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
Hotel sales manager Soniya Sharma Rajwani and her husband Imran Rajwani, a strategy and planning manager, bought their Abu Dhabi dream home after one year of renting in the emirate.
They moved to the UAE two years ago, having lived in Muscat for 11 years, and now live in the 34th-floor apartment, which they bought for Dh980,000 in the City of Lights on Reem Island.
They live there with Imran’s parents and their four-year-old son, Vivaan. It has two bedrooms, as well as a living room and separate dining area, open-plan kitchen, laundry room and three bathrooms.
It might get a little crowded at times, but they wouldn’t change a thing – and plan to live there for years to come.
The National takes a tour.
Please tell us about your home
Soniya Sharma Rajwani: It's very nice. It has a very small, cute balcony, which has a little plant garden.
Imran Rajwani: It's a corner flat, it has a curve, so a lot of natural light comes in. And we are on 34th floor, so the view is quite good.
How is it with five people living together?
Soniya: It gets crowded, but it is nice. We get to spend more time together as a family. Our dinners are always together, and during our weekend all our meals are together.
Why did you decide to buy a property?
Imran: We bought the house last year, in November. We were renting a house when I moved to Abu Dhabi and we were staying on Reem Island, but after one year we realised that rent is increasing. Our landlord was asking us to move out because he was getting a better deal.
At first we thought we’d move somewhere else, but then we did our calculations. We looked at a lot of flats and then we found this one, it’s the perfect one. It was in our budget, we could arrange a down payment and were able to quickly get the loan from FAB Bank.
Because we have a kid and my parents are staying with us, it’s the right decision. It’s very difficult to move from one place to another place every year, taking all your stuff.
My wife also loves to decorate and I always stop her, because we were always going to move, but now we can really invest in the house.
What renovations have you done?
Imran: We invested a little on decorating, improving the laundry room, storage area, kitchen and the dining room. We haven’t done any full renovation.
Soniya: We might do more later on when our son grows a little. We are planning to convert the living room into a bedroom and maybe upgrade the kitchen area, to close it off, if required.
We’re an Indian household, so we do a lot of cooking.
Why did you choose this neighbourhood?
Soniya: Reem Island is beautiful. It’s quiet, it’s away from the city’s everyday hustle and bustle.
There’s a bridge that connects you directly to Reem Island and you don’t have to go through a lot of signals.
In the City of Lights there is a nice, decent crowd, it’s surrounded by the creek, there is a lot of beach area where we can go easily for morning and evening walks. There are a lot of gardens around and kids’ play areas.
It was also a very, very fair deal, compared to what else you can find in the UAE, even in Reem Island. Somehow we got just so blessed to get this apartment at that rate.
Imran: One thing we were looking for was a house with a balcony. We also wanted both bedrooms to have en suite bathrooms.
There is also a lot of mangrove plantation around.
What facilities do you have access to?
Imran: You have a very huge swimming pool, there is a huge gym available, there is a kids’ play area and Reem Central Park is quite nearby.
Sky and Sun Tower Garden area is also quite nearby. We have two malls, Reem Mall and some boutiques.
A place should feel like you want to come back to it after office hours, so this is the perfect place for me.
How long do you plan on staying?
Soniya: I was thinking that I'll get retired the moment I go into my forties. But the day we bought our house, I realised that now, even if I take retirement, this is still our home.
The best part is our parents love the house. When we were in Oman, it was a little slow-paced, they wanted to go back home because they miss the people, but from the time we moved to Abu Dhabi, they are loving it.
They say, “If you want to go, go, but we are not going anywhere.”
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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.”
Company profile
Date started: December 24, 2018
Founders: Omer Gurel, chief executive and co-founder and Edebali Sener, co-founder and chief technology officer
Based: Dubai Media City
Number of employees: 42 (34 in Dubai and a tech team of eight in Ankara, Turkey)
Sector: ConsumerTech and FinTech
Cashflow: Almost $1 million a year
Funding: Series A funding of $2.5m with Series B plans for May 2020
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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Financial considerations before buying a property
Buyers should try to pay as much in cash as possible for a property, limiting the mortgage value to as little as they can afford. This means they not only pay less in interest but their monthly costs are also reduced. Ideally, the monthly mortgage payment should not exceed 20 per cent of the purchaser’s total household income, says Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching.
“If it’s a rental property, plan for the property to have periods when it does not have a tenant. Ensure you have enough cash set aside to pay the mortgage and other costs during these periods, ideally at least six months,” she says.
Also, shop around for the best mortgage interest rate. Understand the terms and conditions, especially what happens after any introductory periods, Ms Glynn adds.
Using a good mortgage broker is worth the investment to obtain the best rate available for a buyer’s needs and circumstances. A good mortgage broker will help the buyer understand the terms and conditions of the mortgage and make the purchasing process efficient and easier.
What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
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Simran
Director Hansal Mehta
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Soham Shah, Esha Tiwari Pandey
Three stars
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."
