Category: Middle East

Another article on Dubai, the “rising star” of the Middle East. A good article too, I see the hack in question had pints down in the Irish Village in Garhoud. The property markey in Dubai is booming, but I would always be sceptical about buying property in a kingdom with no real property rights, and limited to 90 year leases. Who knows what might happen down the line, it seems other people have similar concerns. Curiosuly there are now some 100,000 Brits living in the Emirates, and some 10,000 South Africans.

“There are no consistent laws to follow,” said Andrew Small, a South African who moved to Dubai a little more than four years ago, over a beer with a business colleague at a faux-Irish pub.

Although he sees himself staying for at least another 10 years, he can’t get himself to purchase property. “I’d rather buy somewhere I have political confidence,” he said.

The piece continues:

Jones Lang LaSalle, a global real estate company, recently named Dubai as one of the top three “rising urban stars” in the world, together with Las Vegas and Shanghai, in an assessment that took into account a variety of factors including population and construction growth.

These kinds of assessments have helped keep overseas interest high, said Saeed Chinoy, managing director of Dubai Shows Ltd., which hosts property fairs to introduce real estate investments to foreigners. “We’re selling the dream,” he said.

Recently, though, the target market of that dream has become increasingly local. Arab investments are withdrawing from the United States and moving to Europe and the Middle East, Chinoy said. American companies, which used to come to market American real estate, have all but disappeared.

Chinoy reported that trade show attendance is growing for now, but he is worried about the way the Saudi Arabian economy collapsed once Westerners no longer felt welcome.

“What if Europeans and Americans were advised not to come to Dubai?” Chinoy asked. “It would be brutal.”