Homes, Headlines, and House Prices

In this episode of On the Sofa with British Mums, Emma is joined by Sophie from the British Mums dream team and her husband Gil from Espace Real Estate for a relaxed, honest chat about life, property, and planning for the future in Dubai. They discuss how the recent regional conflict has affected house prices and rent, asking whether some of those changes might actually benefit families, as well as where people are choosing to buy, where they’re investing, and what’s really happening in different communities across the city.

True to British Mums form, there are plenty of tangents, giggles, and real-life stories along the way, making this episode as entertaining as it is informative. Listeners are also reminded not to miss the British Mums Guide to Staycations, packed with ideas for making the most of family time in the UAE while you think about your next move.

https://www.espace.ae/

https://britishmums.com/dubai/british-mums-guide-to-the-best-uae-staycations-for-families-couples-to-relax-recharge/

https://britishmums.com/dubai/events/

#you're-a-part-of-this

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hello and welcome to On the Sofa with British Mums. My name is Emma, and in this episode, I'm joined by Sophie from the British Mum's Dream Team and her husband, Gil, from S Bass Real Estate. This one is a proper peek behind the curtain of Dubai Life, homes, and everything in between. We chat about how the recent conflict has impacted house and rent prices here and ask whether that is actually for the better or not. Plus, we talk about where families are buying, where people are choosing to invest, and what's really happening on the ground in different communities. As you'd expect, we also head off on the usual British mums tangents with plenty of Googles and real life chat along the way. So grab yourself a cover and join us for a relaxed and honest conversation about property, planning for the future, and finding your place in the UAE with Sophie and Gil. You guys are listening to On the Sofa with British Mums. Hello and welcome to On the Sofa with British Mums. This is season three, episode 18, and my goodness, what a start to the month of what is it, April? No, May is May, um, it is wonderful to be back and talking with my lovely team member, Sophie, from the British Mum's Dream Team today. Hello, Sophie, how are you? Hello, good thank you. How are you? I'm not too bad. What level of Jumanji do you think that we're on currently? Must be near the end, right? Off the scale, yeah. Of the scale. I said to my husband this morning, I half expect Robin Williams to run through the house with elephants chasing him. You know, and I heard somebody the other day say if I looked in the sky and I saw dragons, I'd be surprised, but not that surprised. Because that was where we're back to homeschooling.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

So back to homeschooling. And how is homeschooling going for you, so um not well. Not well. Talk to me about it. We've not really done anything. We've been at trampo this morning trying to get energy out. Yeah, just bouncing around. Bouncing off the walls at home. So, no, we've not done anything. Not I was quite committed last time, but now the second round of it, I've given up.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

You're done. You're given up. Fair enough, fair enough. So, joining us today on the sofa on the table. Um, the the sofa table, let's call it. We have got Sophie's lovely husband, Gil. Hello, Gil.

SPEAKER_04 2:13

Hello, good morning.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

And how are you today?

SPEAKER_04 2:15

Very well, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Seeming very positive still, despite all of the very positive.

SPEAKER_04 2:20

Week 10 of the conflict, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Week 10. Oh, really? Where is the name Gil from? What's your full name?

SPEAKER_04 2:26

Oh god. Um my actual name is Gilles.

SPEAKER_03 2:31

Gil?

SPEAKER_04 2:31

Yes. And where is that from? When I Belgium. Originally from Belgium, but I was born and raised in Portugal. So uh a lot of people had difficulty pronouncing my name here, so they just called me Gil. It's stuck, and I'm a different personality here in Dubai called Gil. When I go back home to Portugal, it's Gil.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Nobody knows who Gil is, so it's and it's horrendous for me because I say Gil and everyone looks at me like Bruce Wayne and Batman.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

I like it, it's exotic. It's nice, it's very good. So you are joining us here today from Esbass, aren't you? So we're talking all things property today, which is actually a little bit of a it's a bit of a geeky thing for me. I don't know whether you've noticed, Soph, but a lot of people are are putting their properties that they're selling in the UK onto the group. Yes, I have noticed that. We love looking in people's countries. And they really are. Somebody put up that beautiful like French chalet the other day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:24

And I'm just all about they're doing that because they want to come and buy property here.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 3:31

Property markets correction people want to definitely take advantage and the currencies in their favour as well.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Well, there you go. Well, this is my this is gonna be my question. We honest honestly answer because my my husband, he won't mind me saying this, he's a naysayer, he he thinks it's all made up. What has been the effect of this all, this sort of geopolitical mess that we're in on the property market here in Dubai?

SPEAKER_04 3:54

Obviously, we came on the back of um having one of the best quarters we were gonna have uh for since we opened our doors at a SPAS. So January was an exceptional month, February was really good, and then the 28th of February happened, the conflict happened, and we rolled into March, and it just was an absolute halt of everything, pretty much. So buyers waited, sellers waited, uh investors waited, nobody knew really what to do. So we had a a sharp end correction, a really deep, sharp correction in the property market very quickly. Nobody moved, those deals were happening, everything just paused for a good three, four weeks.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Wow, you must have felt that.

SPEAKER_04 4:37

Oh, we did, we did. We were down uh in terms of buyers registering and buyers out nearly 65% down to February, or deals went down 80%, and this is just around the industry as well, so it's not just at Espace, but we we really saw the effects of it. Uh, not only a lot of people left the country, so agents included, so the espace was also operating at nearly 25% capacity with a lot of Zoom meetings going on, all these go back to this.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:08

Go back. I was we were in Portugal for one week, and I was getting up at three in the morning to do these Zoom calls webinars at four or five in the morning, just catching up with Dubai time. But it it was surreal going back to that again.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Yeah, like uh COVID two point.

SPEAKER_04 5:23

Deja vu.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Can I can I make a coffee?

unknown 5:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

I'm so overzooed. Everyone go in bedroom A in there. But so I mean, obviously, it's it's an ever-changing market, and I correct me if I'm wrong, but it must be the the property mask market must be quite telling. Like, it does it move very, very quickly, like can you be in that three-week halt period, but then come out the other end of it very like, does it pick up?

SPEAKER_04 5:51

Absolutely. So, in in COVID, if I take you back to 2020, we were in that three-week lockdown, and um that week was also March, I believe. It was March as well. Uh, we had 80% less revenue as well, so it's a very like similar situation like we had in March with COVID conflict. Uh, but with COVID, what we saw is a pent-up demand of buyers coming to the market straight away after the three weeks, and since 2020 till now, till 28th of Feb, the market was just going one way. It's rocketing, absolutely booming. Um, and what we see now is just because we went week four, week five, week six, now it's week 10 of the conflict. There's no resolution. So we did see a different story in April versus March. So our April was 120% up in terms of buyer registers, good. Uh 250% more viewings happening, 35% more deals closed at Space Real Estate. And what we start seeing is 175% more price reductions, for example, is that's what brought the buyers back out. So March brought a lot of sellers to the market that were overpriced or okay, I'm worried about this, let me get out of this market now. And the reality is what they had to do is maybe discount their properties 10-15%. But in the last six years, they made returns of 300, 400%.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Is it a good thing? I I like, do you know what I mean? Like we everybody has been talking about the cost of properties and like skyrocketing, and does it equal us out? Does it does?

SPEAKER_04 7:21

Well, we needed a correction. It's a shame this is what's bringing it, but we definitely needed a property correction because it was we're sitting in a market where sellers just choose a price, sit on it, and eventually they get it because there's more and more people coming to the buy, there's not much supply, especially in villas and townhouses. You also have to look at the market between apartment market and villa market, so very different market. Um, but people were just buying everything they could get their hands on, so it is a sharp correction, it was needed, and I think a lot of sellers then went to the market, some panicked, others didn't pack. 90% of the market didn't panic, they just like took their properties off the market, waited, didn't do anything in March. April, we start to seeing a little bit more properties come to the market. And our advice is simple is if you do want to sell and you want to get out of the market before the summer, before schools finish, because you're moving after the school year finishes or whatever, make sure you're pricing it right. If you price a property right, then you will get it sold. Because the buyers that we've seen, the pent-up demand that was there, they want to see the deals, what's going on. People that couldn't buy in Arabian ranches because the market was too high, or Emirates Living Meadows, they're now back there looking because it's corrected itself 10-15%. They're like, Well, I don't want to lose this opportunity to get into this community.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

That's too interesting.

SPEAKER_04 8:36

Because they had to, they were flushed out to other communities elsewhere, right? Because the meadows, springs, I mean, a three-bed in in the springs, a three-bedroom townhouse with no major, would would have gone for 6.5 to 7. Now they're down to the 5.5 million. A little bit of million range. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Because what we're seeing on the news, or that we were seeing on the news, I'm seeing less of it now, but um when this first kicked off, we talked about it a lot on the group, didn't we? About like the reality of what's actually happening here versus what what particularly the the UK media was portraying, they didn't match up. And like people clickbait. Clickbait, that's it. But people are still moving here. I mean, we're seeing people on the group, aren't we? Definitely are the almost.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Yeah, definitely are still people moving here and asking questions about it. And should I live, in school, things like that. Um, but I do think I think people just it sounds awful, but are kind of just used to it now. You know, like when the alert went the other day, everyone kind of had a sinking feeling because we all knew men's schools were gonna be off, but everyone feels safe, everyone kind of just gets gets back on with it, I think. I think the more it happens, not much changes.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

I I wonder whether, like, in a weird way, it will solidify s coming out here for some people because we have been kept so safe.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Whether people will go, actually, it is still a really attractive place to move to because look, look, look at what they're doing, even at their you know, most sort of challenging moments. I do, I I wonder whether like the outcome of it will eventually end up being that.

SPEAKER_04 10:08

Interestingly, for us, the data was 80% of all our deals. I think we did over 30 deals in April. 80% of them were residents already in Dubai, they didn't go anywhere, but they were just priced out the market. So let me get in. 20% would have been international. So out of like two in every 10 properties we sold, two would be the international. I'm moving to the UK or fromever to Dubai. We used to see a lot more of that, so a lot of them are just pausing and I'd say, well, just we'll do it after the summer. So we've had a lot of that. It's like we're not moving now, we'll move in September, we'll come in October, we'll come in November. But what's interesting is all the people that have been living here for years are just like, right, let me get in the meadows, let me buy in the ranch.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

Yeah, yeah, I think Dubai IGs.

SPEAKER_04 10:52

Anyone that's they're not going anywhere. They're not going anywhere. So anyone might anyone that's been here for more than five years is like, look, I'm safe, I'm I'm not going here. We built a life here. Anyone that's been here for a year, less than a year, that I think it shook them, it shook us all, let's be honest. It's not something that anybody wants to be in.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

That first bit was pretty spicy.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

We actually met someone. Do you remember when we were in um when we were in Portugal during the first kind of thing where everyone kind of it was spring break? So we went to Portugal and we were sat, it was the day we were actually flying back, and you know, everyone was a bit like, oh, is it the right decision? It was obviously still happening. And we were we were sat chatting, and the guy at the table over from us came over and said, Sorry, I um I overheard you. I actually live in Dubai as well, but he'd only been in Dubai for not even a year, had he? And he was like, I'm really surprised to hear that you guys are going back. We thought we were back. And there's us with like three kids knowing we are going back. We were really absolutely crazy. He was like, Oh, well, we've only been there, you know, less than a year, and it's I'm telling my wife to come, you know, from London to Portugal, and we're just like, nah, we're going back. No, we won't go home, we won't go back and go home.

SPEAKER_04 11:57

No, he thought we were mad that he did, yeah. But it's interesting because people move to Dubai because of the safety, the schools, the quality of life, the health care. It's just another one to add to the list is the uh the fence system they have in the world.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Oh you guys never ever did we thought you would be saying if you heard about the thad system.

SPEAKER_04 12:19

I mean, like I was born and raised in Portugal. I didn't even think about the fence system. They probably don't have one, let's be honest.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Neither do you believe.

SPEAKER_04 12:28

Yeah, it's just like wow, okay, and then you read into it, and they the only one of the only countries that have like two thad systems in this, it's quite impressive. Obviously, it's not you're still in the Middle East, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Your neighbours by this house, it's got you know lovely rooms of the thing, and you know that you're gonna be protected by this one of those effective things just at the back garden to let you know.

SPEAKER_04 12:47

It's just all rallied quite quickly, but it all just seems to be about this little part of the ocean now that it's called the Strait of our Moose now.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

I mean the I know the Strait of Hormouth, I didn't even know it existed until about ten weeks ago.

SPEAKER_04 12:58

We go to Mussadanda quite a lot to Oman to do our boat trips, it must be an interesting part of the world now. See the dolphins, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

I've heard the dolphins doing it. Did you read that thing about the kamikaze dolphins though? Did you read that?

SPEAKER_00 13:12

It was that's no.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

Apparently, certain countries have dolphin programs where they send like the kamikaze dolphins, so it's like a dolphin. It's a beginning.

SPEAKER_04 13:27

That can't be real.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

The beginning of this episode sometimes we go off on a little bit of a Peter would have been all over them.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

I don't know. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 13:43

Can you imagine the animal and to search for minds?

SPEAKER_02 13:45

That was it. They anyway, I wasn't reading too far into it, but amazing.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Now we all are, and everybody listening to this episode is going to be amazing on Google. Oh my goodness. So the golden question on the group that's gets asked all the time. I'm moving to Dubai, I'm sending my kids to XYZ school, um, we want to invest somewhere. We want to invest somewhere. Now, the the the answer that always comes up, because this is from people that are very fatigued, traffic fatigued, always goes, you know, just get somewhere near the school, right? Absolutely. But if you weren't taking that into consideration and you were just saying, right, um, you've got this much money, say it's a say it's a fair bit, and I want to invest somewhere in Dubai, where is your current recommendation? Like, what is there like certain areas you're like, that's gonna be really big because of this, like this is this is what I would do, these houses are good, this is a good community.

SPEAKER_04 14:42

Why obviously there's different strategies of investments, right? There's people that invest to just rent it to get a high return, there's people that invest for capital appreciations, and people that invest in off-plan and hope for the best after four years, that when it comes, delivers the capital appreciation has soared, like it has been in the last six years. If someone was asking me what I what should I do right now with the money, I would buy in a community, one of the older communities that's been established, that's got a lot of greenery that's ready to be rented out, and just the rents are still phenomenal in in in for a landlord. Not for a tenant.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Not for a tenant, but phenomenal is the word I would use. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 15:21

And if you want just a return on your investment on a yearly basis, you can't beat a property that's upgraded and you put a tenant in there and it just turns seven to eight percent um somewhere like ranches, frames, ranches, the townhouses in Alream. Yeah, exactly. The one-bedroom apartments, the two-bedroom apartments, they're just they rent so easily. You the tenants are good, the the laws here are are protected for the tenants and for the landlords, and and you can stick it in the bank, you might get four percent.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

What if you're wanting to live, like actually live in it? Like, so you're to live again.

SPEAKER_04 15:54

I always recommend make sure you stay by a school because the worst thing you can do, like I've been doing this now for 14 and a half years with a SBAS, um, and every client of mine that nearly moved was because I'm spending 45 minutes to an hour commuting to school here and there. So if the kids go to Jess and they live in the meadows, they're like just move me to the ranches, or vice versa in the EBS. But now there's schools scattered everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

You can see to pick the school and then coming to my personal that doesn't do a single pickup and drop-off. But I can tell you, as someone that does it multiple times a day, yes, live somewhere that's very close to your school. This is the second domestic not only because of the traffic, but if you think I've got three different children with three different ages in different years, you are up and down at that school three yeah, if you've got an FS, they all finish at different times, they've all got different activities after school. Yeah, so yeah, that's my advice as well.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Well, would you like to make a comment on that, girl? Are we good? Is this mediation over?

SPEAKER_04 16:57

15 years' experience out of the window.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

These are clients that pickups and drop-offs are really hard.

SPEAKER_04 17:03

Yes, to be fair, they are, they've seen hard. I mean, I'll leave her to deal with the commotion of not having uh a zebra crossing in the school from one to the other. So we're not that now.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

We've got that now, so phenomenal. TBS Emirates Hills. We now have a level uh a zebra crossing. Congratulations, I'm really happy for you. Amazing.

SPEAKER_04 17:24

We we also spot uh we're also partners not with British mums alone, but with Dubai British schools in Emirates Hills as well.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

So partnership good partnership going there, we like that. It's a nice school, actually.

SPEAKER_04 17:35

It's a lovely school.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

My my company does perform there two or three times a year, and uh we we support with their tech stuff, and it's a nice place, it's just a nice place actually, Emirates Hills.

SPEAKER_04 17:44

It's an old school, uh it's it's the old school Dubai. That's what you like. You don't in the new communities you don't get what you get in these older communities that have been around for 20, 25 years. Yes, the the houses are older and they're crickety, and you need to go spend some money to put a new kitchen and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

But yeah, the orange doors, we've talked about that before, haven't we? Those orange doors.

SPEAKER_04 18:02

If you go to a new community now, whether it's Town Square, whether it's Dubai Hills, it's like you can't swing a cat in them.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

No, yeah, it's different, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 18:10

Yeah, it's very different, very different. But each to their own, I guess it's like it's different.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

I think everyone has a lot of things.

SPEAKER_04 18:16

There's people that love the apartment living, there's people that love the villa. I mean, we lived in an apartment in our first few years here, but after moving to a villa, I just can't see myself going back to an apartment.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

When did you guys get your when did you invest in your place? Because you had it all done up, didn't you?

SPEAKER_04 18:30

So the first one we bought in 2017 in the springs, and then this that we sold that one and upsized uh to the meadows in 2020.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Do you think you'll stay there now for a while? Do you love it? Yes. Yes. You really like it? It's close to the school and it's you know, all the way.

SPEAKER_04 18:45

I can't imagine living anywhere else. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_02 18:50

It's funny, I find it funny because then I come hit to ranches and it feels really similar to the meadows. Yes, it does. Um, but it's just a completely different people stay in their communities. Like I always say, Monday to Friday, I don't really leave Springs Meadows area, which I'm sure like you you wouldn't leave the ranches either. It's kind of you kind of don't need to stay in your community, isn't it? And then you kind of go through a different one, you're like, oh, actually, it's really nice here.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Do you know what? I the where I would love to live, I actually live in a really sweet little place, but it's it's a funny old situation, our house, because it's a it's like a majellis off a massive like mansion. Um, but if I could pick anywhere, like no budget, I'd live in Whispering Pines in Jamer Park. The houses there are really nice. Oh my goodness, that's it. But then can you walk to school? I homeschool.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

Oh, you homeschool. I homeschool, so I'm making down there, isn't it? But you still have to drive, right? Yeah, you'll have to drive.

SPEAKER_04 19:46

But the good thing about these communities, especially ranchers are if we take where we are right now, ranchers, you've got the golf club, you've got the golf course, you've got Miss Meso Matisse, and you've got the golf club breakfast and pub quiz, and then you've got nurseries, you've got the medi clinic, you've got the little shopping centre malled with the spinnies and this and that. You don't really need to leave. You don't need to leave, no.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Is this is this uh place, and we're in ranch at the moment in Ash's house, it's beautiful, just been done up. Um very gorgeous. Is that is this the kind of community that has a pool in it, Ash? It does lots of pools. That's nice as well.

SPEAKER_04 20:22

So Sahel has four pools and six parks.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Look, you should be an estate agent, should be.

SPEAKER_04 20:29

I sold a lot here back in the day. Now I just manage the team, a team of 200 people. So I'm more office-based.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

What's your prediction? What's coming? Do you think? I mean, obviously, we can't predict what's going to be happening you know, politically, but we but I mean in terms of property.

SPEAKER_04 20:44

March was a blip, so it was a pause. April was a signal, so pent up the man is back, people are back, ready to buy. May is gonna be an interesting one because one, the homeschooling threw it off a little bit, so people instead of like spending time and like maybe looking at properties, they're dealing with that now. And we also have a nine-day eat coming up in in two weeks. So instead of having the normal 31-day or 30-day May, we're gonna have like 20 days and then it's nine days off, and then we're straight back into June.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

And then it's the summer. I mean the heat is a very good thing.

SPEAKER_04 21:16

And then we go into the summer, so it's it's gonna be. I don't think we're gonna be at full capacity, uh, but I think by September everyone's gonna, if if this is all resolved, obviously there's a lot of questions around everything. So moving parts about everything. But I think the pent-up demand in September, October, November will be phenomenal, and we'll see a lot of people wanting to get back into the property market.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

That's good.

SPEAKER_04 21:39

Not to lose the opportunity. Yeah, because there's a there's a small window of opportunity here for many people because a lot of them, and we've had many friends, unfortunately, that had to move to Abu Dhabi or they had to move countries uh because it's just getting a bit too much, like from rentals, from property prices, from a lot of new people coming in and and the job search and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

So yeah, I actually Just had a lady come to the house to pick up one of the kids' toys, like a secondhand toy. She drove all the way from Alain, and she was like, She does it all the time. She does it, lots of people on the group, actually. Yeah, yeah. But she but she's like, I pay, you know, I can't remember what she said she pays for like a three-bed plus mate, but it was like like what you pay for a studio. So I was like, Do you know what? That hour and a half drive doesn't sound so bad if you can have something massive out there.

SPEAKER_04 22:26

But that's good to know that there's a demand of toys in our lane. Maybe we've got a house full of it.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:34

Supply and demand, it's a simple equation.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

If you have the patience to sell on those groups, then crack on.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

You don't. I really you're just gonna let it let it keep going.

SPEAKER_04 22:48

No, I normally do that stuff, which is quite fun. I like I like negotiating and bargaining, so it's a bit different. Um but yeah, look, I I feel very confident in in Dubai in general. I feel very confident, as Bash Rila said, people very confident in the property market and and the hotel market and everything. You know, the hospitality, I think. It it hopefully just a short, like hopefully in December we look back at this and think like, uh, remember March that was.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Yeah, do you remember that?

SPEAKER_04 23:16

A little blip in the in the year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, no, we won't forget it. Like, we won't forget COVID, but COVID passed, and then six years later, now we're in this, and so here we go.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

We're resilient. I think it was training. We're resilient. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 23:28

It's just building up now.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

So Eid is Eid is obviously coming around the corner, we're really looking forward to it. Talk to me about Eid. What's everybody doing?

SPEAKER_02 23:35

We have decided to stay here and do a staycation. There's some really good deals on at the moment, as I'm sure everyone knows about.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

This is what we were talking about with Pamela last week.

SPEAKER_04 23:46

Yeah, we actually have a double over it though, but yeah, I think everyone's everyone's got the same idea.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Yeah, no, I think that if we can stay here, we all said we said in the last podcast we had Pamela from travel counsellors on. She was talking about holidays, and obviously she loves booking people holidays abroad, but she was very much kind of like a let's put back into the system here, like let's part, be part of that ecosystem, let's start spending on staycations, let's start you know, boostering these hotels back up because they're yeah, they need it, and it's so nice.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

We are publishing our British man's staycation roundup. Are you? We are so there's some lots of good deals in there. Um, but I think it's nice to just stay here and like you say, put baths. There's some great offers on, so yeah, we're not.

SPEAKER_04 24:33

It's nice pool weather.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

It's all right if you're if you're by a pool, I think it's fine. If you could dip with them, cocktail in hand, yeah, in and out of the pool. I'm I'm all up for it. And then when you leave, you don't have to get on an airplane. So exactly.

SPEAKER_04 24:45

Yeah, we were in one of the busiest hotels in Dubai. I won't plug them, but I mean, there were there was no uh I mean we could choose the bed we wanted around. Yeah, it was I've never seen that before.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

It was quite sad, you know. When you when you look around and you're like, this is usually the FMB was 50% off really round, but it was it was I mean it's quite nice in a way, but I reckon you'll find it in Eid that the places are busy.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

I we actually went to the West In and had a night at the West In the other week for Madeline's birthday. Beautiful, by the way. If people haven't gone to oh my gosh, I loved it, it was absolutely fantastic, really, really good. And they like the kids had a fantastic time in the kids' club and all of the things, so yeah, I'm I'm pleased that people are staying and and supporting. Anyway, I'm gonna wrap it up. Gil, it's been amazing. Oh Gilles, it has been amazing having you on, thank you so much. I like hearing you talk positively about what's gonna be coming and that people are getting back because it just it's those little bits of hope, isn't it? Yeah, um, and every cloud has a silver lining, property is now gonna be a little bit more sensible for a while, let's hope.

SPEAKER_04 25:46

Um what I told my team because we had the end of the month meeting today, and I said, uh what was it? Bad times don't last, strong teams last. Strong people last.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

Bad times don't last.

SPEAKER_04 26:00

The storm will pass, strong teams. Confidence will come back, but if you've got a strong team around you.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Thank you, Mr.

SPEAKER_04 26:06

Damilam. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

No, I like it, it's good, it's good. Well, we're gonna link everything below. If you are thinking about investing in a property or you want to learn more, we will put the details of S Bas perfectly. Definitely reach out to us. Yeah, reach out to them because they know what they're talking about clearly, as you can see. They've got lots of wise, uh wise words to show you as well.

SPEAKER_04 26:23

That's a household change.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

We're gonna let Sophie and Gil carry on their uh little arguments now and turn off the mic.

SPEAKER_03 26:30

The weekends are around the corner, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

You guys are a part of this now. Oh my goodness, I always I always love a podcast when Sophie joins us. It always goes off in the strangest directions and then manages to circle back round. I hope you guys enjoyed listening to that. Um, Gil had such insights into what is actually happening. I've been so curious, I don't know whether you guys have as well about what's actually happening with property prices given the current situation we're in. I feel like I know now it was a great conversation. If you guys are looking to invest or you are looking to buy property or rent property, SPAS really do know what they're talking about, and they're really passionate about what they do. So reach out, follow the link below. Also, be sure to check out the staycation guide. Eid is coming, it's coming, and we want to support businesses around here by staying here and feeding back into that community, like we spoke about in the podcast. So that's really exciting. Now, I need to talk. I'm so excited to say this, guys. I have to talk events, events are back and they are thriving, and people are loving them. So we would love to see you at these events now. The one I'm talking about today is on the 9th of June. It is water wipes. Water wipes now. I don't know whether you guys have ever used these. Now they are hosting a play day at Mini Bounce. Now, my children are nine and ten, and to this day, I still have a packet of water wipes in my handbag. They are fabulous, they are natural, they are vegan, they are hard wearing, they're nicer sensitive. Again, they're all of the things. I'm a massive advocate of them. I'm not being asked to say this, I'm just saying it because I really mean it. Um, so on the 9th of June, you can join Water Wipes and British Mums at uh from 9am to 12 pm at Mini Bounce in Motor City. That place is fantastic. If you want to wear your kids out, send them to Mini Bounce because they will just be completely exhausted for the rest of the day, and you can sit down and actually have a hot cup of tea. So you guys can actually choose from tea or coffee at the event as well. But check out the events page below to learn how to sign up for that. Listen, places will go, but these events are really, really picking up. Keep an eye on the events page, we've got some beautiful stuff coming up. We will talk about it in the podcast, but get your diaries out anyway and make sure that you always keep a scan of what's coming up and what you can enjoy with British moments. It's been amazing having you here, Momas. Please make sure that you like, please make sure you subscribe. It really really helps us to know what you enjoy and what you want to hear more of. You guys are listening to Honor Save with British Mongols.