Journey of a Chartered Surveyor in Dubai
Dubai is known for its superior standard of living, modern architecture, world’s tallest building, fancy hotels, luxury shopping, and lively nightlife. It’s also a land of opportunities to do business and for professionals to build careers with multinational companies. Well, this is my short elevator pitch for a larger-than-life city and here’s my story written on its golden sands.
I came to Dubai from a small town in India 14 years ago as a young professional with two years’ work experience in real estate valuation and many dreams. A little unsure of what to expect, I arrived in Dubai when Dubai Metro and The Dubai Mall had recently become operational, and Burj Khalifa was just built. Everything was process driven, clean, and efficient. In this truly global city, I saw people from different countries and diverse cultures who made it their home. Moreover, people here have always been hardworking and helpful, and I was made to feel right at home from the beginning.
My living and working experience in Dubai
Dubai is often called the land of opportunities and there is always something for everyone. There are many cool aspects to living and working in Dubai:
- It’s an extremely expat friendly city with over 80% of the population comprising of foreigners.
- It’s easy to get a visa and residency. You can also sponsor your spouse, children, and parents. There’s also a new long-term residence Golden Visa with a validity period of 10 years, which was introduced for certain categories of expats.
- It’s very safe and virtually crime-free city. The police patrols the streets in supercars such as Ferrari FF, Lamborghini Aventador, Aston Martin One-77, and Bugatti Veyron!
- The weather is hot for a couple of months but sunny and pleasant for the rest of the year. And you have the water parks, ski slopes, amazing indoor malls, and countless restaurants to beat the heat.
- As far as food and cuisine go, every popular food chain in the world has a branch in here.
- Commute is super easy with great public transport connectivity across the UAE including metro, buses, and cabs.
- There’s no income tax. Yes, you read it right – zero tax on attractive salaries!
- Apart from tourism, real estate industry drives the economy. There’s never-ending development of innovative properties and buildings. You’ll see a crazy number of cranes at work all across.
Given that real estate is one of the main drivers of economy, there is not a dull day in the life of a Surveyor and opportunities for growth are immense.
I started as a surveyor in one of the leading international real estate consultancies. My colleagues in the team came from all over the world – England, Scotland, Lebanon, Ireland, India, Australia, and Spain. This was the first time I was exposed to so many accents, cultures, and styles of working. Coming from a small town in India I thought of this as a great opportunity. It was possible only in this region where it’s easy for people from any place in the world to work together.
Over the years, I got associated with many experts and market leaders in the profession who gave me opportunities to work on some of the most exciting trophy assets and mega projects in the region. The projects included regional and super regional malls, millions of square feet of masterplan projects, and iconic towers. Whether you are a surveyor looking to kickstart your career or a qualified senior professional looking to relocate, there are many facets of the region which will give you immediate comfort:
- There’s good exposure for professionals in the surveying domain to work on interesting and diverse real asset classes on behalf of key financial institutions, prominent developers, private family, influential businesses, and HNIs.
- Established international real estate consultancies such as CBRE, JLL, KF, C&W, and Savills alongside popular local brands such as Land Sterling, Cavendish Maxwell, ValueStrat, and CORE are all great places to start as a surveyor.
- The work culture in majority of workplaces in the region is very open, transparent, and people are quite approachable.
- Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is well established in the region and therefore, many accredited education universities are also present.
- It’s an investor-friendly place and the laws here favor foreign ownership.
- Investors from around the world are attracted to Dubai and hence the real estate market is iconic and diverse.
- Buying and selling is easy as there’s no red tape and bureaucracy. The process of transacting a property is straightforward and gets smoothly registered in the system.
- The investment returns in Dubai are higher as compared to other established international markets. There are developments by known brands in the region that guarantee a certain level of return, which is at times as high as 8%. Known brands in the region guarantee a certain level of return (at times as high as 8%.) on their projects. Other popular investment destinations such as UK, Singapore, and India offer comparatively much lower returns.
- People can own some of the popular world addresses such as Burj Khalifa and Palm Jumeirah. And as a Surveyor, you may get involved in valuation of trophy assets and interact with global leaders.
I worked with a number of international and local firms in the last 14 years. I have had an excellent support system that helped me advance in my career, get qualified as a Chartered Surveyor, and hold senior positions in business. I can truly say that this is the place where my dreams came true and I now live happily here with my family. Yes, India is still home but Dubai is where my husband and I started as young surveyors and built our lives. Dubai is now our home away from home!
If you are thinking of exploring this city to live and work, contact us and we can help you get your next job.
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