I Left The UK & Made Millions In Dubai Real Estate By 23

3 years ago, I was broke in Liverpool and I decided to get on a one-way flight halfway across the world to a country I've never been to before. I had hardly a penny to my name. This is the story on how I went from broke to earning millions by the age of 23. So here we are, we're in Liverpool, and I want to show you guys a bit about what life was like before Dubai. I grew up here in a pretty standard area of Liverpool, not the best, not the worst. My dad did all right for himself. He had a property portfolio. He was doing well. And by all means, he wanted me to go into his business and be part of that. But at times he treated me really hard and he would never pay me for the work that I would do. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and set up a business for myself. We're here where I grew up with me mum. I moved to Dubai at 19. I started my own business at 17. Be good to hear another person's perspective on what life was like. You were always a really nice lad. Everyone always says what a lovely boy you were. We used to laugh and say, "Weren't you going to be a businessman?" Because of course, Aidan's dad. You ain't seriously trying to sell things. I remember selling sweets in school and going to the KB market. I remember that.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that.

The Lucas Aids and— Oh yeah. But in private school, nobody ever sold sweets. That was like such a rare thing. Do you remember when I was younger? Who's your role model? And I put my dad. I want to do property when I'm older. I always knew I wanted to be in property. I always believed that somebody was looking after me. You know what I mean? Like somebody was looking out for me. Yeah. Whatever decision I made was gonna be the right decision. We're sat here in with Nathan, my brother. We're here on Jamaica Street where I had my first ever rent-to-rent properties. I had 3 rent-to-rents in this building. I remember paying about, one of them was £650 a month. The other 2 were £850 a month. I was taking home about £400 or £500 a month profit. It was my first taste of property investing. This was all before the move to Dubai. My first ever rent-to-rent properties just above me here. That was my transport for 3 years in a row. That was my idea of luxury travel. I couldn't afford my own car, so I used to use my dad's vans. Here is the first ever apartments that I deal sourced. 3 apartments, rent-to-rent, anywhere between £400 to £1,000 a month off all 3 of them gross. So I was quite happy with that. First taste of earning passive income. It's nostalgic looking back at these. I got a photo of me holding the keys, smiling. I enjoyed them moments and I'm forever grateful for them. It's just nice to look back and, and see how far I've come. Here it is in front of us, first ever sourced property in Liverpool. Technically, deal didn't actually go through. The idea of this one was to convert it into an HMO because it's near town, a lot of demand for HMOs for student accommodation. It was about £130,000. But that was one of the first ever viewings that we done back when we started the business. Right, so we're heading back to Dubai. I wanna tell you a little bit about how it came about me even moving to Dubai. I always wanted to get into property. I always knew I was gonna be a property entrepreneur. And I wanted to prove to my dad and prove to my family that I could be successful on my own back. I still remember to this day when I got dropped off at the airport and I left my dad. He dropped me off and my dad's not really an emotional guy. He was quite a cold, person. It was tough growing up because I always felt like I was missing that. I go into the check-in queue, he gives me a hug, which is actually one of only two times that he's done that, so that was quite rare. I think he realized at the moment that maybe he had pushed me away. As I'm stood in the check-in queue, I get a text message from my dad out of the blue. It made me cry and I burst into tears. I'd never ever felt my dad or heard my dad be emotional or about anything, and, and His exact words were, "I'm sorry I treated you so mean. I was just trying to keep you grounded." And that was from my dad on the 19th of August, 2022. I've replied, "What do you mean? I appreciate everything you've done for me. It shaped me into the person I am today. I'll forever be grateful for that." That was tough. Then I set off to Dubai. I'd never been to Dubai. I've left everyone behind me. For the first 4 months, it was rough. Like really, really rough. No sales, no clear direction. But I've just got a whatever-it-takes mentality. And it took me 4 months to make my first sale. I did a deal. Finally, the deal got signed whilst I was on a flight and I was going home for Christmas. And it was the 14th of December. I vividly remember it. I got a photograph of me sending the contract out on the plane, similar to this now, but only that I was sat downstairs in economy. Sent the contract before we took off and I didn't know if I was gonna get approved until I landed because you get the text message from the DLD, which you need signal for. I land in Manchester and my dad's picking me up from the airport and I knew it was like make or break. I land. and I get the approval message. The deal's been done. It's signed. £10,000. My first deal. I couldn't believe it. I was made up. If that deal didn't get signed, maybe, just maybe, I would've become a product of my environment. And maybe Dubai wasn't for me, or maybe I give it a go. Life happens in weird ways. That's when the story continues and the rest is history. And I managed to build a personal brand. So I started posting on social media. Within 1 year, I hit 10,000 followers. By the end of year 2, I had made £150,000. And then year 3, my biggest year yet, I made over £500,000. 3 years later, living the life of my dreams. I get to live in such a beautiful country, travel in luxury business class, drive my dream car, and I'm really, really enjoying life. I'm forever grateful for it. So just got back to Dubai after a nice Christmas with the family. It's always nice to go back home for Christmas and enjoy the cold weather and feels a little bit more festive, especially when you don't see the family much being on the other side of the world. You know, I do like to go home and switch off for that week. Now we're on the way back home. Can't wait to get back into work. It's nice to have that week off, but just itching to get back into things. But whilst we're on the way back to my house, I'm gonna show you something special 'cause we're gonna drive past it anyway. I'm gonna take you to the first ever property that I sold here in Dubai in a community called Arabian Ranches 3, which has been an absolute goldmine for me. And it's where I truly became what I call an attraction agent. And I took the market share. Attention. So we'll go and drive past there now. Let's go take a look. So here we are, Arabian Ranches 3, my second home, I used to say. It's just crazy to think that like when I first started selling this community, none of these trees, none of these bushes, none of these houses were here. It was just desert and foundations. And people actually called me crazy for selling this area. They were like, it's never going to go up in value, people aren't going to make money here. I saw an opportunity and I took it. So this is what you call a subcluster in an area. So this is, this is called Sun. It's, it's within Ranches 3. Yeah, so this was the first project to hand over in Arabian Ranches 3, and I used to go in this community doing whatever it takes. All of these units were just handing over, so they've just finished completion. Nobody was living here, there was no cars. I was doing viewings trying to sell people on this community. There was no electricity, there was no AC, and it was in the middle of summer. And people talk about Dubai real estate is hard work and it's graft. I was putting in a graft, like a proper shift, because I would come and view these units midday, 40° heat, back-to-back viewings. All I wanted was a bottle of water, and there was no shops for me to get a bottle of water. I used to have to go on the Deliveroo, or I used to have to drive to the nearest petrol station. But sometimes I just bring a big bottle of water with me, but after 10 minutes The water bottle had gone hot. I used to have to leave my engine on in the car, AC blasting whilst I did the viewing, sweating through my t-shirt. I'd sit back in the car freezing cold. So that was my life for the first year in Dubai real estate. But I obviously picked an absolute gold mine and look what it's become now. My clients have made over 100% return on investments in this community in the last 3 years. Yeah, it's phenomenal. So here we are, my first ever sale in Dubai real estate. The emotions that this sale gave me was absolutely insane. Like, to look back and think now that this property made me my first ever £10,000— I'd never made £10,000 in my life, never mind tax-free. It was that aha moment when I realized, okay, now I understand. This is what Dubai real estate can do for you. I'd went 4 months of graph, 4 months of literally just keeping my head above water, doing everything, trying to make it work. And this is when the penny dropped. 2.7 million dirham deal. I made 90,000 dirhams in commission, which is £20,000. I was on a 50/50 commission split. So in Dubai real estate, the brokerage keeps 50% and I keep 50%. So I'd made £10,000 net to me. I could finally prove to my dad, to my family, that I can do this. This is how much money I can making Dubai. I would finally come back to Dubai after that Christmas break and I realized this is what I'm meant to be doing. And I was so aligned and I was just ready to attack the market. And then the next 3 years were like, just kept going up and up and up and up. Super grateful for this opportunity. Funnily enough, the buyer stood right there. He bought the property off me. Today, this property that he sat on is worth 4.5 million dirhams. He bought it at 2.8 million dirhams. So he put down 20%, he invested 600K dirham, now is sat on an asset that he's made equity increase of 1.8 million dirham. Pretty much tripled his equity just from one purchase in the last 3 years. I think I saw you on TikTok. Yeah, I go around the community, and I try every coffee shop. Guess where my favorite is?

Which one?

Have a guess. Thank you so much. So the first year was tough, definitely wasn't easy. However, where I did have a lot of success was when I chose this community, Arabian Ranches 3, where we are here today, to specialize in, dominate this community. And I actually started making content around this community before anybody else was even here trying to do the same thing. And as you can see, this guy who's— who works at this coffee shop has obviously seen some of my TikToks. I used to go around these coffee shops and I used to try out every single coffee, like nothing really to do with Ranchers 3, just me being me, having a laugh, tasting out coffee. We're sat here in Pete's, which is my favorite coffee shop. Funny story, I actually used to drive a Porsche in my second year in Dubai. I bought a Porsche, so when I started making content, I would get in the Porsche and I'd say how quickly can we drive from Ranches 3 to the Dubai Mall, because everybody seemed to think that this community was so far away, which is wild now because it's very, very well located. Like, this is a good location in Dubai. But back then when I was selling this community, everyone used to complain about the distance. And then them sort of videos popped off as well. And as time went on, I continued to make videos on social media. My brand just blew up online. It had millions of impressions. And there came a point where every single deal that I done was a direct result of social media. I didn't have to outreach anymore. I didn't have to chase business anymore. I could choose the clients that I work with because they choose me. I was inundated with opportunity around me. It allowed me to travel the world and work from wherever I wanted. Business became a lot more effortless. It felt like I became a, a self-sufficient business unit within a brokerage, and I was operating my own business. And because of all of them millions of impressions, because of all of them hours of making content, In turn, it then led me on to making over £500,000 per year in tax-free income. But it wasn't always that easy. So for those of you who don't know, in Dubai real estate, how it works, you sell a property. So let's take the reference for my first ever deal that I sold was 2.7 million dirhams. And when it's a ready property, or what we call secondary market, so it's already been purchased from the developer and now they are reselling it onto somebody else, you would normally take a 2% buyer fee. And then you would get around 1 to 2% from the seller. So on this in particular sale, I managed to get about 1.5% from the seller, and I managed to get the full 2% from the buyer, which is standard. Sometimes the sellers can either pay 1%, 1.5%, 2%. It really just depends on the negotiation of that deal. So because I was the buyer's agent and the seller's agent, I managed to take the full 3.5% myself. So it was a 2.7 million dirham deal. I made 3.5% in commission, which was 94,000 dirhams. And because I was a junior broker and it was my first ever sale, I was on a 50/50 commission. Now, in Dubai real estate, some brokerages will allow you to progress up to 70% commission, but again, that is subject to your seniority and how long you've been in the market and how much you built. Divide that by 2 because I was on a 50/50, I banked 47,000 dirhams, which today the conversion is £9,500, approximately £10,000 at the time. Took that first sale for the penny to drop for me to be like, aha, okay, this is what it's all about. This makes sense now. And it gave me the motivation to go bigger and harder. I never ever wanted to have to rely on others. The hardest thing that I faced over them 4 months was trying to be a man. Didn't really want to let anybody know that I was struggling. I left my girlfriend in the UK and I was out here on my own. Every time she called, she said, 'Aidan, are you sure it's the right decision?' I just knew deep down that I'm not going to give up. So for anybody watching this who's neutered by real estate and going through this pain, just hang tight because it will drop and you will make that first sale. And it could just be tomorrow that you pick up the call and that happens. So I'm going to take you back to the first ever gym that I went to in Dubai. I've always been into my health and fitness, and this was the gym that I landed on. One of the main reasons that I moved to Dubai was to surround myself with people who think think differently. So I knew that moving to Dubai, one of the biggest reasons I wanted to move to Dubai was to surround myself with a better environment. If you notice, like, when you train in a gym in the UK versus training in a gym in Dubai, the level of standard, the bar is just raised so much higher, and it makes you feel like almost bad for not being at that standard. So then you raise your own standard and you want to train a certain way to be in that condition. So we're going to go and meet me best mate Ben, who I've seen grow over the last 3 years. We, we moved to Dubai at a similar time. He moved a few weeks after me, and we were both into the gym. We got introduced to each other through a mutual friend in the office. For the first few weeks, I didn't know anyone, right? Like, I had no real connection, but Ben was the first person who I really connected with on a deep level. That day, I just said, look, mate, um, I'm training tonight in the gym, come along, get a day pass, and let's do a session together. Here we are, 3 and a half years later, back at the exact same gym, about to hit a gym session together and reminisce about how the good old days were. As if they weren't good old days at all, actually. They were the worst days. I used to have to spend £5 to get a taxi to the gym and then £5 to get a taxi back from the gym. So every day I came to the gym, it was costing me £10 extra. It used to really annoy me. By the way, I'm used to paying £10 a month in a gym in the UK here, but to come from Liverpool paying £10 a month, I know a few subbing. You're from London, aren't you?

So to be honest, there were some dodgy gyms around £10, £20, but mine was, I think, David It's like 80 quid a month, something like that.

Crazy. Like, for me, £5 was your entry level. That was your basic package. £10, you got like a little more features. I was paying £10 a month anyway. So I got here, £50 a month. And I thought, how am I even going to afford this? I could not comprehend paying £50 a month for a gym. And I was like, I need to be able to train. So I signed up, I paid the £50 a month. 3 years later, I'm going to a gym that's over £200 a month. I train with millionaires and billionaires around me. One thing I do remember about you You used to do all of this to me, like the first day we met. You were proper like, you were proper like, huggy. Really?

Because I hate all of that.

Like you were proper.

All that touchy feeling.

But it made me feel like a deeper connection. It was weird. I felt like I'd known you for a while.

Did feel like when we met we'd known each other for years though, innit?

Yeah, it was weird.

We needed each other. No wonder you were hugging me.

Funny story actually, the first ever week I got here, I actually went to watch a boxing fight. It was called Only Comms, um, and it was basically a competition between all real estate agents in Dubai. One agent from each company, a comical thing between agencies. I'm like, by the way, I used to do boxing in the UK back in Liverpool, so I represented the whole fam where it was like 400, 500 brokers. But I knew this will put me on the map and it'll be one of the first moments where I can genuinely be known. And it was the first time I got introduced to some of the other big CEOs and the other big companies from doing that boxing fight. Did you win the fight? Yeah, just about, just about. I won the fight on points. I didn't knock him out. Wanted to. It was a fucking hard fight. Could have done. Remember my boxing face?

So good. I came here once with you at the start and I was in debt, mate. I didn't have enough money to pay for gym memberships. I could only do a free trial. And then like you came back here, I could only train in my JVC shitty gym.

Did you even know, Dai, that you were training at Home?

Ochia Residence, I think it's called. And, uh, yeah, I was in that studio there and I could only train in the gym there. Mate, I was frugal. I couldn't spend money really.

But I remember having to constantly remind you that you have to reward yourself.

And Aidan's right, like, he helped instill in my mind the fact that you have to live abundantly to gain abundance in life, especially with money. Not a lot of people have that opportunity to then live so freely, but you need to obviously first of make money. You need to give yourself that lifeline and that breathing room. That's the most important thing now, for sure. Getting people on the same pathways as us that's taken us 3 years to implement this into our lives. Help other people. It's not just about our own personal performances now. Sorry, bro. Let's hit this one.

First ever apartment in Dubai. Bought the apartment blocks just for some reason. Very, very low quality. And 4 years ago now, when I decided to move to this community, it was an Airbnb. I chose this area just out of the blue, never been to Dubai in my life, and I just fell on this area. I was like, this looks all right, let me book this. I got a really good rate. I ended up paying £1,200 a month, which is crazy to think. I got £1,200 bills included and everything. I did about 2 and a half years in that same apartment. I couldn't afford to live in the apartment I live in now. And even when you start to earn a bit of money, that money can easily go on, on other things. I literally went from paying £1,200 a month to spending 4 times that. The reason we're going back is because I had my vitamins delivered to the door. Got a message the other day come through from the delivery driver. So Here I am, 6 months later. I only moved out 6 months ago. I've got to go and pick the parcel up, so I thought I'd show you guys around my old place. I didn't have a car. I was getting taxis everywhere in Dubai. Every single day I'd look at that car space, and do you know what car I envisioned I had in that space? I'm going to guess a wagon, mate. No, no. Porsche? No, a Mustang. That was my, like, that was my expectation of, like, I've made I've done something well. Every day, and I used to walk through the car park on purpose before I would leave and get in the taxi. I used to envision coming into the car park and getting into my Mustang, and then a few months later I was getting into a Porsche. Here we are. This is it. Mission unsuccessful. So anyway, Ben's bought me this spray. I've got it here, and we called it the deal spray. We were only allowed to spray this when we closed the deal. You weren't allowed to wear it any other time. Whenever we were around each other and you smelt it, you go, "Aye, you done a deal, you done a deal." It was like, it was dead funny. And you know, sometimes Sophie would go to me, "Aidan, like, that's a really nice smell. Why don't you wear that more often?" I'm like, "Sorry, love, I can't. I'm not allowed to. I best get back closing." Now in the future, when I'm maybe no longer brokering and I still want that spray, and I need to get into that state of mind of being on a mental high, feeling the way I felt as soon as I've closed a deal, I will utilize that spray to my advantage to get into that mental state. And now what I'm most excited to share with you guys is the next chapter in my career. Next venture for me is launching my own real estate brokerage here in the UAE alongside some amazing partners. Obviously, you met Ben earlier in the gym, who have obviously seen crazy growth over the last 3 years in his career. Super excited to launch a business with him. And my second partner, Tyler, who's actually here in the office with us today. So super gassed for this next venture and also for me to just be able to send the elevator back down to those brokers who don't have to go through the mistakes I went through. They don't have to learn the lessons I went through. It makes it all worth it when you think back to them first year, that first year, that first 2 years of graft, the uncertainty, the self-doubt, you know, them times where I had to call my dad and lend money from him just to keep my head above water. Now here I am today, stood in this beautiful 2,000 square foot office with my two business partners, what's going to be Dubai's number one real estate brokerage. Let me give you a little tour of the office. So over here we're going to have a meeting room for around 6 desks, and I have about 6 chairs around a table. Meeting room here, a lounge area where guests can wait or where, where brokers' clients can wait, but it's also going going to be a content opportunity because we're a media-first brokerage, of course. So we're going to have a podcast set up with, uh, with mics and cameras as well, which would be pretty cool with a backdrop of all of the sales floor here. We're just going to have banks of desks, banks of desks, banks of desks, so on and so forth. We were going to have a director's office here for maybe just one or two of us at any time to have them private one-to-one meetings, but we decided to scrap that. We want to be amongst brokers we want and make them feel like we're here for their support. Wrap around, stood up desk here. So we're going to have a proper desk this side, no chairs around the window all the way down here. So just be a stood up desk, beautiful view. You can look outside there. Same goes for here. We're going to have stood up desk where you can just log out and hit the phones because I think it's super important in a sales environment to be stood up to be able to walk around the office because when you sat down, you slouched over and, you know, you've had a bit of a long day, you pick up the phone, you call, and your energy is just not going to be there. Probably if I had it my way, we'd have some like mini treadmills underneath as well. People can walk over here. We're going to have small podium with a TV projector on the, on the back so we can do our training because we are also a coaching-led business where we provide world-class training and support here at Amara. So we're going to have a big training facility here where we can see all of the brokers. We can do our morning meetings, we can increase the energy. Then we bought a small booth which is going to go here in the corner. That's going to be for private Zoom meetings. And then these are where the bathroom is going to be. What this office is going to become, what our plans are, how we're going to change people's lives off the street and make them millionaires. Can't wait to share more with you guys what Amara is, what we're all about, and how we're going to transform lives in this exact office. So subscribe for the next video where I share more about Amara.