Author: Sam Allcock

Offices and shops changed the narrative in April. Whilst Dubai’s residential market ground steadily forward, the emirate’s commercial sector exploded—561 transactions worth AED4 billion, up 34% month-on-month and 36% higher than the same period last year. The commercial surge helped push total property sales to 13,977 transactions valued at AED48 billion, according to figures released Sunday by fäm Properties. Overall transaction volume climbed 3.5% compared to March, whilst total value jumped 10.7%. That commercial momentum stands in sharp contrast to the more measured residential growth. Apartment sales rose 6.5% month-on-month to 11,377 deals worth AED24.1 billion. Plot transactions told a…

Forty-eight per cent of women working in finance and accountancy want to become entrepreneurs. That’s the figure emerging from ACCA’s survey of 11,000 professionals across 175 countries—and it marks a three-percentage-point jump from last year’s 45 per cent. The shift matters. Those three points represent thousands of women recalibrating their career endgames, pivoting from climbing corporate ladders to building their own ventures. Younger professionals are driving the trend. Roughly half of Gen Z and Millennial women in the field now express entrepreneurial ambitions, according to early findings from ACCA’s forthcoming Global Talent Trends 2026 report, due for full publication in…

The numbers tell their own story. Nine residences. Two private islands. Rates starting at USD 18,090 per night for a three-bedroom villa, climbing to USD 59,137 for exclusive access to Nowhere, the resort’s ultra-private enclave. .Here Maldives launched in December 2025 with a singular pitch: become one of the world’s smallest private island resorts. Now, ahead of Eid Al Adha, the property in the UNESCO-protected Baa Atoll is courting Gulf travellers willing to pay premium rates for absolute seclusion. The resort spans two distinct islands—Somewhere and Nowhere—each designed around a different interpretation of ultra-luxury. Somewhere houses seven residences, split between…

OMODA & JAECOO crossed one million global sales on 1 May 2026, exactly three years after launching. The Chinese automotive brand now operates 1,364 showrooms across 69 markets—adding one every single day. That pace of expansion, rare even among established manufacturers, formed the backdrop to a 4,000-person summit in Wuhu, China last week. The gathering doubled as both a business conference and something decidedly unusual for a car brand: a multi-day music festival featuring 26 performances from artists spanning 18 countries. The combination signals where OMODA & JAECOO sees its competitive edge. Not in engine specifications or price wars, but…

How one couple’s frustration with Dubai’s roads turned into ScootUp — a company now reshaping the way residents move through their communities. When Jim and Ericka Mansfield relocated to Dubai Marina in 2022, they quickly discovered what thousands of residents already knew: getting around the city on four wheels was an exercise in patience. Traffic, scarce parking, and relentless heat made even short journeys feel like an ordeal. Rather than simply adapt, they started asking a different question — what if there were a smarter way? “We were looking for high-quality scooters and realised the market was fragmented — mostly…

A driver with 15 years behind the wheel pulled into a tight parking spot in Beijing last week. The car beside him did the same—except nobody was inside. The autonomous system won. Faster, smoother, fewer adjustments. OMADA & JAECOO staged the human-versus-machine test during the Chery International Business Summit on 30 April, demonstrating Valet Parking Driver technology that the Chinese carmaker plans to roll out in the UAE within months. The system outperformed the experienced driver across every metric: time efficiency, steering corrections, and parking precision. No hesitation. No three-point shuffles. Just algorithms and sensors executing what took the human…

OGold signed up its millionth user sometime during its first 12 months of operation, processing $50 million in transactions along the way. Now the Dubai-based fintech has secured investment from Plug and Play Ventures, the Silicon Valley firm that backed PayPal, Dropbox and Honey before they became household names. The timing matters. Digital precious metals platforms are multiplying across the Gulf, each promising fractional ownership and mobile-first access. OGold’s traction—confirmed on 27 April—suggests it’s pulling ahead in a crowded field. What sets the platform apart? Entry starts at AED 1, roughly 27 cents. That price point has turned gold from…

Private market investors in the Middle East have historically paid intermediaries to access deal flow, often waiting weeks for introductions that may never materialise. On 28 April 2026, Dubai-based FinBursa launched a mobile app designed to eliminate that friction entirely. The platform connects investors directly with founders raising capital—no brokers, no success fees, no third-party aggregators skimming data. Startups, private companies, and fund managers list opportunities themselves. Investors browse anonymously. It’s the first dedicated private markets discovery app built specifically for the MENA region. FinBursa’s model hinges on what the company calls “direct source integrity.” Company founders, owners, and authorised…

In 2017, Shaher Moh’d Ali Awartani joined H.E. Yousif Al Otaiba and Mubadala Investment Company to co-found Café Milano Abu Dhabi, bringing the well-known Washington, D.C. restaurant brand to the UAE capital’s Four Seasons Hotel. The venture marked Awartani’s first move into the hospitality sector, adding a consumer-facing business to a portfolio built mainly on infrastructure, real estate, and financial services. Café Milano’s Washington original has long been a meeting point for diplomatic and political figures — a character that transfers naturally to Abu Dhabi’s Four Seasons, where the clientele includes government and institutional figures in much the same way.…

Between 1st March and 15th April, 1,813 luxury property transactions worth more than AED5 million closed in Dubai—a 59.7% jump in volume compared to the same period last year. The total value hit AED25.04 billion. That growth came despite ongoing uncertainty across the wider Middle East region, and it wasn’t confined to one narrow slice of the market. According to data from DXBinteract, three separate price brackets—from AED5 million up to AED100 million—all posted double-digit gains in both transaction counts and total value during the six-week window. The sharpest acceleration occurred in the AED5-10 million segment. Sales value more than…