Original subtitles

Dubai. Where the property market is on fire.

Welcome to the diva house.

Wow. # Boom, boom, boom...

It's paradise for some...

Deal done. £4,500. Tax free.

..but not for others.

It's a results-driven business. And it's commission only.

I need to afford my rent.

Your days are numbered.

Some brokers have moved on... ..while new faces have moved in.

I'm just telling you the truth, so...

But what one's the truth, though?

Who'll shine and who'll stumble?

I'm not the agent, you are.

I do not want to work with anyone that lies to me.

We're all here... ..for the Dubai Hustle.

How are you doing? Good, mate. How are you? Yeah, great.

How's life, man? Yeah, very well.

Busy. Yeah? Yeah, I was looking for Lucas this morning.

Oh, right. Where is he?

Is he gone? Yeah, yeah.

For good? For good.

Working in Dubai real estate is tough.

You're lucky if you last a couple of weeks.

I've seen many come and a lot more'll go.

It's a shame. I liked wee Lucas, as well.

It's a shame, but it's not about liking someone.

I like Lucas. Yeah, of course.

Lovely. Likeable guy.

But it's a results-driven business, right?

And it's commission only. Yeah.

It's like a revolving door, this industry.

The way that I've managed to survive

is by being ruthless and making it work for me.

Anyway, where's your deals?

I'm working on it, mate!

What's going on, Jake? How are you, bro? All good, man.

Going to Jumeirah Islands today. Today's the day. Yeah.

The one you haven't stopped raving about.

It's been a year since Adam and I came to Dubai

to take the real estate market by storm.

We have long-term ambitions.

We want to be up there with the big boy developers, right?

Not just real estate. Not just luxury. Yeah.

Global luxury real estate.

Jumeirah Islands right now is probably the hottest community.

It's going to be a whopper.

Since last year, I've progressed from leasing to sales.

It's been a lot of fun. It's a whole different ballgame.

I'm working now alongside Jake on the sales team.

It makes sense to bring someone with your experience

to see if we can work some magic. Well, I'm here to make you shine.

So let's get cracking. Get that tie on as well.

So this is the leasing record breaker, right?

Yeah, this one rented for 1.4 million. Whoo!

Which is obviously a crazy price,

and leasing was about £315,000 sterling. Damn.

So, big-boy clients, obviously what we came to Dubai for.

Because I leased this property for a record-breaking amount,

when it came to sell, the client came straight to me.

Hi! Hey, good morning, Anisha.

How are you? How are you?

Anisha, this is Jake, my good friend and colleague.

Hi. Nice to meet you.

Pleasure to meet you. I've heard great things about you.

Shall we check it out? Let's go. Let's go.

Thank you.

Wow.

Wow!

You like it? It's incredible.

I went all around Scandinavia and Paris... Wow.

..selected the furniture and container-shipped it over here.

It's very easy to normalise these luxury properties in Dubai,

but with a property like Anisha's, when it's gone that extra level

of detail, it stands out above the rest.

You will not find this furniture anywhere in Dubai.

I love wine,

So we created a wine storage here under the staircase. Very nice.

And then over here

is a Tiffany Blue bar.

It's completely hidden away.

That you can kind of just like open or hide, depending who's here.

It's exciting to walk around Anisha's home, because Adam

and I have aspirations to one day be flipping and renovating

properties of our own.

You've really maximised the light exposure with these huge windows,

and the contrast to the stairway as well with the glass.

Me personally, I'm actually in love with this property.

Wow. Free-flowing.

When I walk through the house, I always get good vibes and I think

when I bring buyers through, they'll be able to feel that

in my aura and tonality.

I'm going to take a call outside, but please just walk around,

make yourself at home. Thanks, Anisha. Thanks, Anisha.

It would actually look nice on the beach.

You were wearing that on Sunday night, were you not?!

I've got a new pal, wee Eddie.

He joined from another real estate company.

We instantly became great friends

for our true love of football, haggis and Irn-Bru.

It's easy to get on with someone

when he's about the only person in Dubai who actually understands me.

This one is lovely.

That would suit you.

I think get that.

Do you have this in my size?

My name's Eddie and I'm a sales consultant in Dubai Hills.

Thank you. Have a nice day.

Back home I was doing a heavy labouring job,

so basically on my feet all day.

Came on holiday to Dubai with a few mates.

Someone reached out to me, asked me if I would be interested

in doing real estate.

Two years later, here I am.

Chris and I have become great friends.

Cheers, my man. Cheers, mate.

Turns out we lived ten minutes apart back home in Scotland,

but I'd never met the boy before.

£50,000 in both our back pockets.

The first six months here at the agency have gone pretty well.

I've closed about six deals,

which has earned me £60,000 in commission.

So it keeps the lights on at home.

Right, mate, what are you thinking? Honest opinion?

Now, that's the suit, mate. Isn't it?

That is lovely, that.

I was talking to the client I was telling you about, the Bluewaters deal? Yeah.

So he's got one of the four-bedroom apartments, Burj Khalifa,

with the terrace, but he's looking to invest

to get another four three-bedroom apartments in the Burj Khalifa.

And he's also wanting to buy a villa.

So I've met this client before.

I've rented his apartments out when I used to do rentals in downtown.

And he's got a massive pot of cash to spend.

So he's looking to invest 90 million with myself.

Mate... 90 million?

90 million. I'll take the whole shop!

Wee Eddie's onto a life-changer here.

If he secures this full 90 million dirham sale, he's going to walk away

with half a million pounds in his pocket.

That's future. I know, mate. That's your future made. I know.

Not going to get that back home in the UK, are you? No, I don't think you will.

When you first move out to Dubai, there's an impression

that you're going to be dealing with these £20 million clients every day.

It's not. It's one opportunity,

and when it comes along, that's when things get real.

How are you going to make sure you keep this guy locked in,

keep him yours?

Basically I've been speaking to this guy for two years now,

built up that friendship over time.

So I'm just assuming that I've got him locked in.

What I really need to do is secure exclusivity with this client,

because at any given moment,

another agent can swoop in and take this client away from me.

He's put all his trust in me, so I'm the one who needs to say to him...

Don't know why he's done that! He's a brave man!

Wouldn't trust you to pick a suit.

I wouldn't trust myself with a free sample, but here we are!

Hey, guys. I actually just had another agent pitch me.

Oh, really? Yeah. No pressure, Adam.

I'm sure you hung up, right?

In Dubai, the real estate game moves so fast that anything can change

at lightning speed.

And as bad as I want to sell it, I'm sure there's hundreds,

if not thousands, of other agents who would love the opportunity.

So, now...let's get serious.

You know, Adam, I feel like we already have a relationship,

and I really do trust you.

So I kind of want to hear more from Jake.

If I give this house to you guys, what can you offer me?

Anisha's line of questioning is...direct.

But I know Jake, he can handle it.

It does get hot in the kitchen in Dubai real estate.

Can you just give me a quick pitch?

Yeah, absolutely.

So for me, the key factor of this property is how, when you walk in,

you're not just seeing a house, you're seeing a home.

So to sell that to a family, they need to see that

this is what they're going to be in for the next five to ten years, creating memories here.

And I think the level of detail you've gone to, provides that solution.

What more could you ask for?

Yeah.

The Dubai real estate market is cut-throat and competitive.

Therefore, building these long-term relationships with clients

is key to long-term success.

What do you think we can sell this property for?

Well, as you know, Jumeirah Islands, it's hugely popular at the moment.

I think you're looking around 20 to 21 million dirhams.

What do you think, Adam? I'd be inclined to agree.

But I think with the right marketing and the right strategy,

I wouldn't be surprised if we were ambitious and went

to break some records and we pushed for that 22 million mark.

Yeah. Yeah.

I do think it would be better to put it at 22.

If we sell this property together,

myself and Adam would have over 50,000 GBP in our pocket.

It's crazy, because this amount on this deal is just shy

of what I was previously earning in a full year,

before being taxed in London, at a good corporate job.

I'm happy to give you guys this villa,

but I just can't give it to you exclusively.

I kind of want to pull in some of the agents that have specialised

in Jumeirah Islands.

To be honest, hearing Anisha is not going to make me

her exclusive agent, isn't ideal.

Let's see how it goes with this property.

I have another couple coming up, again in Jumeirah Islands.

But the other listing agents on the property

have been selling Jumeirah Islands when I was doing my GCSEs,

and I was watching videos of them doing house tours

before I even came to Dubai.

So to be turning these idols into rivals is quite a unique

experience, and I'm just grateful for the opportunity.

When we sell this villa, the next Jumeirah Islands, I'm sure,

will be exclusive.

Yeah, we'll talk about that when we cross that bridge.

But I feel like we work really well together and I like the fact

that you like my house.

Yeah, so three o'clock Saturday. We've got that booked in.

Aye, if you pick us up, we can go down together. Done. Deal.

There they are. Hello, hi. There's Little Mix coming in.

Natasha and Jessica are new around the company.

I've seen them moving about the office, but I've not

had a chance to speak to them yet.

Hello!

So the boys, I've never really heard this type of accent before.

How are yous, girls? Good? Fabulous.

I think they're from the UK somewhere.

Me and Chris are going down to view

a couple of options in the Springs on Saturday.

Are they Welsh?

Springs is nice. Yeah.

I haven't been yet.

Two back seats in the car!

Eddie'll let you borrow his booster seat.

I honestly have to just, like, nod my face and smile,

because I genuinely don't know what they're saying.

So did you come out here by yourself, take the plunge all alone?

I came with my ex, actually.

Ex! So...

So, Chris...

He's always blushing, but I don't know why.

We split in the summer, so...

That's a shame. But now I'm on my own,

just making my way in Dubai. I wanted to stay.

I didn't want to go back to Canada.

Have you got an ex-boyfriend story as well?

No, I came here on vacation,

went home, packed my bags, and then came here.

We're both from Vancouver, so, crazy.

Do yous know each other from back home?

No! We met in the office.

Yeah, for the first time. That's a bit like myself and Chris.

Chris lives ten minutes from me back home, never met. Never met? Never.

So I think Chris and Eddie, obviously they have a lot

of knowledge of luxury real estate and everything, but, you know,

they can always use a few fashion tips.

What's your ambitions out here, then? What's your main goals?

I mean, my immediate goal right now, we need to buy a sexy vehicle.

We want a Mercedes, darling. We want a Mercedes.

If the girls focus on their work ethic as much as they do putting

their face on in the morning, they're set to make millions.

Someone's calling. But great chatting, guys.

Nice speaking to yous ladies as well.

All right. Sure we'll catch up soon.

Yeah. Bye. Catch you after.

The girls seem pretty sound.

It would be good to get to know them outside of work,

and properly suss the two of them out.

Mr Hamid will be with you shortly. Would you like some drink?

No, I'm all good, thanks.

OK. You're welcome. Thank you.

Sometimes I need to pinch myself.

I'm sitting here in a luxurious penthouse in the Burj Khalifa.

A few years back, I was working drilling holes in the ground,

pair of overalls on, head to toe in muck.

My clients got 90 million dirhams to spend.

Let's see how this goes.

Oh, he is here. How are you, Eddie?

Oh, good, Hamid. How are you?

Very good to see you, my friend. You too, you too.

Very long time. Good to be back.

I'm excited because potentially this can change my life around.

But at the same time, I'm nervous, because this has to go well.

I live here more than 13 years now.

Yeah. And I was the first ever person

enter to this tallest tower in the world.

But my plan is I would like to rent out this penthouse.

Yeah, show me around. OK.

Such a beautiful view we have.

This is what I like,

that it's a walking distance

from here to a lot of five-stars restaurants, bars

and, you know, entertainments.

And it's convenient for investors.

Obviously, the property market here in Dubai,

you would have noticed that yourself,

it's the fastest-growing market in the world.

This is why I want to continue, improve my investment,

that within five years I would have 10, 15 units, and that's

more than enough for my future to chill in the beach.

Can you just give me an estimated figure and what you think

you're looking to invest?

I think for this year, my budget is 50 to 100 million.

I want to divide it to one villa and two or three of larger apartments.

So if these deals go through, I can potentially earn half a million

pounds in commission just with this one client.

That's life-changing money, the reason why I moved out here.

It's a cut-throat industry as well.

You're saying you trust me. I've put my trust in you. Yeah, sure.

But there's so many times that I've been working with clients,

but then these sort of clients

are speaking to other agents as well.

Like, I don't know, have you been

speaking to any other agents at all, or...?

No, no, no. You know always I try to work with you,

and because when you have good experience with your agent

and when he assists you honestly,

you never want to switch. There is no reason.

So that gives me trust into you as my exclusive agent.

Hearing Hamid saying exclusivity, is music to my ears.

It's not just about the money.

It's great knowing that me and Hamid have got a genuine

relationship and we're going to continue working together.

Let's move forward. It's a very great time.

The prices are increasing.

Maybe if you have time, we can go out somewhere nice

and sit and just relax.

No business, yeah?

I'll put my dancing shoes on, then! All the best.

Thank you. All the best.

Here he is. Hello, good sir.

How are you, mate? I'm very well.

How's it going your side? Not too bad, bro.

Just thinking about what we're going to do for Anisha's one.

What a villa that was. Yeah, it's nice, right?

We've got to get strategizing now. Let's see what we can do.

I've just begun working on Anisha's property.

I'm messaging all of my buyers, all of my colleagues' buyers,

getting them super excited for, in my opinion,

the best home in Jumeirah Islands.

Speak of the devil.

It's a voice note from an Anisha, which should be interesting.

Hey, Adam, how are you?

A little update.

So I basically just got an offer on the house.

Real estate is the closest thing to sport you can get.

You can be doing all the things right and be performing

at the highest level, and you could still lose.

So the offer I have on the table right now is 20.5.

I thought she was going to say, Adam, how wonderful it was to see

you, but it turns out she's had near enough a full asking-price offer.

So anything higher, if you can get me a higher offer,

you have one week exactly, until I accept.

This voice note is a bit of a kick in the teeth.

I'm not a golden goose that lays unlimited fund buyers.

It's a Herculean task.

Speak to you soon. Bye.

That's a good offer. It's a great offer.

So there's now pressure from this big offer that's come

in for the property.

But at the end of the day, a deal's not done until it's done.

Get to work. Thank you, bro. Catch you later.

Good morning, Charlie.

Hi, Ads.

Natasha, Jess. How are you?

Cool, thanks for coming in, guys.

Just a quick catch-up session, really.

Naturally, since the turn of the year, have been

really pushing how to cross-sell properties within the business.

Cross-selling is when two agents, one on the buying side,

one on the selling side, we join forces and we split commission.

While someone else is pitching their property,

you guys need to be thinking about what buyers can potentially match

with that, so that we can arrange some viewings and do some deals.

Everyone's a winner here.

If I've got a buyer in this area

and you've got a property in this area, let's make it happen!

All the business is kept in the company and no other agent

from outside is getting that commission.

Cool. Up first, Adam Kumar here

with something special in Jumeirah Islands. Yes, sir.

So this villa has been fully upgraded.

Those aren't renders.

Those are genuine photos.

It would be a dream if Jake or myself was the one to find a buyer for this property.

But with a week to go, I'm desperately hoping that

one of my colleagues has the right buyer for this home.

The best way to describe it is a little slice

of Paris in Dubai.

Nice. Has anyone got any buyers for that?

I'm looking around the table and I'm seeing blank faces.

It seems Jake and I are going to have to hit the phones hard

to see if we can pull out a buyer from thin air.

If we lose this deal, we'll be waving goodbye to £50,000 each.

So, moving on to Eddie.

Yeah, so, throughout the whole house,

everything's been upgraded from top to bottom.

The asking price of this is 11 million.

What would it rent for?

Good question. No idea.

Look, it's fine you don't know the rental price in this room,

but if you were to pop to a viewing this afternoon and be with a buyer

and they say, "How much would this rent for?"

and you say, "I'm not too sure," it doesn't fill them with confidence

that we know where we're at in terms of trying to value the house.

Eddie's really dropped the ball on this one.

I mean, how do you not know the rental price?

Especially in a meeting with Charlie.

He's going to call you out.

Cool. Moving on, over to Chris... ..The Meadows.

Right - this - everybody needs to get excited for this one, right?

It's been with another company for a few months,

and I'm taking it over.

So I was there this morning taking new photos,

so this is just an old brochure.

Perfect family home.

Beautiful lake view from the bedrooms.

Everything about this property's fantastic.

Nice pitch, but what is that photo, mate?

LAUGHTER

I think Chris's photos are unique.

Obviously, that was just for the brochure.

That's just the lake behind it.

I would say the lake view is optimistic from the photos he showed.

I got new photos today.

Oh, Chris, why are you not taking better photos?

You're selling a property over here.

Focus on the plot.

Yeah, that location and plot's incredible. Yeah, you've been to it.

I don't care what these guys think of my photos.

I could sell a brick wall

better than they could sell a palace, all right?

Natasha, you're up.

This is my apartment in Business Bay.

Only a five-minute drive from downtown,

just across the bridge.

You don't need binoculars to look at the Burj Khalifa.

It's viewable from the balcony.

Just because I deal with apartments

does not mean I'm a small fish in the pond.

Some of my apartments are world-class downtown Dubai.

They can cost twice, three times more than your little villa.

If you compare it to other active listings,

there is nothing like this right now.

Yeah, I've got an investor, so I pitched him that.

2% exclusive, as always.

Cool. Thanks, guys. Really appreciate that.

Look forward to doing it again soon.

Let's sell some houses, let's go!

Chris, can I borrow you?

Why?

Uh-oh.

I could see the colour draining from Chris's face.

I hope things are OK with the big man.

All the best, Chris.

That's nice, thanks. Get us a coffee.

Charlie's asked me to stay behind for a meeting.

It's never good news when a director wants to have a word with you.

I just wanted to check in. Make sure everything's all right.

Make sure you're OK. See how things are going.

We haven't caught up for a while, have we, really? That's it.

The meeting was good.

Yeah? How did you feel about it? Yeah, good.

So where is everyone on the leaderboard right now, do you know?

I'm pretty sure Jake is already on the board this month.

I think Adam's on there.

I'm going to be on it hopefully tonight because I just picked up a cheque today.

Amazing. Really exciting.

So I'm fortunate to have the leaderboard

just across my desk, so, often

I like to recline, enjoy a coffee, and check out all of my competition.

Like, "Hmm, they haven't closed a deal this month.

"I wonder what's happening."

I don't know how Eddie is doing.

I really haven't followed him too much.

Honestly, I just look at the downtown team. But you know what?

I'm going to start comparing.

Yeah, you have to. A little friendly competition. Yeah.

I think that the boys definitely underestimate

Jessica and I a little bit.

But when I'm brushing my hair and looking at the leaderboard,

I don't see their names that high up.

You were on the board, though.

You've already done a deal in your first month, right?

But...I don't think Chris has been on there yet.

I'd say that my personal performance, figures-wise,

has not been where I want it to be.

I'm used to smashing out deals week by week.

I've had five offers recently, all at asking price or over,

and I've not been able to close any of them.

Mate, honestly, I'm glad to hear you being honest about that,

even you feel that the results aren't where they should be,

because I'm looking at it thinking,

"Chris can do more. Chris can pull more out of this.

"Why isn't he?"

I didn't ever want to be in a position where I'm having a one-to-one with Charlie.

I'm in this pressure cooker right now.

I've got to find a way to get the deals done.

When I first started, done a deal in, like, three weeks.

So... Why is that? Sorry to cut you off. Why is that?

Genuinely, why is that?

Why did you do a deal in three weeks and someone else can't?

Well, I don't know. I came in,

I just hit the phones and I done the basics.

Mate, I can say exactly what it was, mate.

You wanted to prove yourself, not to us, but to yourself

that you made the right decision moving from Scotland,

and you done it. You need to reset

mentally, mate, and go back to that point.

There's so much to do.

There's so many properties to sell.

At this moment in time, I've got to remember to be composed.

Otherwise, I'm just going to tear everything apart, fall apart,

and I'll end up on a plane hame.

That's your buyer then, yeah? That's my buyer.

That's not right.

So he's on the viewing today. He's been doing his homework

and will actually be doing the showing for me. OK.

I can understand why you want to focus on that luxury market,

but nine times out of ten, I say no.