The UAE Advantage: Kevin O'Leary's Perspective
You're reading Entrepreneur Middle East, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Kevin O'Leary, known as Mr. Wonderful, is a Canadian entrepreneur and international business investor. But now, O'Leary is also the brand ambas sador of UAE-born international real estate company ONE Development. Forming a strategic partnership with Ali Al Gebely, founder and Chairman of ONE Development, O'Leary will support the company's international expansion.
"When I met Ali [Ali Al Gebely] and learnt about his vision for Laguna Residence [an AED 2.4 billion real estate develop ment that is the UAE's first AI-integrated residential community], I thought it was such an extraordinary idea," O'Leary said on the sidelines of an exclusive event orga nized by ONE Development. "I'd never heard anybody combining an AI platform into a real estate develop ment. Usually AI is just a marketing talk. We've talked about smart homes for over 15 years, but they are still pretty dumb. There are five different apps that you have to use when you walk into your apartment or villa, but the idea he's got is to put it all into one integrated app - ONE AI App. In my view, that in itself is the number one selling feature of the whole project."
"What sets ONE Develop ment apart," O'Leary explains, "is its unapologetic focus on technology. This isn't just another real estate developer — it's the first of its kind to fully integrate a tech-first approach into every stage of development. From AI-driven design modeling to data-pow ered decision-making, they're not just building properties — they're building the future of how real estate operates."
Ali Al Gebely, founder and Chairman of ONE Development with Kevin O'Leary in Abu Dhabi. Image source: BNC Publishing/ONE Development
O'Leary will be supporting the remarkable growth trajectory that is ahead of ONE Development which includes expansion to international destinations, but also developing unique initiatives, such as DO Hotels, the world's first musical themed hotel that integrates AI, music, and wellness. DO Hotels launched its first development at Dubai Islands and second one at New Cairo and has plans to launch in Saudi Arabia and other international markets soon.
"I have a very simple rule that my mother taught me. She said no more than 5% in any one stock and no more than 20% of your portfolio diversification in any one sector. So 5% stock, 20% sector, except for one asset class - real estate," O'Leary points out. "That's my largest asset class. I love real estate. It's always about a third of my net worth. Why? It's a hard asset. It has superlative returns, and if you have the right vision in terms of where you want to develop, you can have outsized returns, because great real estate projects, such as ONE Development, attract capital because they get critical mass. That's what happens."
The partnership with ONE Development reconfirms O'Leary's belief in the MENA market's long-term potential. "I have a history in the Middle East because my mother's Lebanese, and I've been coming here for decades, but I didn't really think much about investing here until I started to realize how fast the economy was growing here," O'Leary says. "The key here that most investors don't understand, the one thing they don't get, is that so much growth is not in energy. There's been a lot of sectoral diversifications here in all kinds of different technologies, advances in biotech or in AI development or in real estate. You want to catch the growth of all these new sectors. A lot of people don't realize that, for example, if you look at spending in AI, you've got the US, China, and then UAE. That's what's going on here, and if you're not part of that, you're missing out on huge growth opportunities."
Image source: BNC Publishing/ONE Development
In 2023, O'Leary announced on his LinkedIn page that he had become a citizen of the UAE, a citizenship given by exception to people who are believed to be able to benefit the UAE economy.
"There's a lot of disruption going on in global trade, but that gives you a reason to start looking at the UAE," O'Leary says. "You can't understand it unless you physically come here and spend time here and find out who else is here and what's going on. Because no brochure, no online ad, no website is going to give you an idea of what's going on here- it's multicultural, a melting pot, a fantastic location. And the country is safe. I was like, why don't I incorporate here and start building businesses out of here? Why not think globally from here? Why not set up O'Leary Global and start doing new ideas from here and establish myself here? That's what I have done over the last three years."
He adds, "What was really interesting about the process is that every single accounting firm, consulting firm, and law firm that I use in New York, or Boston, or Toronto is already established here. They're not stupid. They know exactly what's going on. So I can use the same team out of Miami and talk to professionals here that are part of the same group, which we've done. "I'm like everybody else. You start in New York, then you go to London, then you go to Zurich, then you go to Geneva. That's the stepping stones of how you start to develop internationally. Then one day you get here and you walk off the plane and go, 'What is this?' Until you see it, you can't even envision it. I have watched the growth of both Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the last five years. It's almost geometric growth. It's like New York City on steroids, but safe. "For me, I have become an ambassador to this place by saying, look, if you're not in the UAE, you're missing out."
Apart from investing in real estate, O'Leary is bullish on new technologies, including cryptocurrencies.
"I have been extremely involved as an investor in many different crypto projects, and my thesis is that you want to own the infrastructure for crypto. What are those? The exchanges. I feel that I now have shares in every single crypto exchange in the world that's going to be relevant. After that, I have start buying the individual assets," O'Leary explains. "My thesis is that you need to own these assets because as soon as regulation comes in, institutional capital will come in. Right now, it's mostly hedge funds, private individuals, high net worth family offices, but the real money isn't there yet. Yet, the minute this becomes approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulators, the real money will come in. I've said this many times before. I believe that crypto and digital payment systems will become the 12th sector of the economy, because it will service all the other sectors."
Image source: BNC Publishing/ONE Development
'TREP TALK: KEVIN O'LEARY'S ADVICE FOR ENTREPRENEURS
DON'T BE AFRAID TO START "Most entrepreneurs have a hard time making the first step to start. They should do it in their 20s, because that is when you have time and you don't have as many responsibilities, and you can make plenty of mistakes, which is great. I would rather invest in an entrepreneur that has felt the sting of failure a few times than one who thinks they can do it right the first time. They never can. It is so hard."
PREPARE YOUR PITCH "Learn to articulate the opportunity in 90 seconds or less, because no one is going to give any more time than that."
FOCUS ON EXECUTION "More important than a great idea is your ability to execute on it. Because great ideas are a dime a dozen. Executional skills are very hard to find. If you can find a young man or woman who looks and has the confidence to execute, that makes me interested in investing."
KNOW YOUR NUMBERS "You have got to know your numbers. How fast is the market growing? What are the gross margins? How many competitors are there? You got to know that stuff. That is the DNA of a great entrepreneur. Then obviously, you want to be in a market that is growing. It is like all boats rise in a rising tide, and so try and find regions of the world where businesses are being started in a high growth environment like here. There is a reason entrepreneurship is so prevalent here. The regulatory environment is very good. The tax rates are really competitive. The weather is great, and the economy is growing at an extraordinary rate because it is multi sectoral. I predict pretty good things for this place."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Homebuyers' Down Payments Shrink For The First Time In Two Years, Even As Prices Rise
Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. The typical homebuyer's down payment has shrunk by 1% year-over-year according to a new report from Redfin (NASDAQ:RDFN). This is the first annual decline in almost two years. Median down payments now sit at $62,428, or 15% of the total home value. That percentage hasn't meaningfully gone down— a year earlier it was 15.1% — but the dollar amount has. According to the report, the last time dollar-amount down payments decreased was in the summer of 2023. At that time, home sale prices were shrinking, resulting in lower payments. Now, home prices are rising, jumping by 1.4% year-over-year in April. Don't Miss: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — Peter Thiel turned $1,700 into $5 billion—now accredited investors are eyeing this software company with similar breakout potential. Learn how you can So what's keeping down payments from rising right along with home prices? It turns out there are a number of factors at play. For starters, the way people are paying for homes is changing. According to Redfin, nearly one-third of buyers are paying in cash, meaning they aren't putting up a down payment. Those who are buying homes with a mortgage seem to be purchasing cheaper properties, which explains a lower dollar amount down payment. As interest rates linger around 7% and economic uncertainties persist, Redfin found that prospective buyers were more sensitive to cost. Mortgaged homebuyers seem more inclined to keep additional cash in their bank accounts, rather than splurge on more expensive real estate. Trending: Invest early in CancerVax's breakthrough tech aiming to disrupt a $231B market. Additionally, Redfin said that the number of buyers using Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Affairs loans to purchase homes has increased over the last year. Mortgaged sales using an FHA loan went up by 1.1% year-over-year, and those using a VA loan are at the highest level since 2020. These financing options require lower down payments, which helps to push the overall dollar amount spent on down payments. Finally, as the overall housing market cools down and sellers begin to outnumber buyers, Redfin says that many homeowners are more willing to negotiate with buyers. These negotiations can include accepting lower down payments in order to capture a sale. "The buyers who are moving forward today are being very careful with their finances because with housing costs near record highs, they're typically spending a big portion of their paycheck to buy a home. I'm seeing an uptick in first-time buyers looking for starter homes," Redfin agent Fernanda Kriese said in the report. "Combine that with concerns about layoffs and a potential recession, and people are doing things like cross-comparing mortgage origination fees, shopping around for lenders, and looking into down-payment assistance." Read Next: , which provides access to a pool of short-term loans backed by residential real estate with just a $100 minimum. With Point, you can Image: Shutterstock This article Homebuyers' Down Payments Shrink For The First Time In Two Years, Even As Prices Rise originally appeared on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Exclusive-Qatar holds talks with energy companies on risk of Israel-Iran conflict, sources say
By Andrew Mills and Marwa Rashad DOHA/LONDON (Reuters) -Qatar held crisis talks this week with energy majors after Israeli strikes on Iran's huge gas field, which it shares with Qatar, an industry source and a diplomat in the region told Reuters. Saad Al Kaabi, CEO of state-owned QatarEnergy and the Gulf Arab state's energy minister urged companies to warn the U.S., British and European governments about the risks the conflict poses to gas exports from Qatar and the increasing threat to the global gas supply, they said. An interruption to Qatar's liquefied natural gas (LNG) operation could cut off around 20% of the global supply, which Doha exports from the world's largest gas reservoir. "QatarEnergy is making sure that foreign governments are fully aware of the implications and repercussions the situation and further escalation pose to gas production from Qatar,' said the diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. QatarEnergy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kaabi also met this week in Doha with ambassadors representing countries whose companies are involved in QatarEnergy's North Field expansion project, the diplomat said. U.S. majors ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, Britain's Shell, Italy's Eni and France's TotalEnergies all have stakes in the expansion, which is set to boost exports from Qatar by around 82% in the coming years. So far, there have been no disruptions to QatarEnergy's exports and cargo deliveries are on schedule. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Exclusive-Senior Iranian official: European proposals in Geneva unrealistic
By Parisa Hafezi ISTANBUL (Reuters) -A senior Iranian official said on Saturday that proposals put forward by European powers at talks in Geneva about his country's nuclear programme were "unrealistic", suggesting that if they stuck to them it would be difficult to reach an accord. There were few signs of progress on Friday after the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, plus the EU met their Iranian counterpart in a bid to prevent the conflict between Israel and Iran from escalating. "The discussions and proposals made by the Europeans in Geneva were unrealistic. Insisting on these positions will not bring Iran and Europe closer to an agreement," the senior official told Reuters, while speaking on condition of anonymity. "In any case, Iran will review the European proposals in Tehran and present its responses in the next meeting,' the official said. Both sides signalled on Friday their readiness to keep talking, although no new date was set. European diplomats said Friday's talks had been aimed at testing Tehran's willingness to negotiate a new nuclear deal despite there being no obvious prospect of Israel halting its attacks soon. While neither side disclosed details of what was put forward, two European diplomats said the E3 did not believe that Israel would accept a ceasefire in the near term and that it would be difficult for Iran and the U.S. to resume negotiations. They said the idea was to begin a parallel negotiating track, initially without the U.S., on a new deal that would involve tougher inspections, including potentially of Iran's ballistic missile programme, while allowing Tehran some notional uranium enrichment capacity. French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday spoke with his Iranian counterpart and said the two sides had agreed to accelerate negotiations, although he insisted it was up to Iran "to provide every assurance that its intentions are peaceful." Despite some European ministers suggesting on Friday that Iran was more ready to talk about issues beyond the nuclear programme, the senior official dismissed the possibility of negotiating its defensive capabilities, including its missile programme, and repeated that the idea of zero enrichment of uranium was a dead end. "Iran welcomes diplomacy but not under the shadow of war," the official said. (Writing and additional reporting by John Irish. Editing by Mark Potter and Hugh Lawson)
