2012: Sam moves to Dubai from the Philippines. She rents a one-bedroom in Karama for AED 50k/year. It’s a big chunk of her salary, but she’s excited to be here. Still, she feels that pinch of “I’m paying someone else’s mortgage.” She decides that within a few years, she wants to buy something of her own.
2015: After diligently saving (and getting a small inheritance from family), Sam has AED 150k – enough for a 25% down on an AED 600k one-bedroom in Discovery Gardens, which had soft prices then. Interest rates are low, she secures a mortgage. Boom – she’s now a homeowner!
She moves in and loves that feeling of paying her own mortgage instead of rent. Friends doubted that an average income earner could buy in Dubai – she proves them wrong.
2016-2017: Sam gets a promotion and a housing allowance at work, which means her company covers her housing (they move her to a 2BR corporate apartment closer to work). Instead of giving up her property, she rents out her Discovery Gardens flat. It easily leases for AED 55k/year, which more than covers her mortgage (~AED 40k/yr) and service fees. Now she has positive cash flow and no personal rent expense – a huge financial turnaround from a few years ago. She uses the surplus plus continued savings to build her nest egg further.
2018: With equity built up and savings, Sam leverages her now strong credit and property equity to buy a second property – this time an off-plan one-bedroom in Jumeirah Village Circle (JVC) from a reputable developer, with a 2-year payment plan. Total price ~AED 750k. She only needs 10% down to book (AED 75k), which she can afford thanks to her rental income andsalary. Over 2018-2020, she staggers payments (which are partly funded by the rent from property #1).
2020: Despite the pandemic, her first property’s tenant stays (actually, they hunker down in place). Sam’s JVC flat is completed mid-2020. She finds a tenant by late 2020 as the market starts recovering, at AED 60k/year (new building, good amenities attract tenants even in a soft market). Now she’s got two rental incomes. The pandemic taught her the importance of emergency funds, so she keeps a healthy reserve, but thankfully both units stayed rented.
2022: Dubai’s market booms. The Karama corporate housing is no longer provided (company changed policy to housing allowance), so Sam could move into one of her own apartments, but she decides to continue renting her units out (they’re yielding great returns) and herself rent a small place near her new job in Business Bay (her rent is heavily subsidized by her investment income). Meanwhile, property values soared. Her Discovery Gardens unit, bought at 600k, is now worth ~800k. Her JVC unit, fully paid by now, is worth ~850k. She does something bold:
she sells the Discovery Gardens unit (cashes out ~800k) and uses that plus some savings to purchase two more one-bedrooms – one in Downtown (older building, 1.1M price, good deal) and one in Dubai South near the Expo site (off-plan 700k). Essentially, she traded one mid-tier property for two diverse ones – rebalancing her portfolio for more growth (Downtown for stable high rent, Dubai South for future appreciation potential). She keeps the JVC unit for now as it’s doing well.
2023: Now Sam holds three properties: JVC (rent ~65k/yr), Downtown (rent ~90k/yr), and an off-plan in Dubai South completing next year (which she only paid 50% so far). She plans to possibly move into the Downtown one (because she’s expecting a baby and wants to settle in a central area with good childcare options) and continue renting out the other two. Or she might continue renting her current place and keep Downtown tenanted – she’s weighing financial vs personal convenience. That’s the beauty of it: she has options. Financially, she’s light years ahead of where she’d be if she’d just remained a renter. Her net worth is up significantly (these properties collectively worth around 2.6M, with maybe 1.3M total mortgage debt – so 1.3M equity, plus she earned rental income along the way). That’s an asset base providing semi-passive income that she can lean on if she stops working for a while to raise her child, etc.
Essentially, in 10 years she went from paying rent with zero assets to owning multiple assets that pay her rent – a complete flip in cash flow pattern.
Key Moves Sam Made:
● She started as soon as she was financially able, even with a modest unit. That got the ball rolling.
● She leveraged employer housing benefits to turn her home into an investment.
● She wasn’t afraid to shuffle her portfolio (selling one to buy two) when the market presented that opportunity.
● She balanced rental yield and appreciation plays (keeping one for yield, one for growth).
● She kept an eye on market trends (e.g., recognizing 2022 boom as chance to reorganize investments).
● She lived below her means, using extra income to reinvest, not inflate lifestyle too much (critical in her scaling up).
From tenant to multi-property owner in a decade – this is the power of strategic property investing for expats in Dubai.
If you’re an expat renting now and inspired by Sam’s journey, let’s carve out your path.
Contact me for a free consultation on moving from renting to owning, and eventually investing in multiple properties. Whether you have savings ready for your first purchase or you’re looking to optimize the assets you’ve got, I’m here to provide the guidance and market insight to help you achieve your 10-year plan. Dubai can be more than where you work – it can be where you build your future wealth. Let’s make that happen for you. 🏙➡💰
