Quote:
Originally Posted by Dream Crusher
Your post is pretty much akin to asking us if we think the market will fall. Nobody knows. Certainly if interest rates rise the market will nosedive but that would be contrary Federal Reserve guidance. You said it yourself that you bought at a low. That should mitigate some of the downside risk and frankly your profits don't sound all that great if you truly did buy at a low, which tells me there is likely more upside potential.
One would need to understand the rental market to really make a determination though. If rent prices are low and not expected to rise much then perhaps a case could be made for cashing out. This would especially be the case if property taxes, hoa fees, and assessments are high (if your monthly fees are not much less than renting then certainly it makes sense to rent).
I'm no expert on UAE but my understanding is that aside from an uptick in cases in recent months, UAE has done a fantastic job of handling covid-19 relative to other countries. If a country/state/municipality has shown competency in implementing common sense solutions that are business friendly then that's exactly the type of place that I'd want to invest my money long term.
Regarding the UAE, you are absolutely right, they have really put on a clinic here in terms of handling this. We have been more or less open for business except a few weeks in March/April last year. There's a million different reasons for this, I won't spam this thread with why's.
My post was more of a thinking out loud thing. I'm no expert in bubbles, but what they call villas here (single family homes/detached houses) is where the increase is. Some apartment areas (Marina/Downtown) are seeing an uptick, but the 40% increase as reported is in the villa communities. The demand is far greater than the supply at the moment for houses.
There is no property tax in the UAE and my HOA is roughly 6k per year.
The rental market in the UAE is fairly complex, see spoiler below. Basically still low, but most rental contracts are renewed during the summer months, so let's see what happens. Mine will rent for 68-70k per year, enough to cover the mortgage, HOA and insurance, but not much more than that. On top of that I would have to freeze the rent for 3 years according to local law.