This story appeared in TIME magazine yesterday, May 14th, an eloquent testament to the woes of Dubai's economy.
As the manager of a Dubai real estate brokerage, Imran Mohamed, a Scot of Pakistani descent, had a front-row seat at one of the most incredible property bubbles ever. Early last year, a few months before the height of the emirate's boom, he fought his way through the lines at the opening sale of a new waterfront condominium development. Such launches always attracted crowds of investors eager to get the first shot at a new offering, but the buzz that day was especially intense, remembers Mohamed. (He asks that his real name not be used because his company is in financial difficulty and he may leave the country.) Helicopters circled the event "as if David Beckham had arrived at the airport," he says. Inside, Mohamed put a down payment on an apartment, walked out the door, and sold the unit to a Russian man on the street for double his purchase price. The man paid cash. In just 20 minutes Mohamed had made $408,000. The lesson: "In Dubai, you can throw your ethics and economics textbooks right out the window, because the rules just don't apply."
For the full story, go here http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1898246-1,00.html
very well written article. Boom time is always crazy, like the Gold Rush .... But after boom comes bust
I was very surprised by the deal the pakistani guy closed. so much money in 20 minutes This has nothing to see with real estate, it was just a casino game Have you seen how the Dubai stock market fell Here is the link of the graph http://www.dfm.ae/charts/Charts.asp?id=HG_MarketIndex&period=1YR
what a scary graph, i imagine what it was for traders in Dubai Sell Sell Sell
Investors have to invest in real estate - as the populations is increasing and there would be requirement of land or house for every one - by investing on real estate the land or the house value would always increase as there would be demand.