A clutch of British estate agent ‘players’ feature in a new BBC reality TV series about selling property in Dubai.
The emirate is awash with UK negotiators seeking to make their fortune and Dubai Hustle follows a dozen or so of them as they attempt to sell luxury property to high-net-worth individuals.
All work for Dubai estate agency Haus & Haus and feature within eight episodes, the first four of which are available to watch on BBC3’s iPlayer platform.
As might be expected, the properties featured are at the glamorous rather than grubbier sector of the emirate’s property market and each episode is awash with titanic egos, yacht parties, high heels, supercars and Dubai’s uber-expensive twinkling skyline.
One episode shows two estate agent negs checking out a home in the city that comes with an indoor car turntable.
Local media has criticised the show for concentrating on the ‘money, money, money’ aspects of selling property in Dubai and described as ‘shallow, artificial and highly sensationalised’.
Riches and rivalry
The programme is billed as ‘riches and rivalry as young estate agent Brits fight to make it to the top of the glitzy world of Dubai real estate – the work is tough by the rewards are huge’.
This includes each commission-only negotiator charging a 5% personal fee, which one agent is filmed telling a client is ‘standard across’ Dubai but on which they will pay no tax. Dubai’s average price is £175,000, about half the UK’s.
The agents featured in episode one include a clutch of hard-nosed but colourful characters including Chris (main pic, left), 27, from a council estate in Livingstone in Scotland, who battles in the first episode to land a commission of £5,000 for a single sale.
