Trump threatens 100% Canada tariffs

This is a Dubai Eye 103.8 podcast. Hey, you're listening to The Bites Eye's Business Brank First. Everything that we've been up to on a Monday, January the 26th. I say we, one of us, has been here in spirit only. Because Tom Erkert is down in Australia, Melbourne at the moment, Sydney very shortly, with the guys at Emirates, having a very nice time indeed at the Australian Open, as we have heard during his discussion with Dean Cleaver, the Emirates Regional Sales Manager, for Australia, talking about their sponsorship of that event. Tom's gonna be coming back with, well, a tenant, an accent, a pair of uggs at this rate. We've been talking also to Dr. Manfred Burrell, speaking of accents, the beautifully spoken CEO for Portia Middle East and Africa. They were sharing their 2025 numbers for this region with us, and they did that first, which we like. We're speaking of trade and selling things across borders, and indeed tariffs, as we did with Dr. Manfred, we've been looking at that tariff threat on Canada, from the US, the threat that we could see 100% tariffs, if Canada signs a trade deal with China, Swarup Gupta, from the Economist Intelligence Unit, or EAU, has been the person talking us through that this morning, and we've been looking at a brand new property launch, sober reality, looking to create 20,000 new homes in sober century, eventually Francis Alfred, as the managing director. (upbeat music) - Let's look at one of the headlines that we've been covering for you this morning, and that is the suggestion that the US could be placing 100% tariffs on Canada. If it deepens its trade ties with China, Canada has said that it has no intention of pursuing a trade deal with China, however. There has been a little bit of back and forth on this, so we are looking at what it means for the future of Maple Syrup, I'm very pleased to be joined, by Swarup Gupta, the Global Lead Analyst of Financial Services at the Economist Intelligence Unit, or EAU. Swarup, good morning, thanks for speaking to us. - Good morning. - So, let's look at the latest tariff threat that we've got here at 100% imports into the US of Canadian goods, if Canada strikes a trade deal with China. This follows a strategic partnership that the Prime Minister had announced with reduced tariffs on both sides between the two countries. - How seriously do we take this? - It's very difficult to say how seriously we take this. There has been that, you just mentioned crypto in gold prices today, but the trade of the year 2025 has been tacky as it's been called. Trump always chickens out. It's difficult to say whether this is another threat like his Greenland threat, or this is something that he actually means to follow on with. I think the major issue is that he realizes, and the rest of the world has already realized that what Mr. Trump's actions have done is to get most nations to diversify away from the US and build free trade agreements between each other rather than strengthen trade ties with the US, which is quite impossible at this point in time. So I think these are all retaliatory noises at this point. Even if such a tariff does take place, it could be very short term before there are concessions from the Canadian side. Mr. Kanye, of course, has made strong statements that there was against Mr. Trump and asked middle-income countries and middle powers to come together to form their own trade relationships. There is no concrete plan to that effect, unfortunately, and some quarters have critiqued Mr. Kanye's speech. So it means to be seen whether that actually happens, but even without Mr. Kanye's comments, you can see various FTAs forming around the world. There are many of them lined up over the next few months. So that's more likely to be the effect of many of these warnings and statements. OK, a couple of quick questions. How much does this 100% Canadian tariff threat have to do with that speech that you mentioned, with the Canadian Prime Minister spoke about the rupture of the US-led world order and, as you say, called for those middle powers to bend together? Well, I think a lot of it is reactionary. In many cases, for example, his reaction to certain Swedish countries upon being denied the Nobel Prize and so on and so forth, Mr. Trump takes everything personally. He has a quick-sotic take on many of these statements. And yes, Mr. Kanye's speech was perhaps irretime if there is good timing with Mr. Trump. And a lot of these pronouncements, especially the 100% pronouncement could be a direct fall out of Mr. Kanye's speech. It's not that Mr. Trump always reacts to speeches. He also reacts when private parles do not yield the kind of results that he wants. So I guess it's a bit of both in this case. There have been, as you've said, negotiations to lower tariffs on both sides. But Mr. Kanye's speech on a global stage with most of the free world present hasn't gone down well with the current administration in Washington. Well, you mentioned the taco trade. And of course, we have had the coming off of those threats against the eight NATO nations over Greenland. Could we get to the point where these tariff threats stop worrying other nations and stop worrying markets? I mean, is there a worry that we could see? It becoming sort of a boy who cries tariff scenario. Well, there are two sides to this. First of all, geopolitical volatility and geopolitical tensions are the signature risk. And the uncertainty out of those issues are the signature risk of 2026. Let's not deny that. It's a far more uncertain world. And Mr. Trump has contributed hugely towards creating that uncertain world. That's one. In terms of tariff threats, well, everyone wants a strong trade relationship with the US. The US consumer is by far the biggest consumer of any consumer goods or retail goods across the world, whether it's white goods or electronics or anything of that kind. So everyone wants a relationship with the US, a strong trade relationship. But in the event that that doesn't happen because of the kind of statements and the kind of administration that we have, they'll just look to diversify trade away. And many countries have found success in at least diversifying the existing trade basket with US away to other countries, China is a good example. Of course, that doesn't mean that you don't want a relationship with the US, but it's unlikely to happen over the rest of Mr. Trump's current term, unless we see a complete world phase from him, which looks unlikely at this point. In terms of whether they see a kind of cry tariff situation and decide we're going to ignore it, that doesn't seem to be the case, at least, for the first half of the year. But as more and more of these FTAs come into place, yes, towards the second half of this year and maybe towards early 2027, we'll see that. The other thing to look forward to, of course, is the Republican parties show at the hustings when midterm elections come in. If Mr. Trump performs poorly and is quite likely with cost of living issues mounting in the US, he could, though he has managed to create many international distractions. Then, of course, many of these threats could be tamped down and one could see a more conciliatory Trump if there is something like that. I've only got one minute left with you. So very quickly, the UAE is currently negotiating a seaport with Canada. Could the tariff issues and the tariff tips that we're seeing at the moment mean more trades for countries, such as Canada with the UAE? Absolutely. I think that's the outcome. I've already mentioned that in a short introduction today. And countries will diversify the trade basket of goods with the US to other countries. The Canada, US, CPAP, could see more expansion of trade between those countries. There are various other nations which are also negotiating free trade agreements, including the EU, India, and many other major countries which have either large consumer base or export base. So yes, diversification away from the US and more collaboration between middle countries and middle powers in terms of trade is definitely on the cards. So I've got global lead analyst of financial services. At the EIU, we appreciate your time this morning. This is the Bite Size Business Breakfast, exclusively on DubaiI1038.com. We like people who come and tell us stuff first. And as it is for years, earning season in the studio to reveal their numbers and the business breakfast are the people from Portia. We are joined by the Portia Middle East in Africa, CEO, Dr. Manfred Burrino. It is lovely to see you. Good morning. Good morning, Brandy. Thanks for having me. And do you want to tell me how 2025 was for you? Well, 2025, of course, we are in turbulent times right now. And we are super happy to announce here that it was another record year for Portia Middle East in Africa. We actually ended there with 9,628 units. And this is the best sales result in the last 12 years. But the sales results are not only the only thing. I think it's always important that actually have happy customers, good products, and good mix of your products. OK, I want to dig into those numbers. I have questions. Those numbers you've given us for the record year, what countries does that spend? Well, I mean, the biggest country you're having in the region is the UAE. And then followed by countries like Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and also Kuwait. So it really depends also the mix of cars depends, so how many 9, 11 are selling in one of the other countries, this is very, very different. OK, but that overall number you've just given us is for the region. Correct, yeah. What percentage uptake is that? Well, I mean, the Middle East accounts in our complete region for around 60%. So we're covering 15 countries. So the entire Middle East, all Africa and India, and the Middle East actually accounts for roughly 60%. OK, and what were you percentage rise up on 2025? The overall percentage was up by 1.3%. So turbulent times, we were happy to do that. But I think more important is also what you're selling. For example, it was an absolute record year for the Porsche 9/11, our icon. The increase here was here over here by 18%. And right now it's pretty much every fourth car we're selling is a Porsche 9/11. What sales uptick did you see in the UAE alone? I'm the UAE actually was also increasing more than the whole region. So that is around 3%. And I'm really really happy actually that this is happening really in turbulent times, because as you know, a lot of things happened last year. Also, of course, it depends on the model life cycles. We are launching this year, a lot of new models. So this I think will also give us a boost. So this year is really up for the new Porsche Cayenne. There's new Porsche Cayenne electric also coming. So we can offer everything, electric, hybrid, and combustion. And as the Cayenne is our biggest seller, I really think that this will be also a good year for Porsche. Great, I want to get into those numbers and those new models as well. If we're talking 1% growth for the region and 3% growth for the UAE, I realize that buying a Porsche isn't like going and buying a box of cornflakes of the shop shelf. But that's still fairly flat. How does it track with what you're seeing globally? Well, I mean, globally, a Porsche was down by 10%. And this is due to the fact that China is down and also because of all the discussions with the tariffs in the US, it's down. Another third reason is that the Makan combustion is not being offered right now in Europe anymore. So they will be success accomplished which we announced. So these are the reasons I'm for the global actually results. Well, we are actually increasing right now. But again, I think it's about profitability as well. And you can imagine if you're selling, of course, 80% in the region, 80% more 9/11, this is actually a good thing. Not only for the brand because it's an icon, but also, of course, for Porsche's profitability. You've said turbulent times, about four times already on this in this interview. I mean, take a pic for your turbulence at the moment, right, whether it is what we are seeing with uncertainty, with geopolitics, with tariffs, with Chinese competition, with globally the pickup of EVs in different areas, not necessarily doing what car makers hope they would. Which particular turbulence is affecting you the most? Well, I mean, this is a mixed back, of course. But I want to pick out maybe one thing. We just learned actually about the trade deal with Canada. And there is actually, I think, tomorrow at the India EU summit, there is also a trade deal will be announced with India. So between India and Europe. So currently, for example, we, Porsche, we do not produce in India. So we import actually all of our cars to India. I haven't even compared a tariff of 110%. It's being announced that this could come down to 40%. Now, such an announcement, of course, that triggers customer behavior. So customers actually might sit and wait. That's the reason, actually, why in India, our sales were slowing down, simply to the fact that people are maybe expecting different prices. How much competition are you seeing from the Chinese manufacturers? A lot, of course, are being picked up because of their lower price point. But there are some luxury cars, particularly in the EVs place that have come in as well. What does that mean for you? Well, talking for the Middle East, there are not really a lot of customers who are deciding between their currently Chinese brand and Porsche, they're clearly in a luxury segment. However, I think they are strong products coming up right now for a very, very different price point. But the Chinese competitors right now are not really affected much. And your business in China, as you said, those sales down 26% for 2025. Does that put more pressure on you here in the region to deliver? Not really, because, you know, if you're a luxury manufacturer, you see that demand in one country slows down for many reasons. You will adjust actually your production accordingly. So you will never actually push a product into a market. And we actually see exactly here to headquarters what we want, what we sell, what we want to sell. And that's actually also what you get. We're seeing a number of European and US car brands of sort of holding their EV strategies, sometimes even reversing their EV strategy. It's notable that you just mentioned two big name EVs in one hybrid that you're going to be bringing in this year, tell me why you're going in that direction. Correct. I think it's very important to say that, you know, our perspective on electric vehicles also has changed quite a bit. Some years ago, I think the whole world thought, this is going all into the electric field more or less. And now we see that actually you have to give customers a choice. Look, we are covering 15 countries. And in these countries, you have in one country subsidies and others not, so the demand for electric vehicles is very, very different. It's important that you can provide, that you can offer customers all technologies, combustion, hybrid, and also electric. Our average share of electric last year in our region was roughly 10% also due to the fact that we introduced, actually last year here in Dubai, at the icons of Porsche, the new Porsche Macan electric. And this now contributed heavily now to 10%, which I think is increasing with the Cayenne electric. And that was your global launch. Correct. Yeah, absolutely. I'm very proud of that. Which says something about the way this region is viewed. I've got only just one and a half minutes left with you. We've seen a big growth in the high net worth population here in the UAE. Are you seeing a change in who's buying from you? Demographic, nationality, age? Yeah, so again, I mean, a loaded question. Because the age, actually, tip is also very much from the region. I'm always saying like in here in the UAE, our average age is like 45, and China is 35, and Europe is 55. The female share, for example, also tip is very much country by country. I don't really want to go too much into this. What Porsche's there for car lovers? Porsche is there for people who really like the drive, who enjoy cars made in Germany. And I think that's the main thing. And this was also shown at the icons of Porsche last year. I announced it actually also here. We could welcome 30,000 people in just two days. And it's about community. With Porsche, it's not what you buy. It's really what you buy into. And what you do with it, because I understand that we're leaving in terms of-- - And you can do it with it. - Customization. - Customization, exclusive manufacturers, we call it. And this is another record year for us. Actually, we had never ever so many cars which got to specify by our customers, who got special colors, who got, we call it paint to sample. You can pick a color from the last 30, 40 years. So this is actually also a field which grows a lot. - I don't demand for a Bruno is the CEO for Porsche Middle East. And Africa, joining us here in the Business Pract for Studio, we appreciate your time. - Thank you very much, Brandy. - Catch up on the business headlines with the bite-size business breakfast. - And I've just been chatting to Tom Erk at this morning, but not in the studio, because he is over in Melbourne in the first stop of his Australian Odyssey. He's ended up at the Australian Open, which Emirates are, of course, a long-time partner of and somehow claiming home signals. He is blacked his way into the Emirates marquee where guests have been treated to an authentic to buy brunch, experience. He caught up with stroke, track down, stroke stalked one of Emirates's senior executives in Australia, Dean Cleaver, and began chatting to him about just how important the Aussie Open is for our airline. - It's part of our philosophy of connecting our customers with what they love. And, of course, tennis is one of those sports. It goes across all demographics, all ages, whether you're a kid with a record of three and when you're three, you're still playing at 73. So it goes across all age groups, all demographics, and people love it globally. Hence why we are now the sponsor of all four grand slams. But yes, the Australian is the big one. These days was far as attendance. And as you should say, tagged as the happy, peppy slam. So, yeah, we love it. And, you know, we love sponsoring sports. - Yeah. And that, I mean, I've just seen the examples of that here in Australia and just the last couple of days. Collingwood were here yesterday. Obviously a long-term relationship with them. Emerald's team New Zealand resigning for the America's Cup, coming up as well. I mean, it's so important has been for Emerald and everything that Emerald stands for, sports sponsorships. - Oh, absolutely. I mean, not only good. It is globally a part of our marketing mix, if you like. But just in this part of the world, we've invested over $130 million over the journey. We've been here flying here this year, 2026, 30 years. You mentioned Collingwood. We've been with them 27 years. So it's hell-longest sponsorship down under. But you're right. We've got not only tennis. And of course, you bought the APT tournaments before the AO. But yes, team New Zealand, we just re-announced. We've got Sydney Symphony Orchestra, PGA and Brisbane. So there's a real mix in different locations, a little bit, something for everybody. - Something for everybody as there. We've got a bit of music going on here, just to add to the vibe as well as for this all-in-back. Obviously, Emerald's is a global airline and it services destinations for the world over. And yet, and I'm not just saying it 'cause I'm certain front of you and here in Melbourne. There always seems to have been that special link between Emirates and Australia. Can you sort of quantify just the importance of the Australian or the Australasian market to Emeralds? - Yeah, it is a bit more about Australasia. It is always been an important market. We started here in Melbourne back in 1996. And it's grown exponentially. It's to buy our home, first of all, is a great connector. So with so many, it's a multicultural society, Australia and New Zealand. So we're a great connector through our home to buy. The Europe, for example, is over 40, it's a city-sporty destinations. So it does bring people together at both ends of the world and both directions. Up through our hub and to buy. So Australia's always been important. They fly everywhere, they fly in all classes. It's a really good market. They've always been very good to us. And we like to think that we've been very good to them as well. I mean, anybody that's been on an Emeralds flight recently will know that business is booming at present. The demand is high, we know that loads are high as well. - Again, and I know that these are decisions probably take a much higher above our pay grade. But in terms of scope for more flights into Australasia for Emeralds, is that something that you'd be? - It's something we continually review. At the moment, it's about keeping the product relevant. So for example, we're going through a $5 billion retrofit program. And Australia's been one of the first beneficiaries for that, of course, we're going to fly better philosophy. So all classes have been refreshed with introduced premium economy, of course, to all cities across the network. Oh well, so across this region, the least. And that continues to be rolled out. We've now got it in 70 cities across the 115 network that I've said in network that we've got. So it's about evolving. It's about keeping the product relevant. But reinvesting back into the product I mean, it took about the A380, everybody loves it. And of course, down under with it, introduced the brand new A350 to Adelaide. So it's fresh, it's relevant, and it keeps evolving. - In terms of, I love just sticking with the planes if I can for a moment. I want to move on to community and otherwise shortly, but it's just in terms of the planes. What are clients after the moment? Given that flight prices have gone up accordingly, et cetera, what are your clients looking for and demanding in flight these days? - The best feedback we get is, I mean, yes, we've got four classes. First, this is premium economy now and an economy. It's about value for money. It's about the journey. They want to know that they've got good value for money. We have a philosophy of making sure that we do, certainly look after them, whether it be a premium, a good food that's being served, six and a half thousand channels of entertainment with several languages. It's a fly bit of philosophy. So it's not just the destination, it's the journey. And we're trying to, we want to make sure that we're giving them as much value for their dollar and a really good experience along the way. I mean, Australia, we're at the bottom of the world. The rest of the world is a long way away. Dubai, you know, I first stopped 14 hours away. So I'm going to make it as comfortable as possible. - Let's talk about our entertainment. - Can we talk about that stop as well? Because there has been a suggestion in the past that a lot of people aren't doing sort of lengthy stopovers in Dubai, you know, they're doing the couple of hours, et cetera, maybe turn around, et cetera. Is that changing? Are you seeing more people sort of factoring a Dubai stopover? - Very much so. And actually, we're promoting that very strongly here at the AO and across Australia at the moment. Australians still see, you know, hypercentage, still see Dubai as a stopover. But as time moves on, they're actually now starting to look at it as a destination and its own ride. So you've got families going for a week where they never used to. The length of stay, even though majority is still doing the stopover, the length of stay is extending. It is lengthening. I think Dubai is involved as a city. It's great for food, it's great for families. A great, you know, there's a lot of experiment, you know, you can do anything, you know, but walking to it, et cetera. It's not just about Dubai more, it's not just about the beach. So this Dubai itself has got so much to offer. So we, you know, it's our home. It's a premier stopover destination on route to Dubai. And Australians have always enjoyed it. They still, but they're staying longer and going for just Dubai as a destination now. - Interesting one last month for us as well. We had this extended school break four weeks after in December, which was unprecedented. And one of the trends that was noted was longer vacations or people going longer haul for a vacation over December. And Australia came out on top of one of those lists for Emirates. - Yep. - In terms of to buy citizens, UAE citizens, GCC citizens coming to Australia at the moment. You seeing a big trend there or? - We're seeing a different seeing an increase. And I mean, I think Australia offers everything. If they want to go out, the mountains go hiking, the beach, it's all there, obviously. And that's some of the things that people think of first. But we've also got, you know, great cities like Melbourne and Sydney where it's art, culture, sport. I come over and see the tennis. So there is a lot of cultural experiences as well. It's not just, you know, what you see on TV with a surf, go out surfing. There's a lot more depth to Australia. And I think the Australia offers it so much variety for anybody who lives in the GCC or, you know, the Dubai region. - But okay, not wanted to put one city over every other in Australia. It was a country that offers so much. But we are in Melbourne at the moment. So why should UAE resident citizens come to Melbourne in 2026? - Aid offers everything. We are a small state in Victoria. You know, it kept Melbourne being the capital. Culturally, it is, and it recognizes the art capital of Australia. We are the sporting capital of Australia, not just the Australian Open. You mentioned Collinwood earlier, which of course, if you have never been to the famous MCG, we've got the, you know, we've responded to the ICC, the cricket. That's on during the summer. We've got something across the whole year. You know, as I said, culturally, if you want to go into country of Victoria, as far country, down the Great Ocean Row, kayaking mountain or you're in. Some of the best surfs, beaches are also in Victoria. So Melbourne and Victoria have got so much to offer, anyone from overseas. But particularly, do you know the GCC region? It's, and also I might it. They have malls as big as Dubai, but we've got some great shopping. I've been shopping both up in the air and when you get here as well. Finally, let's talk community if we can, because we talked about business, we talked about the sort of cultural side. One thing that Emirates does so well is integration with communities, wherever it flies to as well. Love, really noticed that here with a number of initiatives and programs that you must be very proud of. You have very much hope. We have to have philosophy about giving back. I mean, we're flying here for 30 years. So the latest one is definitely through the Australian tennis foundation. We're our four school good debts, that it's an Emirates foundation. We are working with Australian tennis foundation to give back to the community. For, in this case, it's about disadvantaged children or communities that can't provide access to tennis. So in the last year, it's a, well, we've signed up with Australian tennis foundation, as I said, over a five-year period, 2.25 million investment. And we're introducing tennis to kids that may never have got the opportunity to be introduced to this board. It's not only about physical wellbeing, its social connections, it's about their mental wellbeing, setting them up for the future to be better adults. And so far, we've had over 2,000 kids on a tennis court in the last 12 months, we've given like over 700 tennis records, balls, nets, et cetera, to the kids and all communities. And it's calm down extremely well. We even bought 25 of them in, because we bought it, it's got across all the five gap which we fly into Australia. And we bought 25 into the Australian Open last week to give them a true AO experience. So they got to see some legends of the game, but the whole thing is about giving back, making them better people and giving back to the community that where we fly. So yeah, it's going extremely well. I'm absolutely loving the happy vibe down here in Melbourne. Can't thank you and the Emeralds team enough for making it happen and giving us a little insight and do that end as well. I mean, what's your final message to those Sleepy-eyed to buy a residence or waking up this morning, listening to us, the Yarra River behind us and all those going on down here? What's your message to them for 2026? - Well, get online and stop here and book a ticket to Melbourne or at least Australia, you know, what she'll underwook, we've got all the class options you want, but it's plenty down here to see it. And then of course coming in the summer, coming in the Australian Open next year, we'll be here, the perfect time to come in the middle of summer. - And that is Dan Cleaver, Australian executive for Emeralds speaking to Tom Erker. - Just the highlights. This is the Bite Size Business Breakfast. - And we like people who come and talk to us first here on the Business Breakfast. - We're going to show a reality about to launch a new 20,000 family master planned community. We are joined by the show of energy and director Francis Alfred. Good morning, Francis, it's nice to speak to you. - Good morning, Brandi. - Anyone who is living in the area where you are going to be creating this master planned community will have been looking and wondering what is set to go on, but tell me what you are going to build and where you're going to build it. - Fantastic. - Brandi, this is the 50th year of Mr. Menon's legacy. Mr. Menon started his business in 1976 and we are celebrating over 50 years of legacy. And we wanted to do something very special at the beginning of the year. And that's how we launched this 38 million square foot of master plan. It's all in one master plan. We got a huge nature-filled team here. It's, that's why we call it sanctuary. We have planning to put more than 50,000 trees and 9 kilometers of wellness loop, 20 kilometers of cycling loop, a billion square foot of sports, plenty of, plenty loaded of amenities, whatever people would need to live in a city by itself. And you know, 20,000 units. That's the number of units we are expecting to put in this master plan. It's gonna be the best master plan, the best development of Shobar reality. We have been known for great quality product. You know, Shobar has delivered lots of great units to our customers and our customers expect a lot from us. And we have been very responsible about that and given our best shot at this master plan. And it's coming at the right time for us the 50th year of our founder chairman's business. - It's coming at the right time for you, but what does it mean for the market? 20,000 more units at a time when people are talking about the market. They're maturing, they're talking about price growth starting to become a little bit more subdued, stabilizing, moderating, a lot of words being used out there. But basically suggesting that we are starting to come off the peaks. Can we absorb another 20,000 houses? - First point, this is not a master plan which is gonna be sold and delivered over a year. This is a development over the next five to eight years time. And this is gonna be a gradual absorption of units in the market. We believe that it's a long term. Dubai is always a long term story. Dubai has consistently grown in population over the last few decades. I don't think anybody in Dubai is ever doubting whether the population growth is gonna sustain. And as we all know, the property market has been in rise for the last few years. But the real units which deliver to the market has not been the same numbers. On an average, get 40 to 50,000 units into the market. And this is the real paradigm. So you cannot have even enough housing for all the people coming in as the population is growing. So there is gonna be always a demand supply gap. - Okay, talk to me about the price point that we are coming in at here. Who are you aiming at and how these markets, how these units gonna be priced? - So we believe that it's very important for us to remain conscious about the market absorption and the market velocity. We monitor these numbers very frequently on a daily basis, what's the kind of enquiries and the absorption. And we know that there is always a demand for a high quality product at the rice price point. And that's why we came with some beautiful products in this master plan. The one we launched yesterday is we call it garden homes, the garden villas, these come with astonishing numbers. In the history of Shobha, we have in product like this. It's a 3.99 million homes, independent single homes. And I think this is a great price point from the home of Shobha. You know, Shobha produces great quality product. You know, I wanna bring in a simple statistics on this. We measure the number of defects per unit what we hand over and the number of defects in Shobha home post hand over is 0.12 per unit. What does that mean? Every 10 homes you find one defect. This is higher than even the luxury car market standards. So what we believe is a great price point, a great product from the house of Shobha with the best quality and delivered on time. - Talk to me about the density of your housing out here of the floor area ratio that you have agreed with the Dubai Development Authority. What's it gonna look like? - Yeah, it's a very low density development. The overall density is around 0.7. That means, but 50% of the development is actually open. That's what we do almost every time. We want to make sure that maximum open space is there. Lots of parks, lots of parks and greenery. As I told earlier, there's 50,000 trees being planned here. It's gonna be a very low dense development. We're gonna have some apartment units coming later in later phases, but this phase is about villas and garden homes. - Okay. You mentioned there that this was gonna sort of be a little mini-city town in of itself. You're out there in Dubai land. Do you need to be self-contained in terms of traffic? Do you need people to be able to do everything that they need to do in one place, partly because of the traffic situation and this location at the moment? - Absolutely, you pinned it. It's always a responsibility of developers to make sure that the people don't get to the downtown of Dubai every single time. Of course, they will go to downtown. It's definitely the Dubai style, but we believe that everything could, lots of things could be loaded into the development. We're planning two international schools, one hospital, a community mall and lots of retail and lots of amenities right in the Shobha Sanctuary. So people would need to go, but for minimal things, and that's the right thing from a sustainability point of view. Why do we need people to travel every single time to the heart of the city or to other places in the city? Talking about sustainability, this is gonna be one of the highest sustainable developments of Shobha reality. Have you signed with any international school brands? Where are you at the moment? - Well, as we progress into the development, like you know, Hotline 1 has got two great school brands, Notland and Collegate School, and we have Hotline International Schools. So coming to Shobha developments are gonna be great brands. - Are they British brands or are they from elsewhere? - In all probability, these are gonna be international brands to be at the moment. I won't be able to specifically say it's British or not. But most probably, it's gonna be some of the best international brands. - Talk to me about the roadlings in and out of the development because this is something that we are seeing developers focus more and more on and making sure that they market more and more. What kind of discussions are you in with the RTA and what are you doing to make sure that it's gonna be smooth and easy for people? - As you know, this is right off Alain Road, and the Alain Road is already expanded and one of the least traffic roads in Dubai as we speak. And inside the development, all the roads are gonna be developed by Shobha and we're gonna hand over it to RTA back. There are gonna be more highways coming alongside this development. I would not be able to talk about it today, but it's gonna be coming into the news very soon. So it's gonna be well connected to almost every part of the city with the current road network itself to almost all destinations in Dubai. It's around 25 minutes travel distance. Francis Alfred is the manager and director of Shobha Realty. They've just launched the first couple of phases in a new 20,000 family master planned community and that is the Shobha Century. Speaking to us this morning out in Dubai land, speaking to us this morning about what they're building there and the timing of what they are building. - You've been listening to a Dubai Eye 103.8 podcast to enjoy lots more from Dubai Eye in the United Arab Emirates. Just go to Dubai Eye 103.8.com or find them wherever you normally get your podcasts.