Is it really worth buying?

Long time dubai resident and it is a great, safe and convenient place.

Renting a spacious 4 bed villa at 230k in a great location (300sq m+). Now thinking of downsizing to a spacious 2 (min 150sq m) or preferably 3 bed (apt or TH or villa - min 180sq m+) but location close to the city eg consider MOE as central.

Surely I’m not the only one constant shifting between buying to “save the rent” and “dubai property is overpriced”.

To be clear I’m not a speculator, I want to buy to live in and eventually leave Dubai (~5-10 yrs) then sell or rent out. (I don’t see dubai as a place for my retirement.)

What I don’t understand are Dubai numbers because anything in good location and reasonably good spec is bare minimum 3M and realistically more like 4M+ for quality, space and most important location.

On top:
- IMO build quality isn’t great no matter the developer. I’m yet to find the property that gives me the confidence it is built to last (decades) without significant upgrades/maintenance work to fix what the contractor messed up
- apartments are also IMO not built for multi decade use (older building prices, look/feel and rents reinforce that)
- too many new builds are shoeboxes as if we are in Singapore, Toronto, NYC or central London with no room to build!

Yet prices are comparable to major established, secure cities in other centers (for example I can purchase a respectable property in a decent location in UK, Spain, Canada for dubai prices)

I can never seem to justify to myself the investment + related costs (service charges, DLD, mortgage financing, maintenance, opportunity cost of investing the upfront money, etc) to buy a property.

I know people have made lots of money speculating/flipping but I’m not pretending to be an investor with suitcases of cash or the objective to flip.

I’d love to hear the experiences and conclusions of others who must be thinking the same thing.

What conclusion did you reach? Did you make the purchase? Any regrets or unexpected surprises?