Euan Craigie struggled with his Dubai lifestyle despite earning a huge salary and building a multimillion-dollar property portfolio back home. Picture: Euan Craigie
A man who built a multimillion-dollar property empire after moving to Dubai to chase a tax-free wage has revealed the dark side of his six-figure salary and Instagram lifestyle abroad.
Euan Craigie was in his mid-20s when he gave up a successful career as a car salesman in the UK in 2016 to attempt the Dubai dream of zero tax in a global beachfront city.
Craigie might hail from the UK but he is not alone in chasing success in Dubai – thousand of people, including Australians, flock to the city every year looking to achieve the same thing.
Atlas Wealth Group estimates about 20,000 Australians living in the UAE across Dubai and Abu Dhabi in a bid to escape skyrocketing house and rental costs back home.
Some Aussies, like 33-year-old Louise Starkey, are loving the financial freedom moving to Dubai has provided.
Louise Starkey now lives in Dubai after leaving Sydney behind due to cost of living pressures.
Ms Starkey told News Corp Australia her lifestyle in Dubai was cheaper, more luxurious and more exciting than her life in Australia while allowing her to save for property back home in the next few years.
On the other side of the fence, though, are people like Craigie.
Despite grinding his way to the top as a real estate agent and pouring his money into a property portfolio back home, 33-year-old Craigie told The Sun his time in Dubai took a big toll.
“Dubai life looks glamorous online, but I was making 100 cold calls a day, finishing at 11pm, then hopping on Zoom calls with Canadian clients at 3am and back at work at 6am. Everyone was fighting for deals, and I barely slept,” he said.
The few hours Craigie wasn’t working were spent in awful rental accommodation he could barely afford after taking a ‘zero salary’ job which meant he didn’t get paid a cent unless he closed deals.
Euan Craigie struggled with his Dubai lifestyle despite earning a huge salary and building a multimillion-dollar property portfolio back home. Picture: Euan Craigie
“I’d left the house of my dreams in the UK to live in what’s called a ‘maids room’ in Dubai,” he told The Sun.
“It was a mattress on the floor, and a tiny standing shower in the corner – that was it. I shared a kitchen and toilet with four other people.
“A single mattress didn’t fit on the floor, so I slept on it with the corners bent in, but the rent was still £800 (AUD $1620) a month.”
Craigie said he hated the hustle culture in Dubai and the gruelling 18-hour work days left him exhausted and lonely.
His first year in Dubai saw the UK native earn AUD $120,000 but, as he built experience and contacts, that yearly wage grew to a huge AUD $400,000.
Euan Craigie struggled with his Dubai lifestyle despite earning a huge salary and building a multimillion-dollar property portfolio back home. Picture: Euan Craigie
Craigie poured that money into property back home and by the time he left Dubai five years later in 2021 he owned a 32-property portfolio making AUD $140,000 in profit each year.
While Craigie found success in the end, he said the Dubai move wasn’t for everyone.
“Dubai is the most competitive place in the world. There were thousands of estate agents fighting over the same crumbs – and it’s even worse now, so many more are out there,” he said.
“I didn’t see any of the big Dubai sights everyone’s posting on social media; it was just work, work, work. I hated the hustle culture, and it was really lonely.
“The Dubai dream looks fantastic when you hear about huge salaries, but many of my friends who are still there now would give it up in a heartbeat because it’s so stressful.
“Every month you start on zero again – thousands of British property agents are now out there fighting for scraps. They’re making enough to survive but not much else.”
Craigie now lives back in the UK with his wife and two children.
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