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2002 saw non-GCC nationals legally entitled to own freehold property, and this, in line with the ‘brain gain' of returning well-educated Arabs and Asians following 9/11, created optimal real estate conditions. "The Internet and Media cities were leased pretty much overnight, the take up was astounding," says Jones. "The vision to have built that, and at that timing, was quite incredible."

The new global interest in the Gulf's property market led to offers from international companies to buy into, or buy out, Asteco. "I declined because we had something unique," she explains. "We had a number of clients who would come to me and we would work with them all the way through, we're not just an agency and I'm not a sales person, that's not my forte, I have people who do all of that. I am still a property person at heart and there are certain clients that I expressly get involved with because it's my absolute pleasure. I need to have an element of property in my life or else I'm not complete."

Instead Jones instigated a push to bring in top staff from outside the region. The company was restructured over the course of a year with the directors of each business line boasting pedigree from international firms: "So we have their best practices and we take benefit from their international exposure. I'm very much a Dubai girl, I know Dubai very well, but I don't know the other markets because I've lived here for 27 years," she says candidly. "We needed to bring people in who knew about the outside world and it has proven to be an exceptionally good move. It's meant that we have been able to attract good employees from investment or property management titles because we've got people within the organisation that they can relate to. In the property world everybody knows everybody, and references and referrals are always a very strong way to develop a good team. But biggest is not always best, and we want to be the best."

The restructuring was followed by a formal association with UK company Savills, in order for Asteco to be able to offer a broader reach, and gain increased access, to investors. "When you look at a group of strong investors you may well have Irish with Indian, with Iranian. I mean, the world has become so small that actually we almost don't want to differentiate by nationality anymore. Everybody's so mixed up," says Jones. "That's an interesting one as well, seeing how the different groups move, seeing who has what, why people are moving their money out of different economies and countries, the length of time that different groups are looking to invest."

The change in the group's target market has been marked by currency fluctuations and increased access to information globally: "We're seeing a lot of interest out of the Far East, but we're also seeing a lot out of Europe, which has been amplified by the power of the sterling, making this a good place to buy. There are people now who study the market, and that's a major difference between what was happening four years ago and what's happening today. With the internet, and the amount of information that is available, our buyers are very educated. People have to take this business very seriously now."

Regardless of the increased interest from investors outside the region, Jones has no plans to expand the company outside of the GCC, as she says: "We don't want to be all things to all people, we want to be exceptionally strong in the Gulf."

So far Asteco has launched a partnership with Saraya in Jordan, the only exception to the "Gulf-only expansion" rule, and has offices in Bahrain, Qatar and throughout the UAE. Jones is also looking to target Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, although she admits that the latter will take a great deal of planning as the territory is so vast.

This stretching of Asteco's wings works in the investors' favour she believes: "There is a great synergy, there is a great deal of logic. You need to split your assets because you don't want everything in one place and we can see that there are developments in certain countries that compliment others. So where we believe that Oman is developed with the focus on heritage and eco-tourism while Qatar has put a huge amount of money into education and medicine. So the different countries have different things to offer and different ways to protect our investors against economic changes."

With economic changes and the US/UK/EU mortgage crises being very much the topic of the moment - Jones blames the banks for allowing people to borrow more than they can afford; "The whole world has become where it's always somebody else's fault, noone takes responsibility, and I think lending institutions have got to be a bit more particular" - she is not unduly worried about a domino effect. "Inevitably there will be some repercussions but Dubai has got a totally different problem, Dubai has a shortage of completed property. The level of personal security here still exceeds almost anywhere else. Yes, there's a lot of indirect taxation, but there's no PAYE, people can decide where they want to spend their money. What we do need is more property to get rents down, or we need a greater differential."

By this Jones means marked differences between rents in different locations and buildings, something hampered at present by the lack of finished property, resulting in price hikes across the board, although she predicts that this will change: "Over the next five years we'll see that in certain pockets the premium rents will continue to be achieved but there will be far more difference. There'll be suburbs, out of town locations where property is at a more reasonable cost. It's very important that we achieve that otherwise we will find companies will go to other countries," she says. "Of course being involved in property development we always want to see prices go up but there is a fine line, we don't want to see Dubai becoming too expensive otherwise we lose quality people. With rents being so high expatriates are having to evaluate sending their families back. Also, with Asia being our main source of labour, you can go to India now for example and have a fabulous standard of living, job and opportunity."

"We will start having a more mature market and we need to bring in more affordable accommodation," she continues. "At the moment a secondary location is not actually that far removed from a primary location value-wise just because people are renting it because there's nowhere else to take. But it is coming, look at groups like Nakheel and the developments that they are doing on a large scale."

And Jones plans on seeing Asteco through to this next phase of her adopted homeland's development. "They won't get rid of me!" she laughs. "I'm staying right here. The children were born here, and this is where I'll retire."

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READERS' COMMENTS

Good luck
Posted by Saloni, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Thursday 18 October 2007 at 14:00 UAE time


I am quite impressed with Mrs. Elaine Jones, after reading her full story. She really sounds like a genuine property advisor. Small-time investors like us (Middle Management in an organization) always get fooled by un-genuine property advisors and that's the reason we people are also scared to burn our hands and refrain ourselves from any kind of long-term investment in Dubai. But the problem is that, we guys will never manage to get any kind of personal advice from people of her status and that’s why we maintain distance from property market. I wish her again the very best in all her ventures and may she prosper in her life. All the best!!!

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