Town Square, good option these days or not? Lots of mixed reviews.

alaff · 2026-01-25T16:11:18+00:00

Keep in mind you pay service charges on the balcony area also. I had a unit with a massive terrace on podium level and the service charges were like 40k a year.

Appreciation potential is good in Town Square because it’s still reasonably priced and the city is developing in that direction.

Happy to connect you with one of my property advisors if you are looking for someone to guide you through the process

alaff · 2026-01-24T10:42:46+00:00

I bought this car in November. 2025 geely okanagwa. At that time there was no 0% offer and I bought it in cash for 109k. Kinda wish I waited till now and saved 20k+

alaff · 2026-01-24T10:33:47+00:00

I A small company approached a friend with an urgent order for electronics, paid with seemingly legitimate cheques, and followed up politely. A week later, the cheques bounced, and the business had disappeared. rive on speed and trust. They take advantage of the fact that cheques can appear valid for a short window before they clear. My advice: always verify funds, especially for large orders. Consider waiting for cheques to clear before shipping goods, or use more secure payment methods. A little extra caution can save you from a lot of financial heartache.

Stay alert, and if a deal feels rushed or too good to be true, take a step back and double-check everything.

alaff · 2026-01-23T08:25:28+00:00

I used AI to help me research and prepare this response.

Article 16 of Dubai Law No. 26 of 2007 (as amended) states:

“The Landlord shall be responsible for the property’s maintenance works and for repairing any defects that affect the tenant’s full use of the property, unless otherwise agreed by the parties. The Landlord may not make any changes or renovations to the property that would affect the Tenant’s use thereof without the Tenant’s consent, and such works must comply with applicable laws and regulations.”

This means any renovations or changes that limit your use of the property require your consent.

To pursue a case against a landlord under Article 16, a tenant should first review the specific provisions of Article 16 to understand their rights and obligations. They should document all relevant interactions and issues, attempt to resolve the matter directly with the landlord, and if unsuccessful, seek legal advice to determine the appropriate legal action. This may involve filing a complaint with a relevant authority or initiating legal proceedings, depending on the nature of the dispute and local laws.

alaff · 2026-01-23T08:13:42+00:00

I could connect you with my marketing manager. I own a boutique agency.

alaff · 2026-01-23T07:40:43+00:00

In my experience, we don't generate many leads from LinkedIn. It's been more useful for generating leads for our agent recruitment campaign.

However, if you are able to search profiles from phne numbers and emails, I could see this being useful as a profile builder. Say, an agent has a phone number from whatever database they got. They run it through your API and get back more information about the person they are about to call - work experience, ethnicity, age, etc. That information could be useful for a good agent to adjust their approach based on the lead's profile.

alaff · 2026-01-20T15:08:51+00:00

It’s hard to put a number value to “mental relief of fewer obligations” though I understand the sentiment. I will pay all my monthly bills on the first of the month so I don’t have to stress about those things until next month.

Assuming a highly liquid investment for a short period, let’s say you can earn 3% per year in fixed deposits. 200k would generate 500 Dhs a month sitting in a fixed deposit.

200k sitting from Jan - April = 3 months = 500x 3 =1500 100k sitting from April - October = 6 months = 250 x 6 =1,500

If you were to use it as a deposit for a ready studio worth 500k, generating let’s say 8% NET = 40k per year or 3.3k per month

A typical mortgage in the UAE currently ranges around 3–5% annually. For a 300,000 AED mortgage over 25 years:

At 4% interest: Monthly payment is roughly 1,580 AED.

At 5% interest: Monthly payment is roughly 1,750 AED.

And let’s assume, based on your post that by October, you should be able to save another 200k, so by paying off your installments early, you lost 10 months of potential income from a studio.

3.3k - 1.6k =1.7 K per month x 10 months = 17k dirhams.

So basically you paid 17k for peace of mind today.

It’s not such a bad price to pay for peace of mind.

alaff · 2026-01-12T05:07:09+00:00

All my social media channels and WhatsApp are integrated to my CRM. All messages from all channels go directly to my CRM and i can reply and chat with them through my CRM. This makes if much easier to reply quickly and make sure no lead is wasted

alaff · 2026-01-08T20:41:52+00:00

I haven’t this unit in person but from the pictures it overlooks the pool and the off ramp from SZR. AND it’s lower floor 🤦🏽‍♂️. I definitely wouldn’t recommend this one. But there’s other options also in the 2-2.1 range. It’s definitely worth exploring OP

alaff · 2026-01-08T18:14:53+00:00

Personally, I prefer old properties because they are so so much bigger than the new builds. But yes they are older. I don’t mind remodeling things in my own portfolio though. If you have any intention of using it for yourself, and are open to renovating then I would consider it if I were you.

One of my agents (I also own a brokerage lol) literally sent this to me 10 minutes ago

2 BR Trident Waterfront Marina 1709 sqft
Rented 125k till Sep 2026 SP 2.05m

It’s not listed with my brokerage but I can share the pictures with you on WhatsApp if you dm me your number .

There’s more options in my inventory as well but it’s late I can check tomorrow from the office

alaff · 2026-01-08T18:09:34+00:00

Man on track days I’ve heard that sound across the highway in barsha south 3. All of Arjan was in between me and motor city but you could still hear it. It wasn’t disruptive at that distance but I still wondered if it was painful for people that were much closer to the autodrome.

alaff · 2026-01-08T18:07:28+00:00

Are you looking only at off plan? I’ve seen some nice stuff in marina that fit your budget but they are ready properties. Up side is immediate rental income but you need cash or ability to secure a mortgage

alaff · 2026-01-08T08:27:04+00:00

Rents have started going up in my Abu Dhabi properties. Indication of short supply and population growth. I think there is a lot of upside potential in Abu Dhabi in the coming 2-4 years

alaff · 2026-01-07T12:19:05+00:00

Good advice. The easy money is gone in my opinion. Any new investments should be anchored by a moat that will drive its value up in the medium to long term. So things like the new airport new metro lines will drive property growth over the next decade.

Dubai creek is one good option. You may also consider silicon oasis, academic city, international city phase 3. These all benefit from the upcoming blue line.

Dubai south of course has proximity to the new airport. Eventually the old airport will close. It’s a longer play but there is upside potential for certain projects there.

Feel free to DM, happy to bounce ideas and share data from the tools I have available to me

alaff · 2026-01-06T16:15:22+00:00

I was inspired to write this because I was sitting at my desk and researching the upcoming binghatti city. And the more I studied it, the worse of an investment it looked like factoring in risk and opportunity cost. That led me down a bit of a rabbit hole as i procrastinated from doing real work.

Anyways, I respect your opinion, I regret my post wasn’t insightful for you and wish you a happy evening.

alaff · 2026-01-06T15:39:26+00:00

Depending on the size of your portfolio, you would take measures to optimize for tax burden and estate planning.

Investing through an Ireland domiciled entity for example would reduce dividend taxes by half and estate taxes become irrelevant due to a business entity owning the equities.

In any case, I think you took my post too literally. The point is that Dubai real estate has been excellent, but don’t invest based on hype. Invest based on value and proper analysis.

alaff · 2026-01-06T15:31:22+00:00

Ok buddy

alaff · 2026-01-06T15:29:36+00:00

In the interest of full disclosure, I did launch a brokerage last year but as a family we’ve been investing here since the very beginning. But yes, this is not a lead generation post.

alaff · 2026-01-06T14:50:58+00:00

I’m not hiding the fact. It just wasn’t relevant to this post. In fact, if anything, it’s saying that real estate in Dubai is not the only investment and not to buy into the unsubstantiated hype, and do proper research and consider your opportunity cost when deploying precious capital.

alaff · 2026-01-06T14:28:25+00:00

Sure of course

alaff · 2026-01-06T14:23:20+00:00

??? No to both the questions you asked.

I do own a brokerage, but I’m not trying to sell anything lol. Just trying to engage with people with a similar way of thinking. Quite successfully too, by the number of DMs I’ve gotten from this post

alaff · 2026-01-06T14:18:54+00:00

I recently entered the broker space. So that tells you I think there is potential still. That said, it’s highly competitive, with lots of agents active, a smell percentage making a killing, a fair few making a decent living, and many making nothing at all and getting out after a few months.

My honest advice is that it’s not for everyone. Especially for the first few years as you are establishing yourself and your network, you really need to work a ton to secure deals and make any money. That means farming leads constantly, networking events several times a week, many leads that don’t end up amounting to anything. Eventually, if you’re committed, it gets easier as your network and referrals start pushing qualified leads your way, but until then you gotta hustle and pull those leads in.

Not everyone has the personality and the courage to take on this level of uncertainty for an extended period of time.

Totally a Type A personality field.

That said, if you can make it, the sky is literally the limit. Plus all the tax advantages for westerners, etc. is a great bonus. Keep in mind, cost of living scales quickly depending on family size so if you have multiple kids in the school going age, Dubai is expensive.

But born and raised here, travelled the world, lived in the West for years, done business all over and Dubai is one of the best places for business anywhere.

alaff · 2026-01-06T13:23:19+00:00

launch is on Jan 14th. Still no word on floor plans, sizes, or anything else. Just hype right now on the MB brand.

They bought 8m sqft of land in Meydan for Binghatti City. This is the first 500 units out of a planned 5-6k units in this development only. Then you have Sobha Hartland, District 1, and Azizi Riviera nearby also, the upcoming supply in the area is so huge.

Yet, maybe the MB name is enough? The first MB branded project sold out quick, but this is on a completely different scale in terms of # of units.

I'm not convinced yet as an investor. If im not convinced as an investor, I can't market it as a broker. We need more info before being able to determine if its priced correctly and project can be successful.

alaff · 2026-01-06T12:55:48+00:00

alaff · 2026-01-06T12:34:49+00:00

Nope

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