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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Wealthy Russians' interest in <keyword id="6354539" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="dubai" source="Orion">Dubai</keyword> has surged after sanctions excluded them from other countries.</li><li>Hamid Jaafri, One Investments' CEO, helps international clients buy luxury <keyword id="11893295" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="real-estate" source="Orion">real estate</keyword> there.</li></ul>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Hamid Jaafri, CEO of <a href="https://oneinvestments.com/about-us/">One Investments</a>, an international real-estate brokerage for properties in London and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It has been edited for length and clarity.I run a real-estate brokerage with offices in London, New York, and Dubai. We're an international agency that helps clients invest in London and Dubai real estate. Most of our clients come from Europe and the US.We expanded our operations to Dubai in 2017. Most of the people buying Dubai real estate are international investors operating in unfamiliar territory. We help them understand local legalities and process multimillion-dollar property deals.Of all our clients looking to invest in Dubai property, Russians are always in the top 10. Over the past two weeks, they've risen to the top three because of a recent surge in Russian demand of Dubai real estate.In the past few days, I've personally met with multiple Russian clients who are billionaires on the Forbes rich list. For me, that's unique.Typically, an average buyer would come down to Dubai multiple times and see one or two properties a day. We rarely deal with our most exclusive clients in person, and more often than not, communicate via their handlers.<h2>'We probably viewed more than 10 properties in one day'</h2>Last Friday, I got a call asking me to arrange a large number of viewings the next day for a Russian billionaire who wanted to close on a property fast.The Russian billionaire client I met on Saturday seemed to be in a frenzy. We probably viewed more than 10 properties in one day. The most expensive property I showed him was worth $40 million.People are usually trying to find the perfect property. I felt like this client wanted to get in and out, to complete the transaction as quickly as possible.I rarely go to viewings myself, but these ultrawealthy Russians are coming down in person and want to deal with the owner or the top person in the business. It shows you the urgency with which they're looking to invest and set up a base in Dubai.I meet the clients and show properties only if they want to invest over a certain threshold. I've had to go on more viewings this week than in the past three months, and these clients have been almost entirely Russian.Within a week of <keyword id="11894337" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="russia" source="Orion">Russia</keyword>'s invasion of Ukraine, one of the private developers we work with in Dubai had changed its policy to accommodate potential Russian investors.If a Russian investor wanted to contract his company to begin a development project, they would have had to pay a higher deposit to start building. Now, it's reverted its policies to normal, where everyone pays a 19% deposit and then a percentage every time a portion of the building is completed.<h2>2 types of Russian prospective buyers</h2>We're seeing two groups of Russians looking to buy property.One group consists of superrich Russian clients who are looking to set up a base in Dubai but whose liquidity is in Russia, so they need to be on the ground in Russia. Dubai is a base for the time being. The other group comprises people under 35 years old who are looking to relocate to Dubai permanently.Lots of these under-35s are still very rich. They're looking to buy property for up to $10 million and register new businesses in Dubai to relocate their operations here.Since June 2021, foreigners are allowed to set up their own businesses as a way of securing residency. Prior to this ruling, expats would either have to set up a business with an Emirati or be employed by an Emirati company.Our staff member who is responsible for incorporation helps our international clients set up companies in Dubai. She has seen an uptick in under-35 Russians who are registering new businesses in Dubai with the intention of relocating permanently to the UAE to scale their business.I've seen instances in past weeks where these under-35 Russians are hiring staff in Dubai and renting office space. They appear to be moving their families out here, too.I've asked a few of the Russian clients I've spoken to about their opinions on the war in Ukraine and international sanctions. Few people like to talk about it. But if they do, they say the situation is horrible.<h2>Western sanctions affect Russians in Dubai</h2>The son of a client told me he couldn't withdraw any money unless he was in Russia or transfer money from his Russian bank accounts to accounts outside Russia.We have buyers who have put deposits down, but we also have buyers who are experiencing delays transferring funds. In the past few weeks, many of the Russian clients I've worked with have tried to convert their cryptocurrency into cash.In Dubai, you can buy property with cryptocurrency and cash. But the more expensive the property, the more complicated processing the transaction will be. These transactions are happening, and Russian clients are buying properties.The influx of Russian investment in Dubai real estate has affected me because I have to work as fast as our clients want to move. If they need to make decisions quickly, I have to make things happen even quicker.We've also had to start a new hiring campaign for Russian staff. We already have Russian speakers on our team, but I expect that what we're seeing is just the beginning, so we're looking to get more Russian speakers on board.I think Russian and international investors now see Dubai as a place where their assets will be secure and accessible during economic and political unrest.

I'm a Dubai real-estate broker who's seeing huge interest from wealthy Russians. One billionaire client seemed in a frenzy when he viewed more than 10 properties in a day.

Sng Mui Hong grew up in a village called Lorong Buangkok in northeastern <keyword id="11895291" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="singapore" source="Orion">Singapore</keyword>.Her dad had purchased the land in the late 1950s. In the 1960s, the village was surrounded by lush vegetation and farms. Neighbors <a href="https://remembersingapore.org/2013/09/17/kampong-spirit-and-gotong-royong/">helped</a> each other, school children played together, and residents grew their produce in their backyards. Everyone Sng knew lived in <keyword id="12244003" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="villages" source="Orion">villages</keyword>, called "kampongs," like hers.Twenty years later, bulldozers and tractors started tearing down homes and separating village communities. Sng watched as families were left with no choice but to move into high-rise apartments in the rapidly developing city-state. Sng, however, stayed, and eventually inherited the land from her father. Today, no village has been spared from Singapore's ambitious push to transform the island into a modern metropolis — except for Sng's.Lorong Buangkok is now known as the city-state's last surviving village. It has withstood most of Singapore's short history, and Sng said she misses many things about the past."My favorite part of living in the kampong was the floods," Sng told me through a translator when I visited the village. "That was the most memorable for me." The village's nickname — Kampong Selak Kain — refers to the way villagers hitched up their traditional skirts when they waded through floodwaters.But in the past two decades, the village has started to attract a new — and unwanted — source of attention. <a href="http://www.wildsingapore.com/news/20070708/070820-1.htm">Local outlets</a> published reports about the value of the kampong's land in the late 2000s, and soon, property developers and agents were beelining for the estate. Some even camped outside Sng's home in a bid to convince her to sell the inherited land.A media <a href="http://www.wildsingapore.com/news/20070708/070805-1.htm">report</a> from 2007 indicated Sng had been offered 33 million Singapore dollars ($22 million) for the property. A local tour guide told me Sng had received another bid of S$70 million. Experts, meanwhile, say the estate could fetch prices in the low hundreds of millions. A recent government land sale (GLS) about the same size as the kampong had sold for over S$381 million, a property agent named Chuang Kuo Wei told me. But through all of this, Sng has remained unswayed: It was her father's wish that the estate be kept in the family's name, and she has no intention of selling.<div type="image" title="The street leading up to the kampong." height="1365" width="1820" msid="90640339" hostid="261"></div>I met Sng on a rainy Friday evening in one of the houses she owns in the kampong.A taxi took me down a narrow street hidden behind dense trees and into the enclave. The house we met in, which is now used as a production set, was largely empty, except for some wooden furniture and old electrical appliances. Like many homes in the kampong, it was spacious — far bigger than the <a href="https://www.propertyguru.com.sg/property-guides/are-hdb-flats-condos-getting-smaller-48893#:~:text=Because%20of%20these%20changes%2C%20the,sqm%20in%20the%20mid%2D2010s.">average</a> public apartment in Singapore, which is 90 square meters (968 square feet).Sng is a petite lady in her early 70s. She has lived in the kampong all her life, though her four elder siblings <a href="https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1128_2009-12-09.html">now live</a> in public apartments. Her late father, Teow Koon, purchased the <a href="https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1128_2009-12-09.html">12,248-square-meter</a> plot of land for an undisclosed price in 1956. She does not speak much English, so my tour guide, 27-year-old Kyanta Yap, acted as our translator. Yap has been conducting tours in the village for over a year.Sng said she prefers living a simple life. "I'm not someone who's envious," Sng told me in Chinese. "If you have a mobile phone, every day people call you. It's additional problems for me, so I don't want," she added. <div type="image" title="Cars were commonplace in the kampong." height="1365" width="1820" msid="90640341" hostid="261"></div>My first impression of the kampong was that it was full of juxtapositions.Modern bungalows and a shopping center can be found a stone's throw away from the village, but the air within the kampong was peaceful; the only sound was the chirping of birds. I spotted around half a dozen residents during my visit.But it wasn't wholly a village from another time: I saw shiny cars, including a BMW, parked outside traditional <a href="https://www.roots.gov.sg/Collection-Landing/listing/1148541">attap</a> houses. Some of the homes were outfitted with modern amenities like air-conditioning units and 50-inch smart TVs.The village is home to 25 families. While many residents live no differently from the average Singaporean — with some working office jobs in the city center — Sng is a staunch traditionalist. Property prices are booming in Singapore; the city-state lays claim to the second-highest <a href="https://www.money.co.uk/current-accounts/the-cost-of-rent-index">rent</a> prices in the world. Rent for private properties <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/pricey-singapore-rents-go-through-roof-even-population-dips-2022-03-03/">reached</a> a seven-year high in 2022, with the monthly rent of a three-bedroom home <a href="https://www.loanadvisor.sg/article/property/home-rental-rates-singapore/">starting</a> around S$4,000 ($3,000).But Sng has refused to hike prices. Yap told me Sng's father charged S$4 to S$13 ($3 to $9.50) per month when sheds were first rented out in the kampong in the 1950s and 1960s. Sng said her father never increased rent — and so she, too, has stuck to these absurdly low prices."Why should I increase the rent as a second-generation [landlord]?" Sng said. "The residents are not poor, every house has a car, [but] we want to keep the culture. If I try to raise prices, they will just make noise," she added. <div type="image" title="Public housing just a minute away from the kampong." height="1365" width="1820" msid="90640342" hostid="261"></div>Yap told me only descendants of those who have originally lived in the kampong can lease a house. The lease prices at the kampong are "tokens" rather than a reflection of its actual market rent, said Sing Tien Foo, a professor of real estate at the National University of Singapore."The landlord has already established a relationship with the families living there," Sing told me. "This cannot be valued by market rent. The family link and bonding is very important," he added.During my tour, I exchanged smiles with a few of the residents, including a woman in her 60s. Yap said the woman, whom he calls Cik Mok, lives with her brother in a large home with a backyard, where her family of 69 people visits during the weekends.Right in front of her home were dozens of large chickens. Yap told me they're pets, not food, and that residents buy their meat from a nearby supermarket."You scared of chickens?" Cik Mok asked me, laughing. "Don't [be] scared." When I tried to pivot to the subject of rent, Cik Mok's once-friendly demeanor instantly shifted, and she excused herself, heading upstairs.<div type="image" title="A home in Lorong Buangkok." height="1365" width="1820" msid="90640344" hostid="261"></div>While the villagers were friendly, they were also fiercely private. And the questions of rent and selling the land, it seems, are particularly touchy topics. In 2007, the villagers resorted to throwing stones and building fences around their homes to drive away the real-estate agents who were inquiring about the land, Yap said.Yap told me the villagers also harbor a disdain for journalists. Nearly 15 years ago, he said, local reporters took to <a href="http://www.wildsingapore.com/news/20070708/070820-1.htm">camping out</a> by villagers' homes for days at a time. The reporters hoped that Sng, who they described as "reclusive," would finally speak up about all the attention the value of her land had garnered.Sng simply <a href="http://www.wildsingapore.com/news/20070708/070820-1.htm">told a local news outlet</a> her "family ties" weren't for sale.Chuang, the property agent, told me the agents who badgered Sng to sell the land were only doing their jobs: "It's the same thing as agents selling public housing and landed estates, where they knock on doors.""People are annoyed by this, but it's part and parcel of being an agent. It's normal," he added.<div type="image" title="Items inside Sng's former home, which is now used as a film set." height="1365" width="1820" msid="90640346" hostid="261"></div>Today, the future of the kampong is uncertain. Local reports have indicated the <a href="https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/redevelopment-lor-buangkok-kampong-likely-several-decades-later">government plans</a> to redevelop the kampong in the coming decades."The question is if they want to conserve it for future generations, or if it will be demolished," Yu Shi Ming, a professor of real estate at National University of Singapore, told me. "It's a freehold estate, which means [Sng] owns it for perpetuity, but the government has the rights to acquire the property," he added.As Sng does not have children, the future of her kampong appears to be in limbo. When I asked her what she thinks will happen to her beloved estate in the coming years, Sng kept a poker face."Whatever comes, comes," Sng said. "I'll think about it when it happens. I just live from day to day."

Singapore's last traditional village sits on a plot of land worth as much as $70 million. Real-estate agents are lining up to throw in their bids — but it's not for sale.

<a href="https://www.jpmorganchase.com/impact/our-approach/policy-center/policy-recommendations-for-affordable-rental-housing-and-homeownership"></a><ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="44660" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="JPMorgan">JPMorgan</keyword> announced a list of new policies aimed at fighting racial biases in the <keyword id="189423" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="housing-market">housing market</keyword>.</li><li>The bank says it wants to bring "equitable access to affordable housing" and "economic opportunity for renters and homeowners." </li><li>Just last month a Black homeowner from Indianapolis got appraised $100,000 more for her home when her white friend stood in for her. </li></ul>A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trends-fueling-hot-housing-market-structural-shifts-bubble-inflation-shortages-2021-5#1-buyers-face-a-persistent-shortage-of-available-homes-1">red-hot housing market</a> that's seen <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/homes-selling-for-1-million-over-asking-amid-frenzied-market-2021-6">homes go for well above their asking price</a>, catalyzed intense<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/winning-a-bidding-war-top-tips-according-to-realtors-2021-5"> bidding wars</a>, and caused <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/home-improvement-products-prices-house-building-project-quotes-increase-expensive-2021-5">shortages of home-improvement materials</a> could harm first-time homebuyers, especially people of color and low-income households, JPMorgan says. The bank, the US' largest by assets, released a <a href="https://www.jpmorganchase.com/impact/our-approach/policy-center/policy-recommendations-for-affordable-rental-housing-and-homeownership">slate of policy solutions</a> this month that it says can help fight racial biases in the housing market and housing inequality that have prevented people of color from "fully participating in the housing market.""As the demand for affordable housing continues to outpace the supply across the country, rising housing prices make it increasingly difficult for many individuals and families to afford and sustain housing, especially housing located in opportunity connected communities with greater access to jobs and economic mobility," the bank said in a paper."This has had an outsized negative impact on those most at risk of housing insecurity before the crisis-Black and Latinx households and people earning low incomes," it continued. <h4>Specific initiatives include policies to: </h4><ul><li>"Build on COVID-19 protections to effectively support homeowners,"</li><li>"Simplify loan servicing standards,"</li><li>"Leverage public funds to help homebuyers meet down payment requirements,"</li><li>"Expand funding to increase supply of affordable homes for purchase,"</li><li>"Advance reforms to increase mortgage market liquidity to improve access to affordable and sustainable mortgages that better serve people of color and low-income borrowers,"</li><li>"Encourage federal housing policies that advance fair housing and address discrimination," JPMorgan said. </li></ul>"There are systematic barriers in housing - and we have a role to play in addressing them," Heather Higginbottom, president of the JPMorgan Chase Policy Center and co-head of global philanthropy, told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/16/business/housing-market-bias-jpmorgan-appraisal/index.html">CNN</a>.According to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/black-appraisers-call-out-industry-s-racial-bias-need-systemic-n1269452">NBC News,</a> many experts say that appraisal biases create a huge disadvantage for homeowners of color. That's especially problematic given the US is in the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trends-fueling-hot-housing-market-structural-shifts-bubble-inflation-shortages-2021-5#1-buyers-face-a-persistent-shortage-of-available-homes-1">biggest housing boom since the early 2000s</a>. In June, Insider reported that a Black homeowner in Indianapolis <a href="https://africa.businessinsider.com/politics/a-black-homeowner-had-her-white-friend-represent-her-during-an-appraisal-the-value-of/bk7hj23">received extremely low appraisals for her home, and</a> she suspected it was because of her race. She decided to have her white friend stand in for her on a third appraisal, and to her surprise, the white man was appraised for more than $100,000 more."I had to go through all of that just to say that I was right and that this is what's happening," Carlette Duffy told the Indianapolis Star. "This is real."<keyword id="6354553" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="real-estate">Real estate</keyword> agents have also told<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/homebuyers-need-lots-of-cash-to-buy-realtors-say-2021-6"> Insider</a> that buyers with significant assets to liquidate -- either another home or substantial stock holdings -- are easily able to outbid other potential buyers. "They can't afford it because they're not cash-rich," <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/homebuyers-need-lots-of-cash-to-buy-realtors-say-2021-6">one realtor said of buyers struggling to close sales.</a> "They could probably afford the monthly payment. They have good income. They have a good nest egg. But it's not enough."

The red-hot housing market is leaving people of color behind. JPMorgan is pushing for new rules to fight 'appraisal bias' in real estate

The famously reclusive In-N-Out heiress' California estate hit the mark for $17 million. Take a look inside the sprawling property.

You Searched For "real eatate" and got 4 results

I'm a Dubai real-estate broker who's seeing huge interest from wealthy Russians. One billionaire client seemed in a frenzy when he viewed more than 10 properties in a day.

Kiera Fields

Singapore's last traditional village sits on a plot of land worth as much as $70 million. Real-estate agents are lining up to throw in their bids — but it's not for sale.

Marielle Descalsota

The red-hot housing market is leaving people of color behind. JPMorgan is pushing for new rules to fight 'appraisal bias' in real estate

Aleeya Mayo

The famously reclusive In-N-Out heiress' California estate hit the mark for $17 million. Take a look inside the sprawling property.

Monica Humphries

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