I thought it would be fun to talk about Real Estate in a completely different part of the world just to provide some context for what others pay for the places they call home, and also to highlight some investment possibilities for those of you out there who like to invest or simply just dream.

Dubai is a city located within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and is well known for its luxury hotels, man-made islands and the world’s largest indoor ski center. Basically, if you want something modern and cool, you can find it in Dubai. If you’d like to know more about Dubai, a good site to visit is www.dubaicity.com.

So, why am I focusing on this place thousands of miles away? Well, I often get e-mails that talk about “great real estate deals” in various parts of the world and earlier this week I received one on Dubai that caught my eye. It was not only because the city has been in the news for the past few years, but also because I was curious to see what my dollars and the dollars of my clients could buy in a vacation destination such as this. Here’s what I found…

According to www.worldproperty.com, the rental of commercial property in Dubai is among the highest in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. That’s a HUGE territory! Also, the economic roller coaster that we have been in for the last few years has actually made it somewhat affordable to buy property in Dubai and hopefully, like other parts of the world, prices will start to go up, making the investment worth more and more. So, what does property cost? There are actually a lot of properties available for under $100,000 and although they may be pretty small (some are only 350 sq. ft. – yikes!) there are amenities in the apartment complexes that make the prices seem worthwhile. If you would like to live one of the man-made palm tree islands (there are actually 3 of them known as Palm Jebel Ali, Palm Jumeirah, and Palm Deira), it will cost you closer to $1.3 million and that is the “ bargain price” developers are selling for to simply unload their inventory!

All this doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot for real estate here in Rapid City, but it’s always fun to see what is happening from time to time with real estate in other parts of the world and I hope you find it as interesting as I do! Also, if you’d ever like to find out more about real estate prices around the world, take some time to tour www.worldproperty.com. It’s a great site and who knows, you may find something that catches your eye and together we can embark on an international real estate adventure!