Racy lady
"So who exactly are all the people that are going to come and live in these places?"
Margery unwittingly asks the billion dollar question as we drive past yet another mega-luxury-property development. Every time the spinster schoolmarm visits Dubai for her annual oil sheikh hunt, the emirate is barely recognisable. But this year the billboards, construction, new towers, hotels and housing projects are overwhelming.
And we can't answer her, because no one really knows. Though who can forget Matein Khalid's worrying calculation?
One project Margery gets to see for the first time is Dubai Autodrome, where - wearily predictably - she is instantly surrounded by a vast convoy of racing drivers keen to demonstrate their fuel injection and expert handling.
As she fends them off onto the more seemly subject of Dubai's development, one of them makes a sad prediction:
"The way they are putting up hotels everywhere, this racetrack could well become just another themepark. And it will kill real motor sport in the emirate."
Margery unwittingly asks the billion dollar question as we drive past yet another mega-luxury-property development. Every time the spinster schoolmarm visits Dubai for her annual oil sheikh hunt, the emirate is barely recognisable. But this year the billboards, construction, new towers, hotels and housing projects are overwhelming.
And we can't answer her, because no one really knows. Though who can forget Matein Khalid's worrying calculation?
One project Margery gets to see for the first time is Dubai Autodrome, where - wearily predictably - she is instantly surrounded by a vast convoy of racing drivers keen to demonstrate their fuel injection and expert handling.
As she fends them off onto the more seemly subject of Dubai's development, one of them makes a sad prediction:
"The way they are putting up hotels everywhere, this racetrack could well become just another themepark. And it will kill real motor sport in the emirate."
Labels: construction, housing, margery
9 Comments:
Whether it is Dubai Sports City, Dubai Vegetable City, Dubai Spy City or Jebel Ali Airport City, all are being developed with the idea of making a profit out of selling freehold residential properties in it.
So dont be surprised if the racing drivers has to drive around a 'tower with a spectacular race track views'.
hmm vegetable city.. cabbage tower, brinjal tower..
Now I know why they have those ugly fat globes on top of their buildings.
That is an excellent article you've linked to, SD. I wish I'd read it earlier. Money quote:
But in 2007-2008, a phenomenal 200,000 new units will hit the market. This means that we need about 800,000 new expats who are not labourers, housemaids, tailors, minimum wage bachelors or the Sharjah/Ajman commuters to fill this unit.
I've been saying this for a while. I think the developers are reckoning on 800,000 westerners all rushing to buy a poky villa on a council estate on an artificial island offshore desert to use as a holiday home. Ain't gonna happen, never was, never will.
Nobody seems to be able to answer the question of who, exactly, is going to live in these properties.
Oh, I know plenty of people who are buying the properties and selling them on at a margin. What I want to know is who is willing to pay full whack for a completed property in order to live in it. So far, there seem to be an awful lot of the former and not many of the latter, a situation which is going to reveal itself horribly once a load of these properties near completion.
Perhaps that's why the developers are loth to complete anything, instead preferring to announce yet more grand projects?
I agree with Tim - who would want to buy a poky villa on (what looks like) a council estate...........buggered if I would! Dubai is losing its bling & the greed of the property developers is going to bring a major downfall. The bubble will burst & alot of buyers are gonna see their arse. Sad innit?
Great link/article.
PS: When Margery finds her oil rich sheik, can she find another one for grandma please?
My only concern after reading the linked KT article is how?
If its really the case how did KT allow it to even appear.
To the Kretin's credit (oo - that's nearly a little poem, isn't it? Kretin/credit/Kretin/kredit) their business pages do actually contain some fairly solid articles from time to time. It's just a pity about the rest of the ghastly rag.
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