My Own Home takes you inside a reader-owned property to ask how much they paid, why they decided to buy and what they have done with it since moving in
Camilo Botero, a product manager for Careem, has not lived anywhere but Bay Square, in Business Bay, since he moved to Dubai three years ago – and he has no plans to move anywhere else any time soon.
The Colombian tech expert bought a property there with his wife, Joy Torres, who works for fam Properties, this year for Dh980,000. They have since put Dh120,000 into renovations, transforming the small studio apartment into a light-filled haven that they have both fallen in love with.
The National takes a look around with Mr Botero.
Please tell me about your home.
It is about 670 square feet, including a balcony, in Business Bay, in a community called Bay Square. The size is pretty good. It sucks that we don’t have a wall to separate the bedroom, but there are other studios that are half the size or one-bedrooms that are this size, so in this area it’s the best ratio between size and money.
We also have a Burj Khalifa view. It's nice, I'm in love with this.
Why did you choose Bay Square?
I absolutely love this neighbourhood. This is where I came when I moved to Dubai after the coronavirus [lockdowns], so rent prices were pretty good at the time.
It was pretty scary for me, because I was coming from Colombia where rents are not even close to what you pay here, but this was one of the nicest, not-so-expensive areas.
This community is mostly offices – there are 13 buildings here and a few are half offices with residences, but this is the only building in the whole community that’s fully residential. It’s in very good shape.
It’s never super-painful wherever you have to go in terms of traffic. You can reach anywhere pretty easily. I came here to rent first and just fell in love with it.
Why did you decide to buy?
After the market recovered a little bit after coronavirus, they started selling every single unit. All the tenants who were here got an eviction notice.
I was looking for places to move and the prices had almost doubled everywhere. If I wanted to go any place and pay the same amount I was paying here, it was almost impossible. It would have had to have been a not very nice area or not a very nice unit. So, I had to pay more, that was a fact. My wife works in real estate, so she had information on good opportunities in the area, such as who’s selling and what the last price was, so we decided to go for it.
I had to make the down payment, which was a lot, but then the monthly payments are pretty much the rent price I had before. I figured if I’m going to pay a lot of money on rent, money that’s going to someone else’s pocket, I might as well just put it into my own equity and get an apartment myself.
We got the opportunity in March. It was insane, those months, because I wasn’t planning on buying, so I had to sell everything, like my car, and get savings from absolutely every single corner.
What facilities do you have access to?
First, it’s a nice community, it’s somewhere that you can walk around. We have restaurants, supermarkets – we have a Choithrams here – and a UFC gym.
In the building we have another gym, which is a little smaller. We have a pool on the roof and a games room where there’s billiards and ping pong. The Dubai Canal is also close by, so we can run or cycle. We’re very close to the beach as well.
What renovations have you done?
We moved in after two months of renovation work. It's a small studio, so it shouldn't have taken that long, but we did a bunch of changes. It's not like just wrapping and making it look nice – we redid everything. We did the electrical outlets, we did the pipes, the sink, tore down the kitchen, changed the bathroom.
We tried to make it minimalistic, we don't have too much stuff, and used light colours.
How was the renovations process?
The problems I had with the renovation work were not problems you would expect to have. You understand it will never be smooth, but some things that happened were mind-blowing. For instance, if they needed to drill a hole in the wall, they didn’t care how they made the hole, and they would put live wires on the cement and then just cover them.
They didn’t have the proper tools. It was people who didn’t care and who were not prepared. It was tough. I had to spend most of my vacation time just being on top of them, because no one was here checking what they were doing.
When it was finally done, it was a relief. After the dust and chaos of the initial months, it was great just to lie on the bed and look around and see what we did. It was the best feeling ever.
How long will you be in this property for?
That's a good question. It’s Dubai, so you never know. My plan is to stay here at least two years. That's the minimum I would like to stay here for it to make sense financially.
Then we can rent it out. If I rent right now at an average price for this building and this unit, I will just break even. I will not make money, at least not for now.
The biog
Born: High Wycombe, England
Favourite vehicle: One with solid axels
Favourite camping spot: Anywhere I can get to.
Favourite road trip: My first trip to Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan. The desert they have over there is different and the language made it a bit more challenging.
Favourite spot in the UAE: Al Dhafra. It’s unique, natural, inaccessible, unspoilt.
In The Heights
Directed by: Jon M. Chu
Stars: Anthony Ramos, Lin-Manual Miranda
Rating: ****
What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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The Rub of Time: Bellow, Nabokov, Hitchens, Travolta, Trump and Other Pieces 1986-2016
Martin Amis,
Jonathan Cape
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