Dubai's real estate market tanking

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a2jrSPqYhVzY&refer=home

Dubai Speculators Quit as Lending Drought Bursts Desert Bubble

By Glen Carey

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The classified ads in Dubai read like an obituary for a real-estate market that until a few months ago seemed immune from the global credit crisis.

A Turkish investor, who identified himself as Sebat, took out 10 bright yellow ads in the Nov. 25 edition of Gulf News, the United Arab Emirates’ biggest newspaper, with the headline: “DIRECT FROM OWNER DISTRESS SALE!!!” Sebat said he used to be able to buy four or five properties at a time and sell them the next day for a profit of as much as 5 percent.

“There is panic in the market,” said Sebat, 52, who wouldn’t give his full name because he’s juggling 60 properties.

The property bubble in the desert emirate, home to the world’s tallest building, most expensive hotel suite and largest manmade islands, is bursting as scarce credit and slumping oil prices have international investors scurrying to dump assets. That may shatter Dubai’s goal of creating a sustainable economy by building the Persian Gulf hub for finance and tourism, forcing it to depend on oil-rich neighbor Abu Dhabi for financing.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1204/p06s01-wome.html

Dubai's frenzied, trillion-dollar building boom falters

The global credit crunch and falling oil prices are taking a toll on the superrich Gulf emirate as developers mothball high-profile projects and lay off workers.
By Ben Gilbert | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
from the December 4, 2008 edition

Dubai, United Arab Emirates - A battery of fireworks marked the climax of the $20 million grand opening ceremony for the $1 billion Atlantis Hotel. Flashes of red and white illuminated dozens of construction cranes, which have become fixtures in this glittering Gulf city amid a decade-long, trillion-dollar building boom.

But the frenzied pace of development in Dubai and elsewhere in the United Arab Emirates is grinding to a halt and the over-the-top extravagance on full display late last month at places like the new Atlantis, at the tip of one of Dubai's three man-made, palm-tree shaped island archipelagos, may soon be a thing of the past.

The global financial crisis has brought construction to a stop as developers put projects on hold, lay off workers, and scale back several high-profile ventures.

[DS1]

1. Well damn, that didn't take long

I hope the Burj Dubai doesn't end up like North Korea's Hotel from Hell

[stillcool]

2. I wonder how much Halliburton..

is invested in that real estate..since they moved their headquarters there and all.

[Frustratedlady]

5. Aha, I forgot about that!

Every dog has its day.

[knowbody0]

6. my first thought as well

[madrchsod]

3. poor babies..................do`t you feel sorry for them?

[SammyWinstonJack]

12. .

:nopity:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. How tragic.

:nopity:

[rvablue]

7. Wahhh! The condos we built on fake island resembling the globe aren't selling

who the fuck cares!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. lol!

[KamaAina]

9. One, two, three, AWWWWWWW!!!

:nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

[Ezlivin]

10. Solution: Let all the slave-wage workers move in

Dubai is almost the perfect example of the two different worlds, the one of the ultra-rich and the one the rest of us inhabit. On the outskirts of Dubai it's hardscrabble living for the thousands of workers who build those magnificent buildings and structures.

[bif]

11. Cry me a fuckin' river

[4 t 4]

14. Ohhhh what a shame, it takes

Iran 90$ per barrel to maintain. OPEC should be illegal. The shit they have done to us in this country is beyond compare. It is the Costa Nostra under a different name. WAKE UP EVERYONE.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

13. Meanwhile, American Shadenfreude market appears overvalued

...says expert.

[Swamp Rat]

15. I smell Bushler family involvement in the Dubai real estate market.

Which means it's doomed to fail.

[Fire1]

16. GOOD!

[opihimoimoi]

17. Hawaii got tons of homeless that could help fill those vacancies...

[calimary]

18. Greed is not good.