An Entrepreneur... The ultimate success

by Bassel Ojjeh

Land should never be flipped without making some improvements to it. This should not be the law. It should be the norm.

One of the more dangerous signs seen today in the Middle East is the increased activity of people flipping real-estate in various Middle Eastern countries including Jordan, Syria and the UAE. The commercial activity is centered solely on making incremental profits in a very short time-frame. Investors tend to be arab expatriates or wealthy locals with enough cash flow.

This phenomenon is not new in the Middle East or the rest of the world but what is strange about it is that the real-estate that is being traded is neither developed nor scarce. I wonder if investors realize the negative long range impact they create on local economies.

Flippers, especially those living abroad, have much higher levels of income than locals. They are artificially increasing the prices of real-estate for locals who would want to buy the land and improve on it by either building or farming.

Expatriates should care about how they make their money in their home countries. They should invest in a real-estate development project, a factory, a start-up, a school, etc.

Making money by buying and selling land is boring. It is neither intellectually interesting nor economically stimulating.

So it is not who made a million. It is how.

Being a Flipper is boring ... Fund a startup instead.