Millennials home in on Dubai

Millennials home in on Dubai

“It made perfect sense,” says Jatin, sitting next to one of the many green lakes in JLT — on an evening when the weather still permits al fresco seating — and sipping a cup of tea from one of the innumerable eateries dotting the expanse of glass-façaded residential (and a few commercial) towers. “Instead of paying money on rentals, you’re better off owning a place… for sure, property prices will go up and down, but — worst-case scenario — even if you assume that the value of what you bought remains the same at the end of 5 or 10 years, you would still have saved on rent.”

Sometime before Covid gripped the world, Jatin and Sherry bought a 2-bedroom apartment in JLT. One of Jatin’s friends — from his alma mater — who owned a place in the same JLT cluster was instrumental in showing them the ropes.

It needed “courage” to put up a substantial sum of money, the couple points out; the down payment itself almost wiped out their entire savings. “Our parents back in India kept asking us to do — and redo — the math so we didn’t end up cash-crunched and in debt,” Sherry remembers. “But