Investor Advisory
Most property mistakes in Dubai are made at the entry price, and they cannot be undone. We advise private investors, family offices and institutions on buying, holding and selling UAE property, and we will tell you when the right move is to wait, or not to buy at all.
Investors building or holding UAE property exposure at scale, and family offices managing it within a broader allocation.
Accepted by application
In Dubai, the price you pay is the whole return.
Off-plan lending is capped at half the price, so at least half of every off-plan purchase is your own equity before anything else is decided. Your return comes from the price you enter at and what the asset does next. There is no financing spread to lean on.
Yields are almost always quoted gross. What you keep depends on service charges, void periods and renewal cycles, and those vary enormously between two buildings on the same street.
A citywide average cannot tell you where to buy. Prices differ by a multiple across the city, and again between buildings on the same street.
73%
of Dubai sales are off-plan, where lending is capped at half the price and the entry price does the work
- Under AED 1M
- 28% of sales
- AED 1–2M
- 37% of sales
- AED 2–5M
- 29% of sales
What it costs to get this wrong
Buy at the wrong entry price with little or no leverage and nothing rescues the return. The mistake is locked in on day one, and only a sale resolves it. Off-plan raises the stakes: a unit that has never traded has no price history to warn you.
Data computed by Peak Trust Analytics · Dubai market data powered by the Dubai Land Department (DLD) · Updated Oct 2026. Proprietary — not to be reused or redistributed without authorization. Not investment advice.
Research by Peak Trust Analytics, the firm's research division. The data packs behind this page are at peaktrustanalytics.ae/solutions/investors.
Five things we do for a portfolio
Mandate & Investment Policy
You buy against a written mandate agreed in advance, so the decision is made before the shortlist rather than during it.
We define the mandate before the shortlist: objective, horizon, risk tolerance, and the part of the market that fits it.
- Written investment mandate and criteria
- Target segment and area shortlist
- Entry-price bands by area and asset type
- Return model: income and capital, with a downside case
- Buy, hold or wait recommendation
Portfolio & Yield Strategy
You find out which of your assets are carrying the portfolio and which are dragging it.
We read an existing portfolio against the market it sits in: what is performing, what is dragging, and what should be recycled.
- Asset-by-asset review against area benchmarks
- Gross-to-net yield reconciliation
- Service-charge and operating-cost audit
- Concentration and void exposure analysis
- Retain or recycle recommendation
Acquisition & Due Diligence
You know what the asset is worth, and the most you should pay, before you exchange.
We price the asset and verify it before you exchange, on your behalf, not the seller’s.
- A written opinion of worth under your mandate
- Where a market valuation is required, one commissioned from a RERA-registered valuer
- Developer track-record assessment: delivery and handover history
- Payment-plan and escrow review
- Title, service-charge and tenancy verification
- Negotiation position and walk-away price
Asset & Property Management
Your asset is run for what you keep, not for the headline rent.
We run the asset for what it keeps rather than what it bills: letting strategy, cost control, and reporting you can take to an investment committee.
- Letting strategy and rent positioning against the rental index
- Tenant selection and contract management
- Maintenance and capital-expenditure schedule
- Quarterly net-return reporting
- Renewal and re-let strategy
Residency & Structuring
You get the residency without buying a worse asset to do it.
Where residency is an objective, structure the acquisition to achieve it without compromising the investment case.
- Golden Visa eligibility assessment
- Qualifying-asset selection
- Ownership structure review
- Documentation and application management
- Post-approval maintenance
The Peak Trust Investment Framework
Seven stages. The last two run every year.
Aligned to recognised international and Dubai professional standards for assessing property worth.
Mandate
Agree what the capital is for, over what period, and what return would constitute success. Written down.
A written mandate: objective, horizon, risk tolerance, the basis of value that governs, and what success is.
Stage 01 of 07. Each stage runs on the one before it.
Screen
We narrow the market to the areas and asset types that can meet your mandate, and rule out the rest before anyone falls in love with a building.
A shortlist of areas and asset types that can meet the mandate.
Stage 02 of 07. Each stage runs on the one before it.
Price
We put a number on what the asset is worth to you, and the most you should pay, before you negotiate.
A written opinion of worth and a walk-away price.
Stage 03 of 07. Each stage runs on the one before it.
Verify
We establish exactly what is being sold: title, escrow, service charges and any tenancy already running, and we quantify the downside if something goes wrong.
A verification file, with the downside quantified.
Stage 04 of 07. Each stage runs on the one before it.
Acquire
You transact against the walk-away price already fixed, not a number that surfaces in the meeting.
A registered title, with the full entry cost reconciled.
Stage 05 of 07. Each stage runs on the one before it.
Operate
We run the asset for what it keeps: tenancy, rent positioning and service-charge control.
Quarterly net-return reporting against the mandate, with holding costs itemised.
Stage 06 of 07. Each stage runs on the one before it.
Review
Review the hold against the mandate annually, and recycle when the evidence says to, not when the market is loud.
An annual hold review on both bases of value, and the evidence that would trigger a recycle.
Stage 07 of 07. Each stage runs on the one before it.
The mandate comes first, and it is written. An investor without one is reacting to what reaches them, rather than to what they set out to achieve.
What you will actually get
A review ends with a straight answer: does this asset meet the mandate at the price being asked? Four answers are possible, and two of them are not to buy.
01AcquireWith an opinion of worth and a walk-away price agreed beforehand.
The asset meets the mandate at a price the evidence supports. You go into the negotiation with the number already fixed, so the walk-away point is a decision you made rather than one made in the room.
02Acquire something elseA different area, building or unit band than you intended.
The mandate is sound but the shortlist was not. This is the most common useful finding: the objective is reachable, just not where you were looking.
03WaitThe mandate is sound, the entry price is not.
Nothing is wrong with the plan or the asset. The price being asked is simply above what the evidence supports, and in an equity market the entry price is most of the return.
04Do not acquireThis asset does not meet the mandate at any price on offer.
Service charges, delivery risk, tenure or the developer record rule it out on their own. A recommendation not to buy is a normal outcome of a review.
- The scope and the fee are agreed in writing before any work starts
- Every recommendation comes with the evidence behind it, so you can test the reasoning yourself
- A recommendation not to buy is a normal outcome of a review, not a failed one
How we engage
Advisory engagements are accepted by application. We take on a limited number of client relationships so that each receives senior attention.
Investment advisory is provided on a retained basis and is engaged separately from any transaction. We do not advise on assets we are mandated to sell.
- 1Submit a brief. What you are working on, at what stage and at what scale.
- 2We read every brief that reaches us.
- 3Where there is a fit, we propose a 45-minute initial consultation.
- 4If we proceed, you receive a scoped proposal with deliverables and timeline.
We respond to every submission.
Submit a brief
Advisory relationships begin with a written brief. The questions below are what we need to assess fit.
The practice also advises developers