On top of the ladder

How did you start with Dubai Properties?

I started off with the predecessor of Dubai Properties, which was the Istithmar Property Company which was launched to take the challenge of the Jumeirah Beach Residence. That was in 2002. Initially I was responsible for sales and distribution, sales and marketing and then I managed to move up the ladder to the CEO of Istithmar before it was converted to Dubai Properties, which was around end of 2004. I've done almost everything in the company so my areas of responsibility included sales, marketing, finance, anything and everything so I was a jack of all trades.

I think until the change that happened in December last year I was really responsible for all the operations of the company and then we were given bigger challenges and our senior manager was promoted to chairman and I think he was happy with my performance and decided to make me the CEO.

And you were happy too?

You bet I am. The real estate property field is something that presents new challenges every day and you learn new things every day. I never come to work without learning something new.

Is that then the best part of the job for you?

I've got many bests. In my previous life I was a banker and you know in banking while it's a service industry, the opportunities of creativity are very limited. It's a question of how you make your services better, how you improve your standards but beyond that you are really limited with how to be creative.

This business is where we are creating new norms; it's something different for this part of the world. The challenges that we come across everyday were not anticipated and we have to tackle them and there's an opportunity to be creative in tackling them, finding solutions, learning not only from countries that have been through the same route but even businesses that have been there.

What do you think made Dubai Properties successful in the regional property market?

I think the word is that we were allowed to dream. We dreamt up a vision for this company. We were given the opportunity and the playing field to bring that dream into reality and clearly and most importantly we managed to get together a fantastic team of people who worked with us and dreamt with us in the same direction. The people element has made us very successful.

Are there any plans to take the company into other markets?

I never like to say no to any opportunities but this is a market that has been exciting, innovative and creative for us and I believe will continue to offer us all those facets here so I don't have anything in the horizon that says I should go overseas to invest. The opportunities are still great in Dubai, the challenges are also nice and this is a market that is still on an upward curve in terms of trajectory. If something is presented to us that is interesting overseas, I am not going to say ‘No, we are not going to look at it', but we are not scouting for any opportunities yet outside the UAE.

Basically, you're saying there's a lot to be done here before you consider such a move?

Absolutely, I mean clearly, if Dubai continues to offer the same level of opportunities, there comes a time in a company's growth, for diversification purposes, you might want to do something different, but I think we are relatively young to start talking about diversifying overseas.

A lot of people still talk about the market heading towards over saturation whereas many are contradicting that and saying it's still too early for that with the number of people coming into the country?

I am a firm believer that this is still a market that still has wind in its sail and is still going to go places; the growth opportunities are going to be great. It's really a question of supply and demand. And the demand in this market will continue to be substantially high in the next few years. I see no reason why there should be saturation in the property market now in Dubai. Secondly, people always talk in relative terms, they look at it in terms of returns, and if you do that this is not an investment when you see quick returns overnight. We need to start thinking or rethinking the prospects like ‘I'm going to double the prospect of the property in two or three years'. But it's always proven that property prices go up in a long-term basis and in the short-term, as far as Dubai is concerned, property prices will continue to be substantially high.

Compared to Europe and other countries, property here is still cheaper of course but what about catering not only to the high-end market?

We are a business entity, if the market didn't want high-end properties we wouldn't be building them, but clearly the market still has a requirement for high-end property. We are not saying that we will not build property for middle income. In fact we started off wanting to build properties for middle income but people have aspirations. You start off with something and you move on to something else. People I think of our age are the ones growing the market. There will come a time when 20-year old will come and buy property themselves and I am sure we will cater to their needs. At the moment, even the 20-year olds love buying high-end properties; the only difference is they look for smaller size units, vis-à-vis bigger size units.

Definitely, we are substantially lower than many European countries or other developed economies in terns of value and returns, Dubai offers a much higher returns value than other markets.

But you are looking into catering to the lower-end?

Definitely, we pride ourselves as being the company that provides end-to-end real estate solutions, so in terms of anything from the evolution of the product to how we actually maintain the asset and the value of that asset. More importantly would be looking at catering for the needs of people who want to buy property whether it's high or middle income and even for the low-end people, providing them with housing or a lease, etc. It's just not a market where everybody wants to buy, we have to accept that and we recognise that as a company. We have a portfolio where we build to sell and a portfolio where we build to lease.

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