Controversy: The Sorry State of Real Estate in the UAE
Not a single day can pass without yet another extravagant announcement of a new real estate project that defies gravity, the law of nature and the laws of finance.
There is something to be said about the lack of government supervision that extends from allowing firms to issue press releases that are clearly stretching the truth to broken promises that start from delivering these real estate projects late or never, to jeopardizing the reputation of the UAE by mistreating foreign labour.
A curious case comes to mind with Tameer a local development company that claims to have 300 billion dirhams under development which roughly accounts for 75% the GDP of Abu Dhabi. The firm also announced a project “in excess of $20 Billion” in Libya which has a GDP of $36 Billion. Does this make sense to any one as it clearly escapes my understanding? How does the government allow such press releases, and how does the local press publish it without verification? To put things into perspective, this is similar to someone claiming to have a project “in excess of $7 Trillion” in the USA (roughly 55% of the GDP).
Damac Properties, which is one of the few homegrown brands to go regional claims to have a portfolio “in excess of $40 Billion. This is clearly an example of a company that bit off more than it can chew, a local news report found that out of fifteen advertised projects in Dubai that the company is developing “all are running substantially behind their projected completion schedules” to the extent that investors were threatening to withhold future payments to the developer.
Oddly one of the few publicized cases of real estate developers fleeing the country after selling off plan projects to unsuspecting investors to the tune of AED 14 million has yet to be resolved.
There is something to be said about the lack of government supervision that extends from allowing firms to issue press releases that are clearly stretching the truth to broken promises that start from delivering these real estate projects late or never, to jeopardizing the reputation of the UAE by mistreating foreign labour.
A curious case comes to mind with Tameer a local development company that claims to have 300 billion dirhams under development which roughly accounts for 75% the GDP of Abu Dhabi. The firm also announced a project “in excess of $20 Billion” in Libya which has a GDP of $36 Billion. Does this make sense to any one as it clearly escapes my understanding? How does the government allow such press releases, and how does the local press publish it without verification? To put things into perspective, this is similar to someone claiming to have a project “in excess of $7 Trillion” in the USA (roughly 55% of the GDP).
Damac Properties, which is one of the few homegrown brands to go regional claims to have a portfolio “in excess of $40 Billion. This is clearly an example of a company that bit off more than it can chew, a local news report found that out of fifteen advertised projects in Dubai that the company is developing “all are running substantially behind their projected completion schedules” to the extent that investors were threatening to withhold future payments to the developer.
Oddly one of the few publicized cases of real estate developers fleeing the country after selling off plan projects to unsuspecting investors to the tune of AED 14 million has yet to be resolved.
Copy Cats
Another issue plaguing the real estate sector that is quite interesting is the copy cat culture that is about to make our beautiful city of Dubai into a Sameville mini-me of other cities around the world. There is more than one project that promises to replicate the Eiffel Tower of Paris for example, as if copying individual landmarks wasn’t enough one project even threatens to replicate the entire city of Lyon in Dubai. A contender for the most profuse project award has to be the Falcon City of Wonders that promises to replicate “the Pyramids, the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa”. Tatweer also has its own replication process going on within the Bawadi project.
Another issue plaguing the real estate sector that is quite interesting is the copy cat culture that is about to make our beautiful city of Dubai into a Sameville mini-me of other cities around the world. There is more than one project that promises to replicate the Eiffel Tower of Paris for example, as if copying individual landmarks wasn’t enough one project even threatens to replicate the entire city of Lyon in Dubai. A contender for the most profuse project award has to be the Falcon City of Wonders that promises to replicate “the Pyramids, the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa”. Tatweer also has its own replication process going on within the Bawadi project.
Don’t people realize that what has made Dubai great is the spirit of entrepreneurial originality? Shall we wait for a project that promises to replicate the entire city of Abu Dhabi in Dubai or maybe the holy shrine of Mecca?
Labor Pains
A different case of construction woes emerged in the Fall of 2007 when 40,000 employees of Arabtech went on strike over low wages that according to the official UAE news agency “turned into riots” with stones being thrown at the police, this situation could have been explosive for the entire country if one considers that the size of the Dubai police force is around 15,000 personnel, i.e. they were outnumbered three to one. The management of Arabtech must be proud now that they have reported a 115% increase in profits to $93 Million in 2007 despite the serious damage to the UAE’s reputation and social security.
Labor Pains
A different case of construction woes emerged in the Fall of 2007 when 40,000 employees of Arabtech went on strike over low wages that according to the official UAE news agency “turned into riots” with stones being thrown at the police, this situation could have been explosive for the entire country if one considers that the size of the Dubai police force is around 15,000 personnel, i.e. they were outnumbered three to one. The management of Arabtech must be proud now that they have reported a 115% increase in profits to $93 Million in 2007 despite the serious damage to the UAE’s reputation and social security.
Basically because the company didn’t meet the laborers demands for AED 90 million increase per year (a sizeable 25% of their profit) the UAE was negatively featured on the front pages of various newspapers, websites and TV stations around the world as a country that doesn’t treat it’s “guest workers” fairly, is this worth the damage?
Other Emirates
Sharjah’s real estate development qualifies to be the least planned in the UAE, with problems in parking, electricity cuts, water stoppages and general frustration on the sorry state of the roads a daily headline in the local press all of which seem to be on course to staying the same.
Other Emirates
Sharjah’s real estate development qualifies to be the least planned in the UAE, with problems in parking, electricity cuts, water stoppages and general frustration on the sorry state of the roads a daily headline in the local press all of which seem to be on course to staying the same.
Abu Dhabi should pay attention to the plight of its sister emirates before launching humongous projects inside the relatively calm capital island that will result in traffic chaos similar to what Dubai is experiencing today.
How to even account for such a fabulous collective failure of engineering imagination and planning?
How to even account for such a fabulous collective failure of engineering imagination and planning?
Clearly the UAE authorities were not prepared for such a fast pace of development. For a country that proudly claims to have $500 Billion worth of real estate projects under development it is high time for the federal government to finally enact serious nation-wide laws and regulations that will set this haphazard industry straight. /By Sultan Al Qassemi/
The author is a Sharjah-based businessman and graduate of the American University of Paris. He is founder of Barjeel Securities in Dubai.
4 comments:
If we suppose that the author is realistic, what should we do? We live here and this is our reality. There is no way to change the course of business, in my opinion........
Sadly, I think that you are right, but all together sounds scary...
Very interesting...... but if it's true means that we are all losers.
GOOD and sensible article, however as long as the money is pumped in the UAE economy, and big investors are making big profit, we will be seeing more projects and developments announced every new day.
It is working for the economy, and that is what the government cares for at the moment don't forget that the property market accounts for 27% of the national GDP.
So the government will do its best to make sure that this sector will not collapse otherwise they will tend to loose substantially and the economy will get affected.
I personally do agree with where the author is going to, but this article purpose is merely a mocking one to what the over-ambitious governments plans, yet it doesn't state anything about future crash or crisis, the author is showing is disapproval on whats going on, and i believe that all the residents of the UAE agrees on the same, i would be one of them as our pockets are affected with the inflation caused by such property boom.
Post a Comment