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There are several ways to make money in the Dubai property market. If you’re a landlord and you’re looking to rent out your property, you can either go short-term or long-term. Short-term is when you use a site like Air B&B and mainly let your property to tourists, and long-term is where you find a tenant that will stay for a longer time, sometimes for years, who has a more permanent purpose in Dubai.

So what is the best method and how will you get the best ROI? This short guide should help.

Short term

• As a landlord, you’ll get the flexibility to use your own property. You can decide how long a tenant can stay, and you’ll be able to use your beautiful Dubai place for yourself and your loved ones.
• The ROIs are usually better – during winter months and when events like Expo2020 are on, you’ll get far much rates than during the rest of the year, with landlords able to charge at least 20% more at peak times.
• You’re in control – there’s no legislation about what you can charge short-term tenants so you can be flexible depending on the needs of the market.
• Management companies (we ourselves manage more than 200 properties in Dubai) take out all of the hassle for you to ensure quick transitions between tourists – and we even organise the cleaners to make sure you don’t have to get involved at all between tenancies.
• Trophy assets in areas like the Palm can bring in 10% yield on a short-term basis. In other luxurious areas of the world, such high class properties might only bring a 2% yield.

Long term

• You know your tenant – you can do checks on them, ensure they’re vetted and you
• Rent is guaranteed – we’ve experienced that tenants in Dubai renew and stay for 4-5 years, so you can have certain income every month for that time, with no gaps during off-season.
• Tenants will maintain your property and look after it because they have a long-term interest in it, whereas tourists might be more tempted to be careless.
• Tenants sometimes become buyers. If they really are comfortable and happy in your property, they might just decide to stay and make you an offer you can’t refuse.
• There is little management hassle because one tenant is far less likely to cause more problems than dozens throughout the calendar year.