United Arab Emirates, in its own way, has presented the world a great deal of investment opportunities. In spite of a prolonged world wide recession, UAE has yet again started to emerge as an investment hub for many of the keen investors.
According to a report cited in Arabian Business Website, Dubai remains the most attractive city in the Middle East for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), despite the recent speculation over the emirate’s ability to pay its debts. Over air traffic situation in Dubai specifically and UAE in general has improved considerably from last year i.e. around 8.7% more than it was in August 2009, which can be read as people have started to regain their confidence in UAE market, for shopping maybe, but definitely a portion of that will add to investments.
Now let’s have a look at different investment options in Dubai.
National Bonds is a wonderful option for investors who have more inclination towards saving their money than investing. They had a profit percentage of 3.5% in 2009, and average stays almost the same. With your money completely safe, you can earn a reasonable percentage of profit along with monthly prizes which have attracted many residents.
For investors who are interested in Shariah Compliant investment options find this another reason to invest in national bonds.
Gold is a universal investment option. Although many would argue Gold has reached its high and now its time for the shining metal to jump down, I would predict a 5% further increase in Gold price before we can actually say that Gold has reached its maximum price. From an article in Financial Times I got to know that Central Banks are planning to buy 15 tonnes of the barbarous relic in 2010, flipping them from net sellers to net buyers for the first time in 20 years, a large Hedge Trader in Gold Anglo Gold Ashanti is spending $ 1.375 Billion to take its gold hedges off. And Doll! ars has had so many downward hits this last year and before that it is going to take so much time to recover, if ever, to come back to that standard strong Dollar it was once. Further people are getting more wary of the fact that they want to store something tangible, something that has a pure ‘value’ in itself, and is something that can be trusted upon no matter how low the world economies grow.
Even if the prices go down, but you have a long investment horizon, gold remains the best option -Secure and Tangible in terms of Value.
Starting a Restaurant is one of the options I’ve personally considered and worked on and have a detailed Business Plan available-A Pakistani Restaurant in Dubai/Sharjah. Reasons behind this are many. Firstly, I already mentioned that inflow of people in UAE has increased considerably and no matter whatever purpose these people are coming for, their presence increases the Foot-Fall in shopping areas, streets and entertainment areas of the city. And as we all know restaurant business is directly related to the foot-fall and people passing or living in a certain area, is a best option to start with.
Further, restaurant business is something that has done very well in Dubai for a long time. I have observed Pakistani and Indian restaurants with a small Set-Up but when I, roughly, tried to figure out using my past experience of working in a French Restaurants chain as a chief accountant and also detailed analysis of the restaurant industry, their Net Profits were never less that 50% per annum for almost 80% of those restaurants.
Buying Property in Dubai might seem a harsh suggestion based on what has happened with the real state sector in UAE in recent past. But my reason for suggesting this for any resident who is intending to live for a much longer term in Dubai, buying a property is a much better option that paying a fortune in rents. In addition, it is presently up to 40% cheaper to buy than to rent, so buying a big villa costs the same as rentin! g a smal l one. The 10% down payment on a new villa is the same as the upfront annual rent payment. Rental yields of up to 10% are achievable in Dubai compared to under 5% in Central London.
Even if you plan to live in your home country, you can take advantage of the rents from your property in Dubai, which are Tax Free- very rare anywhere else in the world.
These were few of the options I recommend. Further, there are varied options. Like buying shares of NBAD, which has done so well in the recent past and seems to be doing so in the future. Venture Capital Investing where so many people have ideas but lack the required capital. Dubai is a much safer place for Venture Capital Investing because of its strong and clear laws about Business Relationships.
Crux is, Dubai has become a Business Hub, and yes it was much affected with the recession like all other metropolitan cities of the world, and have started to regain its confidence in the world wide investors which is evident from the fact that so many companies have recently registered in Dubai specifically and UAE in general.
Muhammad Khurram Shahzad is a Chief Accountant and a Business Advisor in one of the rapidly expanding IT solution firms in MENA region. He writes on different investment and finance related topics in blogs, articles and other forums.
According to a report cited in Arabian Business Website, Dubai remains the most attractive city in the Middle East for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), despite the recent speculation over the emirate’s ability to pay its debts. Over air traffic situation in Dubai specifically and UAE in general has improved considerably from last year i.e. around 8.7% more than it was in August 2009, which can be read as people have started to regain their confidence in UAE market, for shopping maybe, but definitely a portion of that will add to investments.
Now let’s have a look at different investment options in Dubai.
National Bonds is a wonderful option for investors who have more inclination towards saving their money than investing. They had a profit percentage of 3.5% in 2009, and average stays almost the same. With your money completely safe, you can earn a reasonable percentage of profit along with monthly prizes which have attracted many residents.
For investors who are interested in Shariah Compliant investment options find this another reason to invest in national bonds.
Gold is a universal investment option. Although many would argue Gold has reached its high and now its time for the shining metal to jump down, I would predict a 5% further increase in Gold price before we can actually say that Gold has reached its maximum price. From an article in Financial Times I got to know that Central Banks are planning to buy 15 tonnes of the barbarous relic in 2010, flipping them from net sellers to net buyers for the first time in 20 years, a large Hedge Trader in Gold Anglo Gold Ashanti is spending $ 1.375 Billion to take its gold hedges off. And Doll! ars has had so many downward hits this last year and before that it is going to take so much time to recover, if ever, to come back to that standard strong Dollar it was once. Further people are getting more wary of the fact that they want to store something tangible, something that has a pure ‘value’ in itself, and is something that can be trusted upon no matter how low the world economies grow.
Even if the prices go down, but you have a long investment horizon, gold remains the best option -Secure and Tangible in terms of Value.
Starting a Restaurant is one of the options I’ve personally considered and worked on and have a detailed Business Plan available-A Pakistani Restaurant in Dubai/Sharjah. Reasons behind this are many. Firstly, I already mentioned that inflow of people in UAE has increased considerably and no matter whatever purpose these people are coming for, their presence increases the Foot-Fall in shopping areas, streets and entertainment areas of the city. And as we all know restaurant business is directly related to the foot-fall and people passing or living in a certain area, is a best option to start with.
Further, restaurant business is something that has done very well in Dubai for a long time. I have observed Pakistani and Indian restaurants with a small Set-Up but when I, roughly, tried to figure out using my past experience of working in a French Restaurants chain as a chief accountant and also detailed analysis of the restaurant industry, their Net Profits were never less that 50% per annum for almost 80% of those restaurants.
Buying Property in Dubai might seem a harsh suggestion based on what has happened with the real state sector in UAE in recent past. But my reason for suggesting this for any resident who is intending to live for a much longer term in Dubai, buying a property is a much better option that paying a fortune in rents. In addition, it is presently up to 40% cheaper to buy than to rent, so buying a big villa costs the same as rentin! g a smal l one. The 10% down payment on a new villa is the same as the upfront annual rent payment. Rental yields of up to 10% are achievable in Dubai compared to under 5% in Central London.
Even if you plan to live in your home country, you can take advantage of the rents from your property in Dubai, which are Tax Free- very rare anywhere else in the world.
These were few of the options I recommend. Further, there are varied options. Like buying shares of NBAD, which has done so well in the recent past and seems to be doing so in the future. Venture Capital Investing where so many people have ideas but lack the required capital. Dubai is a much safer place for Venture Capital Investing because of its strong and clear laws about Business Relationships.
Crux is, Dubai has become a Business Hub, and yes it was much affected with the recession like all other metropolitan cities of the world, and have started to regain its confidence in the world wide investors which is evident from the fact that so many companies have recently registered in Dubai specifically and UAE in general.
Muhammad Khurram Shahzad is a Chief Accountant and a Business Advisor in one of the rapidly expanding IT solution firms in MENA region. He writes on different investment and finance related topics in blogs, articles and other forums.
