Sheikhs, Lies and Real Estate: The Untold Story of Dubai by JR Roth

mandate to
sell it on behalf of the seller. If you can help me find a buyer, we can make a
fortune that we’ll split between us.’ 
    ‘Okay, but how do you have access to it?’
    ‘Let’s just say I’m connected with people who
know people in the corridors of power.’
    ‘How powerful are we talking exactly?’
    ‘I’m talking all the way to the top.’
    Jerome was certainly persuasive, but something
didn’t sound right and I began to smell the bullshit. How could a young, cocky
recruitment consultant who had barely been in the country for a year be so well
connected?
    ‘Jerome if you don’t mind me asking, how did
you get to know these people?’
    Jerome suddenly recoiled. ‘Mate, if you don’t
want to be involved then I don’t mind. I’m quite capable of finding a buyer on
my own.’
    ‘Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I just want to know if
it’s a credible source. That’s all. I gotta protect my reputation too, you
know.’
    He shook his head and calmed down. ‘Listen. I’m
not allowed to say too much, but trust me, this deal is coming through somebody
who knows the big daddy Sheikh Mohammed himself. That’s all I can say right
now. You find me a buyer and we split the fees fifty-fifty. I can’t say fairer
than that.’
    ‘So let’s say hypothetically I did have a
buyer. How much money can we actually make on this deal?’
    Jerome sat back in his chair and smiled. It
seemed I was finally speaking his language. ‘Look at it this way. A plot like
this is worth at least half a billion dirhams, which is around seventy-five
million pounds. If we’re working on a minimum 2 per cent commission, you do the
math.’
    I punched in the numbers on my mobile phone
calculator. The figure that appeared almost made me fall off my chair.
    ‘Are you honestly saying we could make 10
million dirhams if we close this?’
    ‘Yep,’ said Jerome, sipping on his cocktail. ‘So
are you in?’
    ‘Of course I am! But I need some more details,
location, price, plans...’
    ‘Listen. You find me a serious buyer and I will
provide you with everything you need. You have my word. If we can close this
quickly, we will both make a lot of money. And there are plenty more where this
is coming from, believe me. Do we have a deal?’
    As he put out his hand I looked into his eyes
and grabbed it. ‘Deal!’
    There were all sorts of thoughts rushing through
my mind. Why had Jerome decided to trust me so easily? Why hadn’t he found a
buyer on his own? Was the deal even for real? But despite my doubts, at that
moment the opportunity sounded just too good to miss. I sat back and took a
long, deep pull of my cigar. If Jerome was for real, this was my chance to
become the person I had always dreamed of being. A true player in a land of
opportunity.
    ***
    The next morning I woke up to the worrying reality that I
still had not found an apartment. Imperial Bank had agreed to pay my expenses
for a month, after which I was out on the street, so I had to move fast. Over
breakfast I grabbed a copy of the property section of the Gulf News to
assess my options. I ploughed through three chunky property supplements before
I finally got to the lettings section. It was not a pretty sight. Every single
studio or one-bedroom apartment was at least two thousand dirhams outside my
budget, including those in the older parts of town like Satwa and Bur Dubai. It
seemed my dream of beachside living was further away than I had imagined.
    Finding a reasonably priced apartment in Dubai
in late 2004 was virtually impossible. With the huge influx of immigrant
workers who had converged on the city, there was simply not enough property to
cater for the sudden increase in demand. Unscrupulous landlords had seized the
opportunity to inflate their rates to extortionate levels and so even property
in the city’s less affluent neighbourhoods had become completely unaffordable.
    To make matters worse, most rent cheques in
Dubai were required as a single up-front payment