‘I've retired in Dubai aged 30 thanks to my property empire'

Telegraph

28-04-2025

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Luigi Newton is busy running his Nottinghamshire property empire from a sun lounger beside a pool with views of the Burj Khalifa.
He is one of a wave of British landlords who have moved out to Dubai and remotely manage their businesses back home.
He can look after his buy-to-let empire with little more than a smartphone and internet connection and jokes that he has effectively 'retired'. He has 30 HMOs – or houses in multiple occupation, which are a profitable though highly regulated style of property investment.
'All the houses are rented out with agents,' says the 30-year-old. 'I lease half the properties to a social housing provider – refugees and that sort of thing – and the rest to working professionals.
'The social housing ones pay the exact same amount every single month, and they deal with all the management and maintenance issues. Then I have a lot of working professional HMOs. They're looked after by agents, who deal with all the headaches. All I have to do with the working professional ones is sign off any maintenance issues.'
It took Newton seven years of refurbishing and refinancing properties to build up his 155-bedroom portfolio, but today he describes it as a largely 'passive' revenue stream. He says it grosses roughly £800,000 per year, although he takes home less than a quarter of that.
Newton details to his followers on social media how he and his builders have turned run-down homes into lucrative HMOs. In one video, for example, he explains that he transformed an £85,000 four-bedroom house into a six-room HMO that earns £2,310 a month in rent.
He has been spending longer periods in Dubai and is in the process of applying for a business licence to pursue new ventures separate from the HMOs. He says the city, which is estimated to be home to around 240,000 British people, according to Expat Insider, offers more opportunities than the UK.
'A lot of my friends who are in property have moved here,' he adds. 'They spend a month out here, then a week back at home.
'Over here, people treat you like a king. The customer service is amazing. You would need to be seriously rich to live as well as this in the UK.' He's now hoping to find a two-bedroom apartment 'with a communal infinity pool'.
'Dubai is set up for convenience'
Newton is far from the only HMO landlord to have been lured to Dubai by its higher quality of life and business-friendly environment. Alfred Dzadey, 32, also found himself packing up and moving there with his family last October. The father-of-one says he has been spending extended periods in the Middle Eastern city since 2022.
Originally from south east London, Dzadey built a 60-room HMO portfolio in Coventry after moving to the Midlands to work at the Jaguar Land Rover plant. 'Coventry is a great city for HMOs because there are lots of students and young professionals,' he says.
Keen to focus on other business ventures, Dzadey has handed over the management of his HMOs to a letting agency. 'They only take a 7pc management fee, and they handle everything for that,' he explains. 'They send in cleaners every two weeks, arrange inspections every three or four months, and let all the rooms when tenants move out.'
Like Newton, Dzadey lives off the passive income from his buy-to-let business. He says his portfolio grosses around £36,000 per month, with his net earnings ranging from 30pc to 40pc of this, depending on tenant turnover.
This equates to an annual income of at least £130,000, which allows his family to enjoy a very comfortable lifestyle in Dubai. 'We have a live-in maid, who helps with cleaning, ironing, grocery shopping; stuff that I basically don't want to do,' he says. 'Dubai is set up in a way to provide convenience. I spend money on convenience and being comfortable over the flashy stuff.'
It is also great for business, he adds. 'Dubai is great for meeting people ... Nobody is really from here, so every conversation is where are you from, what do you do,' he says. 'I want to be around wealth, so that's why I'm here.'
'I'm being driven out of the UK'
Dubai's approach to business played a key role in his decision to relocate. It's a sentiment echoed by Anthony Laville, 36, founder of Birmingham-based Volume Property. The developer, who is primarily involved in larger commercial and residential projects, but also owns some HMOs, says he feels as though he's 'being driven out of the UK' by the Government's 'anti-business' agenda.
The father-of-two has been visiting Dubai for more than a decade, but says he has lived there since the new year. 'I'd much rather the UK remain my home,' he says. 'But I think a lot of business owners are considering their tax positions right now.'
He adds: 'You wouldn't mind paying lots of tax if the quality of life was better in the UK, but every time I go back, Birmingham seems to be getting worse and worse.
'In Dubai, you pay no income tax and only 9pc corporation tax, so there's a major tax incentive to relocating more permanently.'
For now, the Brummie says he's happy just renting and flying home to check on his businesses. 'That's the great thing about Dubai. You can book a flight and be home in Birmingham, or London or wherever the same day. It's a really easy place to be based.'