Haitham Watkins was born and raised in New York. He completed a university degree in business management.
After university he spent a few months travelling the world with friends, and on that trip he decided he wanted to live in Egypt. He arrived in 1999 and stayed for almost three years, to study Islam, learn Arabic and experience life outside the West. The change was a shock at first, but he settled in, made friends, learned Arabic and studied Islam.
He lived in Nasr City in Cairo, paying about $100 a month in rent. Food and transport were cheap, so he did not need much money. He lived off savings from a year of work, then taught English and picked up translation work.
After a while he started thinking about the long term: he wanted to stay in the Muslim world, not go back to the West. In 2002 he moved to Qatar, where he worked for a company for about two years and saved money. Then, in 2004, he moved to Dubai, and he has been there ever since. By the time he told his story, he had spent 27 years outside the West, 20 of them in the UAE.
He came to real estate by accident. He arrived in Dubai looking for a job and met someone who worked in real estate and suggested he try it. He enjoyed the work, he was good at it, and he made good money. After a few years he started his own company, and he has run it since 2008.
Dubai real estate, he says, is all about location: you need to understand the areas and communities, and what people are looking for. There are two kinds of property: off-plan, bought from the developer before it is built, and ready, which is already built. Off-plan can pay well, because you buy low and sell higher once it is ready, but it carries risk if the developer is late or the market changes. Ready properties are more stable, because you can rent them out straight away.
Then there is subletting, a big business in Dubai. You rent a property from the landlord on a long-term lease, furnish it, and rent it out short term for a higher price. The profit is the difference. There is strong demand, because people come to Dubai for holidays, business and medical treatment, and many would rather stay in an apartment than a hotel. Airbnb needs a licence in Dubai, and breaking the rules brings fines. Subletting is different, Haitham says: it can be done without an Airbnb licence as long as you follow the rules.
The steps are simple. Find the right property in the right location, at a good price. Negotiate a good deal with the landlord. Furnish it well, make it comfortable, market it on the right platforms, and manage it well. Profit margins can run to 30, 40 or 50 percent, and the business can be started with relatively little capital. His example is a one-bedroom apartment rented for about $15,000 a year and furnished for $5,000, then rented out at $100 a night. Rented for 20 nights a month, that brings in $2,000 against rent of $1,250: $750 a month in profit from one apartment. Ten apartments would bring $7,500 a month, and he calls that a conservative estimate.
Visas are a big question. The golden visa lasts ten years and is for investors, entrepreneurs and highly skilled professionals. The employment visa, sponsored by an employer, is the most common. There are also business, freelance, remote work and retirement visas.
Dubai can be expensive or affordable, depending on how you live. Rent is the biggest expense, high in popular areas like Marina, Downtown and JVC, but there are affordable areas too, such as International City, Al Qusais and Deira. Food is affordable if you cook at home, the metro is cheap, and petrol is cheap. It is also a good place to do business, with free zones where you can set up a company with full foreign ownership and no tax and get a visa through it.
His advice to anyone who wants to move to Dubai and start a business is to come with a skill. Come with a skill you can turn into money, whether that is marketing, sales, real estate, IT or teaching. Without a skill you will struggle. Then network: meet people, build relationships, go to events and join communities. Be patient: it takes time to build a business, a reputation and a network. Come with a long-term plan, not looking for quick money, and be ready to work hard.
There are challenges. The culture is very different from the West, and the summer heat is hard to adjust to. The cost of living can bite if you do not manage your money. Dubai is competitive, so you need to stand out. And it can be lonely at first, when you miss your family and friends, so you need to build a new community.
The Muslim community in Dubai is strong. There are mosques everywhere, Islamic schools and halal restaurants, and a real sense of community. You can practise your deen freely, pray in the mosque and fast in Ramadan, alongside Muslims from all over the world. For Haitham, the best things about Dubai are safety, opportunity and diversity. It is one of the safest cities in the world, and if you work hard, there is so much opportunity to succeed and build a better life for your family.
His plans are to keep growing his business, do more subletting, and help more people move to Dubai and start a business. He wants to help Muslims make hijrah and show people it is possible to live in the Muslim world and thrive. That is why he runs a subleasing programme: a six-week online course teaching everything about subletting in Dubai, from finding properties and negotiating with landlords to the legal side, contracts, licences and regulations. Students also get access to his network and to templates, checklists and tools.
His final advice is simple: just do it. Do not overthink it, and do not wait for the perfect moment. Take the leap and trust in Allah. Come with a plan, a skill and savings, work hard, be patient, and do not give up. Hijrah, he says, is not only about moving to a Muslim country. It is about moving closer to Allah, improving your deen, and building a better life for yourself and your family. If you do it for the sake of Allah, Allah will make a way for you.