The beautiful madness of the Dubai building boom

And how do they actually get built? This report is enlightening:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/08/middleeast.construction

soubresauts wrote:

And how do they actually get built? This report is enlightening:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/08/middleeast.construction

I had heard about this soubresauts but it is still shocking to read. There is a need for international trades unions to stop the appalling exploitation that is going on.

God, at the rate that Dubai is going, the world's ten tallest buildings will all be there by 2020.

One kilometer tall does seem a bit excessive. I wonder will it topple over!

Where will the credit crunch leave Dubai? I know there is alot of money over there domestically from oil revenues but it is in the hands of the few. I have never been to Dubai but from what I can garnish it is the playground of the Western rich. Who will they sell their golden ferrero roche to now?

johnfás wrote:

One kilometer tall does seem a bit excessive. I wonder will it topple over!

Where will the credit crunch leave Dubai? I know there is alot of money over there domestically from oil revenues but it is in the hands of the few. I have never been to Dubai but from what I can garnish it is the playground of the Western rich. Who will they sell their golden ferrero roche to now?

Sovereign wealth funds would have the firepower and liquidity to underwrite the Dubai building boom if Western capital falters and stops coming over.

But what will be the value of the building boom? Who will stay in the hotels, who will shop in the malls etc?

I'm sure they can afford to keep the thing going but it will be like a deserted Itchy and Scratchy Land.

johnfás wrote:

But what will be the value of the building boom? Who will stay in the hotels, who will shop in the malls etc?

I'm sure they can afford to keep the thing going but it will be like a deserted Itchy and Scratchy Land.

But you can also talk about how the Empire State Building was built in the teeth of the Great Depression. Vacancy rates were so acute in Manhattan at that time that they renamed it the, "Empty State Building". Those days are firmly behind the Empire State and it now stands as a famous monument to New York City.

Even if these Dubai ventures are an initial flop, over the long-term they can still come good.

Mm. The Dubai Stock Exchange like many others lost a quarter of its value last week. With oil prices right down (as ably predicted by Ard-Taoiseach) and a world recession, Dubai is likely to experience the fate of the Empty State Building. The desert climate may help to preserve the empty buildings.

In Ireland, leaving buildings empty is not a good idea. I would be in favour of Government buying up empty buildings at cost price (not including housing estate in remote corners of Leitrim)
and bringing them into use by people who need them. This would be likely to further lower rent prices, and lead to more buy to let mortgage defaults, but lower rents would be a benefit generally.

This would need a shake up of the local authorities as Dublin City Council is reported to be leaving new "affordable" flats empty in spite of thousands of families being on the waiting list.

I wonder how many of the Dubai flats that have been bought are occupied more than a couple of weeks in the year?

Dubai must be one of the most extraordinary property development stories of the economic collapse.

A recent report: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100812017

There's a thread on the Pin which describes unbelievable excesses and speculator mania. Anyone not already familiar with the Dubai situation might find this thread an eye widening introduction to what has been going on there:

http://www.thepropertypin.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=15845

Lot's of good informative posts - well worth reading through if you have the time. It'd be interesting to contrast and compare similarities with the Irish situation.

There was one on p.ie too a few months ago. I posted this there, I'll just quote it here:

Quote :

I was in Dubai a couple of years ago. I
was utterly amazed, and obsessed, with the sheer level of building.
Every second building seemed to be under construction, and the number
of cranes were countless. It was like watching the boom of New York at
the start of the 20th Century.

BUT. I was appalled at the conditions of the workers, nearly all of
whom were from either the Indian sub-continent or the Phillippines.
They worked for next to pittance, worked all the hours God sends, in 40
degree heat, and were treated like indentured slaves (which is what
they basically were). The local papers printed passport pictures of
workers who had left their employers (to whom they had to surrender
their passports), as if they were criminals on the run. The Arab
wealthy looked down on them as if they were little above animals.

Plus, when you look coldly beyond the impressive scale of development,
there's little of substance. It's just a giant playground in the sun.
There are shopping centres and beach hotels, plus trinkets like indoor
ski-slopes. But there's no soul to the place. It's Milton Keynes in the
desert.

I'm not going back.

It doesn't surprise me in the least that Dubai is in trouble now, property in the place was the equivalent of Dutch tulips in the 17th Century. A few Premiership primadonnas and Irish property celebrities buy into the hype, then everyone does, without questioning the long term point of the place...

Such is the nature of hype, that I doubt they bought them, any more than an oscar nominated actress has to pay for the dress she wears to promote herself and the designer.