists, you've got loads of traffic.
Speaker: If you're in the marina and you want to pop to the beach that's a 10 minute trip, you're looking at a 30, 45 minute trip if you're on a busy day.
Speaker: There's certain areas in Dubai that will have community days.
Speaker: So yesterday in Demacchio was two, there was a community day where you had to show proof of you living on the estate.
Speaker: You then got access to Malibu Beach, which is like a water park for the kids and the family with like a man-made beach.
Speaker: And there was exclusive drink offers.
Speaker: It just gives a chance for everyone to meet.
Speaker: And you've also got the community of where
Speaker: There's like the mums clubs, the toddlers clubs, there's the dog walking clubs, it's all stuff like that that even if you haven't got a dog and you just like dogs and you want to go for a walk with a load of family with dogs, it's just nice to have that vibe.
Speaker: So as Greg said, I moved into the Mack Hills too.
Speaker: For me it was good convenience for work.
Speaker: I don't know how old your children are, but eventually school fees come into play.
Speaker: So you're going to have to start thinking, okay, if I've got school fees to pay for, plus my rent to pay for, plus I'm assuming you're going to need two cars, and if you can't get a car loan straight away, you're going to have to rent your cars.
Speaker: It's things like that where if you can shave a little bit off that budget, because you can still get a nice property, and then that gives you the cushion for all those other fees.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: Especially when moving to a new country, you don't want to...
Speaker: Obviously everyone's got financial worries to some extent depending on how you live but you don't want any additional things to come and play when moving because it's a massive move to come and move to Dubai.
Speaker: It's like a place that's nowhere else on earth.
Speaker: And we can both vouch for that, especially, you know, I've got, I haven't got children, but I've got my wife here and we have a family, you know, we have a homely feel to where we are, as Connor said.
Speaker: So, rather than looking at the Pacific area at the moment, I would just work out, I would get here, said, you know, maybe live in a short-term rental for six to eight weeks and then just figure out and really take a look around, you know, certain areas in Dubai.
Speaker: So, yeah, I hope that answers your question, Oman.
Speaker: Okay, so this next one is from Rustam.
Speaker: I hope I pronounced your name right.
Speaker: Due to religious beliefs, I can't get a mortgage due to the interest, so I've always purchased cash for properties before.
Speaker: I've recently found out about Islamic mortgages.
Speaker: Can you explain and my options?
Speaker: Yes, so Islamic mortgages is...
Speaker: Actually pretty straightforward setup.
Speaker: If you looked at it from the outside and you Googled it and you looked at all the ins and outs of it, it could look very awkward to finance, but it's not.
Speaker: There's two types.
Speaker: So you've got a type of mortgage where the bank will buy the property and let's just, for example, say they bought it for 2 million.
Speaker: They would sell it back to you as the client for 2.5 million or an agreed surplus and then you would repay that
Speaker: over the time, and again, it's predetermined, it's however long the client wants, up to 25 years, depending on the age.
Speaker: And once the end of that time comes up, and you've repaid the full amount, which is above the two million, that property would then be transferred into your name.
Speaker: You are still on the title deed, you're just not on there necessarily as the owner, so the bank would have an element on that deed.
Speaker: Yeah, I saw one of these the other week.
Speaker: So this week, for example, I listed a property, went to the Form A, which is where you go on to the Chokeasy system and you put in the details on the title.
Speaker: And the title of this one was an Islamic mortgage.
Speaker: And it was the first of that is that mortgage one that I've come across.
Speaker: And it said, it said the bank's name is OTAI, lease.
Speaker: Lisa was like, all right, okay.
Speaker: That's why I was one of them.
Speaker: Because I know about Islamic mortgages, but I wasn't sure on the title of deeds, how that actually comes across.
Speaker: So once you've paid it, you'll get a new title of deed and then... Yeah, that amend it.
Speaker: That's why the bank would come off of it because then it's done.
Speaker: They're away.
Speaker: So essentially, in summary, it's like having a mortgage.
Speaker: Obviously, without the interest being on there.
Speaker: And you pay it almost like you would pay off a mortgage anyway.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it's pretty much... Yeah, it's really quite simple.
Speaker: And then the other type is you buy the property and then the bank will charge you technically a rent.
Speaker: And that rent will be paid over again in a certain period of time.
Speaker: Once you come to the end of that time, it will transfer into you.
Speaker: What's the average time frame?
Speaker: I know it depends on...
Speaker: client situation, what are you seeing the average length for a Islamic mall?
Speaker: So most people take the 25 years out of the market with conventional?
Speaker: So Islamic conventional is exactly the same.
Speaker: So I would say just to sort of cover off both points with the term, you get some people want to stretch the term as long as possible.
Speaker: Keep the monthly payments as low as they can because there are overpayment options available with most banks.
Speaker: So what we tend to say to people is if you want your costs to be as low as possible initially, take the longest term,
Speaker: and if you're saving surplus every month, you can then make an overpayment on the mortgage of a certain amount as the term you are the bank.
Speaker: That depends on the bank.
Speaker: Other people prefer to give me a budget of what they feel comfortable paying per month.
Speaker: So I'll say, how much do you want to pay per month on your mortgage?
Speaker: They say X amount.
Speaker: I will then be able to manage that loan amount with the term and amend the term to meet the monthly payment they want.
Speaker: So it all comes down to what they want.
Speaker: It really does come down to what they want.
Speaker: But a lot of people do like to spread the cost of the mortgage over the long term, especially people, especially British people, because at home that's what we do.
Speaker: Everyone at home spreads the term over the longest they possibly can.
Speaker: That's why I asked it, because that's what I did.
Speaker: Yeah, that's what we do.
Speaker: So, yeah, sometimes you get people that maybe have cultural differences, would prefer to have a mortgage for as short as they can, which I've had a few of those, you know, they're like, I just want a six year mortgage term.
Speaker: and the monthly payments are affordable, but that high.
Speaker: But personal preference, you know.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: Okay, so this next one is from Sally.
Speaker: Okay, so I've been waiting for mortgage rates to come down the last few months before I buy.
Speaker: Am I playing a losing game, or should I just bite the bullet and take the court market as it is?
Speaker: Bite the bullet.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Easiest question.
Speaker: So I get this quite a lot from people where they'll ring me and say, oh, interest rates are very high, they're higher than what they were two years ago.
Speaker: And I get it, interest rates are higher than what they were a couple years ago.
Speaker: But what I say to everybody is if you're financially ready, you're qualified, you have the funds, and you know what you want to buy, just buy.
Speaker: If you're buying for you and your family to live in, it's a completely different ballgame.
Speaker: Don't view this as an investment.
Speaker: View this as your family home.
Speaker: For me, my family home, it could be worth zero in five years' time.
Speaker: But if me and my family are happy in there, I don't care.
Speaker: So for me, I would say bite the bullet and buy.
Speaker: Because if you wait for rates to come down,
Speaker: First and foremost, we don't know when and if that's going to be ever going to happen.
Speaker: No, no, no.
Speaker: Rates are always going to change.
Speaker: You're going to wait for the perfect time.
Speaker: And what you'll tend to find is if suddenly you've been waiting and waiting and they say rates have cut by 1%, you are going to go to the market.
Speaker: It's going to get flooded because everyone's going to want to buy at that time.
Speaker: And a property that you was maybe on for two and a half million, you could negotiate down to 2.2 million.
Speaker: You're now paying 2.7 million because there's 15, 16 buyers for it.
Speaker: And you've got to fight for it.
Speaker: And what can happen then if you're paying over inflated price and it gets downvalued?
Speaker: There's elements of that where you might have to bridge a gap with some of your own funds.
Speaker: and that money that you thought you'd save in waiting for the interest rate is very quickly eaten up.
Speaker: Matter of fact, you've had to pay a premium for a property and then add cash potentially to your deposit.
Speaker: I've got this question twice this week.
Speaker: For some reason, people expect brokers can predict markets and I say to them, and I think a lot of,
Speaker: in this market, you know, there's a lot of road brokers, right?
Speaker: And a lot of them will tell you what you want to hear, which I will never ever do.
Speaker: And just based on transparency, like, and he was like, well, where's the market going to be in three years in this particular area?
Speaker: And I just said, look, I have no one can tell you exactly where the market is going to be in three years time.
Speaker: If they can, they're lying through their teeth, like no one predicted COVID or all those other things, right?
Speaker: So, just like your cousin, same with buying a property.
Speaker: Just take the market as it is now.
Speaker: You can look at the history of maybe the last three, five years in that particular area, which is definitely a good thing to do.
Speaker: We always look through the last purchase in the last 12 months.
Speaker: So, how much have these properties actually gone for in the last 12 months?
Speaker: And you can make decisions based upon actual data that has happened, but trying to make decisions based upon the future
Speaker: Things that haven't even happened yet, might happen, may not happen, but whether it's buying a property or with a mortgage, it's just you're playing a losing game.
Speaker: So, Sally, to summarize your question, bite the bullet, go now and look beyond just mortgage rates.
Speaker: This is, from what you can see, is going to be your family home, so go for it.
Speaker: And I'll just add a little bit on that, because Sally, again, we've answered the question as best as we can.
Speaker: Let's now look at the investor side.
Speaker: If you're an investor looking to buy the market, and that's your argument, when I'm an investor and I want to wait to see what happens with rates before I put my money in to buy a property with a 4.5% interest rate, again, if you can get a good sales broker on board and you can get somebody you trust who can give you an idea of what the return on investment is going to be, the best areas to buy in, the interest rate will be a minor factor in your investment because, as I've mentioned, rates are always going to go up and are always going to come down,
Speaker: It's just the way the market is.
Speaker: But that perfect property, that perfect investment may only come up once every six months.
Speaker: And if your really good sales broker rings you up and says, Sally, we've got this property for you.
Speaker: I know you're an investor and it's just come available.
Speaker: Do you want to buy it?
Speaker: And you've waited because you didn't want to get pre-approved.
Speaker: You wanted to see what happened with the rates.
Speaker: But he's got 10 buyers that are pre-approved.
Speaker: you're going to be gutted that you didn't just go ahead, get pre-approved, and get yourself ready so that if that property comes available, you can buy the bullet and go.
Speaker: 100% agree.
Speaker: Just on the pre-approval point, from the broker side, if you are generally serious about buying or investing in a property, and you know you're going to get a mortgage, one of the first things I do when anyone comes to me and they're not pre-approved, before we even go view that stuff, we say, look, go to Connor, because he's the person I refer to, get pre-approved.
Speaker: Because from a broker's perspective, once you know exactly how much you can... You might think you might be able to get 4 million and in fact you can get 6.
Speaker: Or in fact you can get less.
Speaker: So you will waste time if you're in properties.
Speaker: You might even get your hopes up thinking you can afford this and you actually can't.
Speaker: So make sure if you're getting a mortgage and you're looking at a property and you're serious about buying, you get pre-approved.
Speaker: Honestly, this is a true story.
Speaker: So we had a broker from outside of where we work at Allsop and Allsop.
Speaker: who referred me client because he trusted me and we'd worked together before.
Speaker: And he was like, yeah, I've got this client, they're buying at 3 million.
Speaker: They haven't been pre-approved yet.
Speaker: Can you get on the phone and pre-approve them?
Speaker: Yeah, no problem at all.
Speaker: So during the conversation, the client said, well, what could I buy for?
Speaker: Could I buy for more?
Speaker: And naturally, you know, I looked through the figures.
Speaker: I said, yeah, you've actually got a budget of, you know, I think it was about 5.6 million.
Speaker: About 20 minutes later, the sales broker rung me and he said, mate, they've just pulled out because you told them they can buy for more.
Speaker: So he lost his deal, but he did end up selling them something for more and he was happier because naturally that meant more money for him.
Speaker: But it's so true because if you can get pre-approved, it works both ways.
Speaker: you might find your dream property, go to get pre-approved and it falls short and you're gutted and you've then got to try and find ways to make it work.
Speaker: Whereas if you can get in touch with us first, like you said, refer over for pre-approval, take around seven to 10 days, even just getting pre-qualified by us.
Speaker: So if we pre-qualify you and say, yep, based on these figures, it all looks fine.
Speaker: we're going to submit it for pre-approval.
Speaker: Even at that point, I would say you haven't necessarily got to wait for the pre-approval letter to come through.
Speaker: If we're confident enough that it's going to be fine, we'll tell the sales broker that this looks comfortable for them.
Speaker: Take them out viewing.
Speaker: We don't want them going anywhere else from the sales broker side.
Speaker: You don't want to be delaying their search, but definitely going out blind, not so much on your side as a sales broker, but for you as a client,
Speaker: If you go out blind and you find a property and you love it and then you're told you can't have it, it's the worst feeling.
Speaker: I actually had that back in the UK because I was self-employed.
Speaker: So I had the business and we thought because the business was making a decent amount of money, we could afford more than we could.
Speaker: We didn't get pre-approved.
Speaker: This was like five, six years ago.
Speaker: Didn't get pre-approved.
Speaker: Looked around the dream property.
Speaker: Yes, we want it.
Speaker: Went to get the mortgage and we're told no chance.
Speaker: For that amount because of the years of history in the books and especially coming back to the question being self-employed,
Speaker: If you are self-employed and you are getting a mortgage, speak to a mortgage broker first because there's much more complexities within that.
Speaker: So, Stephen, I'm a landlord in Ireland with 12 properties which I'm currently selling before moving my family to Dubai.
Speaker: I'm planning on investing money into multiple properties in Dubai and I want to know mortgage options for investors.
Speaker: I know they don't have buy to let mortgages over in Dubai, but can you dive into investor mortgages or what the current most type of investor mortgages are, if any?
Speaker: Yeah, so he's right.
Speaker: There is no buy to let specific mortgages out here.
Speaker: And essentially, the products that you would take as a homeowner that you're gonna move in is the same as if you were an investor.
Speaker: So there's no specific investor products, there's no specific buy to their products.
Speaker: So it is just a case of going to the market and looking at the most competitive rates.
Speaker: But the big thing is, especially for an investor, and I would say it's the same for everyone.
Speaker: I have this conversation so many times.
Speaker: Everybody chases an interest rate.
Speaker: Everybody I speak to, I always give everyone the option straight away because usually if they booked in,
Speaker: I can't book in someone's same date.
Speaker: So I always say to someone, look, I've got availability Friday, so it's a couple of days away.
Speaker: Have a think about any questions you might have and you can come to me and ask me what questions you've got on that day.
Speaker: One of the ones I always get is, well, what's the cheapest rate?
Speaker: Can you get me the cheapest rate?
Speaker: Is it better than what I could get if I go to the bank directly?
Speaker: The answer to all of that is, yes, we can beat the, if going to directly, if not, worst case, we can match it.
Speaker: It's very, very unlikely that you can go direct to a bank and get a better rate than we can
Speaker: Unless you work there, there are obviously scenarios like that.
Speaker: But in this example, we want the product that works best for the investment.
Speaker: So if he's buying multiple properties, and let's say he's buying the properties at a million dirhams each, or 1.5 million dirhams each, and he's putting in a 20 or 40% deposit depending on how many he buys,
Speaker: What you don't want to do is buy 10 properties that have got a 1% processing fee each time with the bank.
Speaker: So the bank is going to charge you 1% of the loan amount for every one he buys.
Speaker: So there might be a rate that's the lowest rate on the market, 4.34%, but it comes with a 1% processing fee.
Speaker: The insurance costs are higher.
Speaker: The valuation fees are higher.
Speaker: If you start to submit five, six, seven of those, very quickly,
Speaker: it would have been more cost effective to go for the higher rate with the lower fees.
Speaker: So right now we've got a very, very good product, which is a 4.993 year fixed rate, which has a 0% processing fee.
Speaker: And that product, depending on the client, what the loan amount is and what their preferences are, if the deposit is tight and they want to keep upfront costs as low as possible, that rate,
Speaker: could be more competitive for them than the 4.745-year fixture.
Speaker: Basically looking at the whole picture, not just interest rate, interest rate, interest rate, it's looking at the whole picture to each individual scenario.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: So as an investor, I would say, especially buying multiple properties, that is more important than ever, is looking at the true cost of the product.
Speaker: So that's my biggest piece of advice is there's no investor-specific product, there's no buy-to-let product,
Speaker: but there are products that are gonna work best for that client based on being an investor.
Speaker: Got it.
Speaker: Okay, so last one this morning is from
Speaker: and Kush, again, I've read Hobart, I've pronounced your name, I've not butchered it.
Speaker: We've paid off 60% of our mortgage and want to release the equity and remortgage.
Speaker: Can you go through the process and potential options?
Speaker: Again, I know it's going to be a scenario of individual basis, but just in a maybe general remortgage for people.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: So out here it's called a buyout.
Speaker: In Dubai, when I first got here, the word remortgage, everyone I was speaking to, it didn't resonate.
Speaker: They were like, what's a remortgage?
Speaker: So for UK people, if you hear buyout, that's what's known as a remortgage.
Speaker: So yes, you can.
Speaker: If you've got the equity there,
Speaker: So what was that, they paid off 60%?
Speaker: So yeah, paid off 60% of the mortgage and they want to release the equity and remortgage what they mean, buyout.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, perfect.
Speaker: So 60% equity, yeah, no problem.
Speaker: So what we would do, we would go to the bank and we can do what's called a buyout and we can release the equity for whatever it may be.
Speaker: We've had scenarios before where people have made large overpayments and then suddenly they're like, oh, actually I want to go and buy a new car.
Speaker: Or I want to go on a lifetime trip
Speaker: with all the family because a lot of people in Dubai, they live in Dubai and then they've got family everywhere.
Speaker: You tend to find that, right?
Speaker: So there's all different scenarios that crop up where people are actually, I would actually quite like to release the money.
Speaker: One of the biggest ones for releasing money is improving the property.
Speaker: And I would say that is the most sort of beneficial.
Speaker: If you're releasing finance to buy a car that's gonna depreciate, it's not the best asset to invest in unless you're gonna go and buy one of these super cars and all of a sudden they're worth more money.
Speaker: But definitely improving the property, making improvements to the property that's then going to, in theory, give your equity back, one of the best things you can do.
Speaker: So yeah, absolutely, and the process is pretty straightforward, and a lot of the banks will offer no processing fee and free valuation.
Speaker: So if you go to the right bank,
Speaker: we can make sure that the actual upfront cost for this process is as low as possible, so you do gain as much as you can.
Speaker: What's the timeframe?
Speaker: So let's say he contacted you today, Connor, I want to buy out at least 6% of the equity.
Speaker: what would be the timeframe roughly for, I know it depends on the individual situation, but just generically from that conversation to actually getting that money, you know, in the bank?
Speaker: Four to six weeks.
Speaker: Could be quicker.
Speaker: Again, it just depends on the amount, the valuation going to that.
Speaker: Again, like you said, there's so many different variables, but at the moment I would say
Speaker: Yeah, four to six weeks, you should be in a position where that money's readily available and it should be drawn into funds pretty quickly.
Speaker: That's pretty good.
Speaker: Okay, so there are all your questions answered again for next week's guest.
Speaker: Are you doing it myself or will we bring a guest on?
Speaker: If you want to ask any questions at all, either send them to direct to myself on social media or you can leave a comment down below and there's a link where you can go and basically fill out a form and ask any question you want and we will answer them to the best of our ability on this podcast.
Speaker: I hope you found this really, really useful.
Speaker: And quickly before we go, Conor, where can people find you for mortgage advice in Dubai?
Speaker: Yeah, so the best place is Instagram, Dubai Mortgage Broker.
Speaker: My WhatsApp link's on there, everything's there available.
Speaker: I'll leave a link down below.
Speaker: And then that way if you have any questions, you've got the scenario, you know, if you want to contact me directly from based on the answer I've given you today and there's some variables, just contact me on there and we can book you in, always the same week, unless it's a Friday.
Speaker: But the thing is again,
Speaker: weekends, evenings, it's always available.
Speaker: We work around, as with you, we work around your diaries.
Speaker: 24-7.
Speaker: We are 24-7, yeah.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: Alright, thanks for watching and I will see you on next week's episode.
