Dubai’s Worst Office Buildings Will Be Empty Forever

[marmar]

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Some Dubai office buildings are so ill-conceived and poorly located that they will never be occupied, while others may command no more than the cost of maintenance, according to CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.

“Some buildings will be permanently vacant and will never be let because they are wrongly located, they are of poor quality or have the wrong legal structure in place,” Nicholas Maclean, Middle East managing director for the U.S. property broker, said in an interview.

Speculation fueled Dubai’s property market after foreigners were allowed to buy real estate in parts of the emirate in 2002. Buyers with no experience in property management flocked to purchase floors in planned office buildings before any work started, resulting in poorly finished towers in inconvenient locations with multiple owners, Maclean said.

Such places have to compete for tenants in a Dubai market with an overall vacancy rate of 40 percent, with newly developed areas on the outskirts hit the hardest. At least 20 million square feet (1.85 million square meters) of space, about 40 percent of Dubai’s existing office supply, will be added in the next four years, CBRE estimates. That will put further pressure on prices that slumped by 60 percent on average since the peak in mid-2008. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aBrhe5oTnl54&pos=10

[Arctic Dave]

1. No sympathy. n/t

[poverlay]

2. What did they expect when the whole place is a gaudy monument to vanity? Actually making islands,

and indoor skiing?

Huge
waste
of
resources.