There are many happy real estate investors around at the moment. The past 24 months have rewarded many brave, fortunate, astute or lucky investors for making the decision to place their hard- earned money into Dubai property and we congratulate them, for they are integral to the engine of our industry.
Now, it is most important that these investors do not lose focus on managing their assets as some will no doubt be lulled into complacency on the back of stellar returns. Investing in property is never a “set and forget” proposition, and realizing the true earning potential of your property assets requires careful management.
Investing in property has a very simple purpose -to create wealth. However, your property investment portfolio needs to be nurtured, maintained and managed to ensure its wealth-creating potential and capabilities are achieved. This, of course, is no different to managing a share portfolio, business venture or any other type of investment. Complacency will lead to underperformance and maybe even losses.
Not everybody has the time or is comfortable with managing property. However, there is expertise available to help you, and you should consider engaging a good property manager who will ensure that you maximize returns from your property portfolio and enable your long- term portfolio strategy to be realized.
Formulating a good property investment portfolio strategy requires years of experience and expertise, and will consider history, current market factors, forecasts, opportunities, trends, risk factors, and the likelihood of relevant future events, whether they be economic, political, regulatory or financial in nature.
Delivering the strategy (and your eagerly awaited returns) will require an activity plan addressing pricing and marketing, resourcing, customer relationship management, tenant management and policy, cost management, maintenance supervision, communications and review schedules, status reporting and financial statements. This should be the minimum that you expect.
Think of your investment as your business. Proper management is essential and you need to ensure it’s in good hands providing you with the returns you expect with as little hassle as possible.