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RedKite wrote:Just checked . The 27pc from Russia is on "World visitors to Dubai" on www.visit-dubai.co.uk

That means 1 in 4 of ALL Dubai visitors comes from Russia ! Can that be true? How many roubles are they spending in Dubai?

It must be HEAVEN if you come from parts of Russia to Dubai !
I hate extreme cold !!

Used to be plenty of Russians around, not so many right now though.

sage & onion wrote:

RedKite wrote:Just checked . The 27pc from Russia is on "World visitors to Dubai" on www.visit-dubai.co.uk

That means 1 in 4 of ALL Dubai visitors comes from Russia ! Can that be true? How many roubles are they spending in Dubai?

It must be HEAVEN if you come from parts of Russia to Dubai !
I hate extreme cold !!

Used to be plenty of Russians around, not so many right now though.

The largest group of visitors/tourists to Dubai are the Brits. Probably the lowest group this year, as the pound hit a 30 year low against the dollar last week.

lotsa russians here in uae. even in my university...

RedKite wrote:Arniegang
You say Dubai inc is near on bankrupt. Is it that bad ?
Sheikh Mo is very wealthy , is he not?
Besides, Abu Dhabi has BIG money , so they surely won't let Dubai get into trouble?

The problem is getting CUSTOMERS from the west to buy all the expensive property. The west is suffering job losses daily. Getting tourists in is going to be a major problem too. Dubailand will need millions of kids and flights are long and expensive. If India were to get richer, a lot would come from there. The USA is a LONG way from Dubai. Yanks will go to Disney instead.

One surprising fact I learnt from www.visit-dubai.co.uk , is the Visitor profile. On the bottom left hand column , you click the bottom one. It says that 27 per cent of Dubai visitors come from RUSSIA !?

You reckon that's true? The rest of Europe COMBINED is only 7 pc, including UK, Germany, France, Italy.....the lot!
Does not seem accurate, that? What is the true breakdown of visitor sources to Dubai?

Dubai Inc consists of the government owned corporations like Emaar, Nakheel, Dubai Holdings (Dubai Prpoerties etc), DIFC etc etc.

The value of these corporations are currently valued at near on nil. DIFC in particualr is close to bankrupcy as is DH,Emaar and Nakheel. Emirates Airline also part of Dubai Inc is struggling.

There are rumours abound that Dubai Inc will amalgamate the 3 Master Developers they own into one. They have already started this process with their 2 Finance Houses Amlak and Tameer (?).

Shiek Mo isn't as wealthy as you might think. Yes he is on our scale, but in comparrison to say Bill Gates he is a not a major wealth player. Gates net worth is 5 times that of Shiek Mo.

The governments income and GDP is going to struggle during 2009 despite what we read in the papers. Dubai will struggle to achieve 1% growth this year. Analysts who are realistic are prediciting negative growth however this year, and will put Dubai technically into recession.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

arniegang wrote:

RedKite wrote:Arniegang
You say Dubai inc is near on bankrupt. Is it that bad ?
Sheikh Mo is very wealthy , is he not?
Besides, Abu Dhabi has BIG money , so they surely won't let Dubai get into trouble?

The problem is getting CUSTOMERS from the west to buy all the expensive property. The west is suffering job losses daily. Getting tourists in is going to be a major problem too. Dubailand will need millions of kids and flights are long and expensive. If India were to get richer, a lot would come from there. The USA is a LONG way from Dubai. Yanks will go to Disney instead.

One surprising fact I learnt from www.visit-dubai.co.uk , is the Visitor profile. On the bottom left hand column , you click the bottom one. It says that 27 per cent of Dubai visitors come from RUSSIA !?

You reckon that's true? The rest of Europe COMBINED is only 7 pc, including UK, Germany, France, Italy.....the lot!
Does not seem accurate, that? What is the true breakdown of visitor sources to Dubai?

Dubai Inc consists of the government owned corporations like Emaar, Nakheel, Dubai Holdings (Dubai Prpoerties etc), DIFC etc etc.

The value of these corporations are currently valued at near on nil. DIFC in particualr is close to bankrupcy as is DH,Emaar and Nakheel. Emirates Airline also part of Dubai Inc is struggling.

There are rumours abound that Dubai Inc will amalgamate the 3 Master Developers they own into one. They have already started this process with their 2 Finance Houses Amlak and Tameer (?).

Shiek Mo isn't as wealthy as you might think. Yes he is on our scale, but in comparrison to say Bill Gates he is a not a major wealth player. Gates net worth is 5 times that of Shiek Mo.

The governments income and GDP is going to struggle during 2009 despite what we read in the papers. Dubai will struggle to achieve 1% growth this year. Analysts who are realistic are prediciting negative growth however this year, and will put Dubai technically into recession.

and what experience makes you say that? not a rude question or anything just wanted to know where you getting this info from. because UAE is full of speculators and rumour starters.

arniegang wrote:

RedKite wrote:Arniegang
You say Dubai inc is near on bankrupt. Is it that bad ?
Sheikh Mo is very wealthy , is he not?
Besides, Abu Dhabi has BIG money , so they surely won't let Dubai get into trouble?

The problem is getting CUSTOMERS from the west to buy all the expensive property. The west is suffering job losses daily. Getting tourists in is going to be a major problem too. Dubailand will need millions of kids and flights are long and expensive. If India were to get richer, a lot would come from there. The USA is a LONG way from Dubai. Yanks will go to Disney instead.

One surprising fact I learnt from www.visit-dubai.co.uk , is the Visitor profile. On the bottom left hand column , you click the bottom one. It says that 27 per cent of Dubai visitors come from RUSSIA !?

You reckon that's true? The rest of Europe COMBINED is only 7 pc, including UK, Germany, France, Italy.....the lot!
Does not seem accurate, that? What is the true breakdown of visitor sources to Dubai?

Dubai Inc consists of the government owned corporations like Emaar, Nakheel, Dubai Holdings (Dubai Prpoerties etc), DIFC etc etc.

The value of these corporations are currently valued at near on nil. DIFC in particualr is close to bankrupcy as is DH,Emaar and Nakheel. Emirates Airline also part of Dubai Inc is struggling.

There are rumours abound that Dubai Inc will amalgamate the 3 Master Developers they own into one. They have already started this process with their 2 Finance Houses Amlak and Tameer (?).

Shiek Mo isn't as wealthy as you might think. Yes he is on our scale, but in comparrison to say Bill Gates he is a not a major wealth player. Gates net worth is 5 times that of Shiek Mo.

The governments income and GDP is going to struggle during 2009 despite what we read in the papers. Dubai will struggle to achieve 1% growth this year. Analysts who are realistic are prediciting negative growth however this year, and will put Dubai technically into recession.

Arnie, I would be interested to know what is on your wish list for Dubai?

Arnie...were listening

I'm telling you guys, he is one of the ppl who couldn't make it and now taking it out on every thing around him.

to solve this recession you need cash, and the country has plenty of it, end of discussion. there is no need to be all stressed out about it, it is not helping. yes Dubai got fuc8d badly but AD will support it until it get backs on its knees that for sure, I mean they gave some sort of loans to industrial countries and bought a couple of banks in a couple of days so I'm sure they can handle Dubai reboots, but the thing with AD is that it is not a flashy or a show off.

And for the privet businesses being bankrupt, what's new, as they say, they come and go. Again I was reading one report about the recession from an expert say that 65% of the companies world wide are taking the wrong approach to face this crisis ! I don't know what he meant by that.

And for shk MOH being broke, who really cares, it is not like he is the one paying salaries out there.

uaekid wrote:I'm telling you guys, he is one of the ppl who couldn't make it and now taking it out on every thing around him.

to solve this recession you need cash, and the country has plenty of it, end of discussion. there is no need to be all stressed out about it, it is not helping. yes Dubai got fuc8d badly but AD will support it until it get backs on its knees that for sure, I mean they gave some sort of loans to industrial countries and bought a couple of banks in a couple of days so I'm sure they can handle Dubai reboots, but the thing with AD is that it is not a flashy or a show off.

And for the privet businesses being bankrupt, what's new, as they say, they come and go. Again I was reading one report about the recession from an expert say that 65% of the companies world wide are taking the wrong approach to face this crisis ! I don't know what he meant by that.

And for shk MOH being broke, who really cares, it is not like he is the one paying salaries out there.

I don't think you know anything about Arnie, if you did you wouldn't make such a statement. I will be interested to read his response.

me too

uaekid wrote:I'm telling you guys, he is one of the ppl who couldn't make it and now taking it out on every thing around him.

Wrong yet again uaekid.

what is all the this about this Arnie ? what, he use to be a minister somewhere before ? well I'm still waiting . regardless, he got nothing to add or say but stereotypes ,you know things that you wana hear , the usual bal bla bla

how could you even conceder Listening to what he said, shk moh is not wealthy !! not that I care, but we all know it is trash talk . it is just a stupid comment coming out of frustration for some reason

Seriously ppl like him are taking other member and ppl who Listen naivety as an advantage, I just cant help it. just like you kanelli.

Arniegang,
You certainly seem to have forthright views on the Dubai economy. Thanks for sharing them. I'm not clear. Do you live and work in Dubai at the moment?
Other expats don't seem to share your very pessimistic view of the Dubai economy.
I will also be grateful to read Arnie's response.......and even your work experience if you would share it with those of us who are in the dark.
I don't know if you are overstating the remarks about near bankruptcy.
It seems to me , mind, that Dubai has gone WAY overboard with the AMOUNT of development that Nakheel and Emaar , in particular , are carrying out.

Whatever problems they have now, they are going to FLOOD the market with apartments, flats , villas etc between 2010 and 2015. The sheer scale of development that I have noted on that www.visit-dubai.co.uk site is unbelievable. Dubai Marina and Waterfront are huge. Add on Palm Deira, Palm Jebelali , The World , Jumeirah Gardens etc and all the rest and they have a LOT of property to shift.
Of course, they have to finish building it first, which is very costly.
This recession is going to be the WORST SINCE THE WAR. Even the UK was said to be almost bankrupt. The Govt here has had to bail out the banks ....plus industries.
The banks....GLOBALLY.....got into trouble through OVERPRICED ,INFLATED PROPERTY VALUES.

People were BORROWING 6 and 7 times salary , instead of the normal 3 times salary, to buy homes. Now if a million extra lose jobs in the UK and every body else SPENDS LESS, property prices should drop another 20 per cent in the UK. America is worse!!
This property bubble has caused the mess. If an average house is valued at £250,000 instead of £150,000 , how much of the BANK'S MONEY does not truly EXIST??
Devalue the houses and you devalue bank assets big time. Of course car workers , TV makers etc etc are all caught up in it.
So who in the WEST is going to flood 8 hours on a plane to go to Dubailand on holiday , when they can take the kids to Eurodisney or a theme park in Spain, for a BETTER CLIMATE , LESS COST, LESS HASSLE, SHORTER FLIGHTS FOR KIDS etc etc?
The main thing in Dubai's favour is that Abu Dhabi is very wealthy.......but it has a spendthrift brother in the family !!!??
Even Abu Dhabi, with Al Reem Island , Lulu Island and Saadiyat Island , which I read about on www.visit-dubai.co.uk , is expanding greatly , population-wise, so the UAE needs about 5 MILLION extra people to buy up everything.......or 5 million extra holidaymakers who will BUY PROPERTY. Somebody has to buy it all.
Piers Morgan has his BULLISH Dubai programme on ITV tonight. You all need to see it....but is it true? What if he'd interviewed Arnie ?

Typo ....FLY not FLOOD on a plane!
Another thing. Dubailand is for kids. MOST should come from Europe. Well , European kids are off in July /August , when Dubai is too hot for them. Families with kids want Christmas at home. So when do they have SCHOOL HOLIDAYS to visit Dubailand in acceptable weather for kids?
Americans won't take kids to Dubai , when they can slip down to Florida or California. Look at the distance from the USA!

South East Asia is closest , but they are not wealthy enough. The BIG population centre within easy reach is India/Pakistan. But have they got money to afford Dubai?
The idea of a huge theme park for kids ........on top of all the rest.....in a place as remote from Europe as Dubai is a bit flawed.
European people like the easy going nature of the Med too, plus the pleasant climate in Spain, France etc in AUGUST, during school holidays.
They would have to take kids off school to go to Dubailand in Autumn or Spring.

uaekid wrote:what is all the this about this Arnie ? what, he use to be a minister somewhere before ? well I'm still waiting . regardless, he got nothing to add or say but stereotypes ,you know things that you wana hear , the usual bal bla bla

how could you even conceder Listening to what he said, shk moh is not wealthy !! not that I care, but we all know it is trash talk . it is just a stupid comment coming out of frustration for some reason

Seriously ppl like him are taking other member and ppl who Listen naivety as an advantage, I just cant help it. just like you kanelli.

Once again I have to state that you know nothing about Arnie

Arnie,
Bit contradictory to say the Brits are the BIGGEST visitor group to Dubai, whilst they are not now.
That suggests visitor number have dropped like a stone.

Besides , that World Visitor Numbers item on www.visit-dubai.co.uk suggests that Russians make up 27 pc of total, whilst ALL of the rest of Europe equal 7 pc. Arabs from outside UAE are huge in number too.
Something is wrong with someone's stats.

uaekid wrote:I'm telling you guys, he is one of the ppl who couldn't make it and now taking it out on every thing around him.

to solve this recession you need cash, and the country has plenty of it, end of discussion. there is no need to be all stressed out about it, it is not helping. yes Dubai got fuc8d badly but AD will support it until it get backs on its knees that for sure, I mean they gave some sort of loans to industrial countries and bought a couple of banks in a couple of days so I'm sure they can handle Dubai reboots, but the thing with AD is that it is not a flashy or a show off.

And for the privet businesses being bankrupt, what's new, as they say, they come and go. Again I was reading one report about the recession from an expert say that 65% of the companies world wide are taking the wrong approach to face this crisis ! I don't know what he meant by that.

And for shk MOH being broke, who really cares, it is not like he is the one paying salaries out there.

Would everyone please look at the stock prices of the listed companies that form part of Dubai Inc, therein lies your answer.

Kid, you dont know me and you are unwise to speculate that i am one of the people who "couldn't make it".

In contrast i have made it and i made it well. I was one of the first in May 2002 that enbraced and shared the same vision of Dubai. I bought 4 properties, 2 on the Palm Jumeira (shoreline), 1 in Phase 2 Marina and a cheeky little purchase in JBR.

I sold off 3 in mid 2007 and sold my "home" in Al Majara (phase 2 marina) in October last year.

I wont go into figures but my investments in Dubai have served me well, very well.

I am a realist kid, i have been buying and selling property for some 25 years. I know when to buy and i know when to sell.

This has been discussed to death on here and i am dammed if i do and dammed if i dont. When i was saying buy buy buy the majority were sayin "ah yes but what if" and in 2007 on here i openly predicted the crash at the end of 2008/early2009 everyone then said "no one knows". Look at my post history and you will read the discussions. I even PM'd those i knew well and told them to not buy.

To me it was a crash waiting to happen. In the UK we have a established property market complete with its lows and highs. In my 25 years i have seen the 2 major crashes of 86 and 92. Experience is the key issue here, and Dubai was a new market with no past performance.

The Emirates growth was to rapid and it could never sustain the level of growth it experienced. you are now seeing the results.

The property market and tourism was always going to be the 2 key markets that would sustain Dubai's economy. Expats and labour come and go and the infrastructure in dubai could only ever cater for the mass influx of workers.

Dubai's economy was and is too dependant on this factor and like i said earlier you are now seeing the outcome. Dubai has always considered itself "exempt" from outside forces. It was wrong and unwise to base an economy this concept. It is now paying the price.

I am not being anti dubai far from it, i love the place and i've made buckets loads of cash from it. But at the end of the day people have to get real, and realise that in the short term ie the next 2 years Dubai is going to slide further downwards. Today is only the tip of the iceburg believe me, there is worse, far worse to come sadly.

As much as i and millions of others have the greatest respect for Shiek Mo and the great things he has done, it must be remembered that there are forces out there he has no control over, and sadly those forces will continue to push Dubai into a downward spiral in the short term because the government does not have the means to stop or control it.

RedKite wrote:Arnie,
Bit contradictory to say the Brits are the BIGGEST visitor group to Dubai, whilst they are not now.
That suggests visitor number have dropped like a stone.

Besides , that World Visitor Numbers item on www.visit-dubai.co.uk suggests that Russians make up 27 pc of total, whilst ALL of the rest of Europe equal 7 pc. Arabs from outside UAE are huge in number too.
Something is wrong with someone's stats.

The figures quoted by Dubai Tourism (Government) confirms that the largest group of tourists are by far the British. It is not my opinion.

Oh and by the way that website consists of cut and pastes from other websites. In fact it still maintains that buying a property there will give you 50% growth and 15% return on investment

arniegang wrote:In contrast i have made it and i made it well. I was one of the first in May 2002 that enbraced and shared the same vision of Dubai. I bought 4 properties, 2 on the Palm Jumeira (shoreline), 1 in Phase 2 Marina and a cheeky little purchase in JBR.

I sold off 3 in mid 2007 and sold my "home" in Al Majara (phase 2 marina) in October last year.

Say Arnie, since you've sold all your properties including your sea-side marina apartment...Do you still reside in Dubai? Or did you left without remorse and settled somewhere else (Germany perhaps?)

ps; It may very well be said again; what we've been seeing, was just the beginning of the property market collapse.
Arnie and his 25 years of experience are spot on if you ask me. I've been following the market since 2002/2003 and know a thing or two by now. Arnie got his facts lined up very well.

RobbyG wrote:

arniegang wrote:In contrast i have made it and i made it well. I was one of the first in May 2002 that enbraced and shared the same vision of Dubai. I bought 4 properties, 2 on the Palm Jumeira (shoreline), 1 in Phase 2 Marina and a cheeky little purchase in JBR.

I sold off 3 in mid 2007 and sold my "home" in Al Majara (phase 2 marina) in October last year.

Say Arnie, since you've sold all your properties including your sea-side marina apartment...Do you still reside in Dubai? Or did you left without remorse and settled somewhere else (Germany perhaps?)

ps; It may very well be said again; what we've been seeing, was just the beginning of the property market collapse.
Arnie and his 25 years of experience are spot on if you ask me. I've been following the market since 2002/2003 and know a thing or two by now. Arnie got his facts lined up very well.

Robbie i have never lived in dubai. I had a 3 year residency permit until last september, but i chose not to live in Dubai.

My place on the marina was my holiday home. However my decision to sale was purely mathmatical. I sold for 2 million Dhs.

With the pound taking a battering by the dollar that 2 million bought me £400,000. I have it invested in Dubai at a fixed rate of 5% tax free. That gives me £20,000 a year interest. In turn this will buy me 9 holidays @ 10 days a time to stay @ nearly all of the 5* hotels on Jumeira Beach. No management charges, no DEWA bills, no grief - heaven.

arniegang wrote:Robbie i have never lived in dubai. I had a 3 year residency permit until last september, but i chose not to live in Dubai.

My place on the marina was my holiday home. However my decision to sale was purely mathmatical. I sold for 2 million Dhs.

With the pound taking a battering by the dollar that 2 million bought me £400,000. I have it invested in Dubai at a fixed rate of 5% tax free. That gives me £20,000 a year interest. In turn this will buy me 9 holidays @ 10 days a time to stay @ nearly all of the 5* hotels on Jumeira Beach. No management charges, no DEWA bills, no grief - heaven.

Nice trade. Too bad the pound isn't supportive for your money to flow back to the UK. But a 5 percent return isn't all that bad either momentarily. Good for you.

What was your basic profession btw before becoming a self-made man?

brgds

Arnie,
You have certainly been an astute judge of Dubai property. As the old song "The Gambler" goes........"you've got know when to held 'em, and know when to fold 'em !!
Don't count your money 'til the dealing's done!!!""

A lot of us hang on to investments too long. My problem is shares etc. I tend to buy them and leave them, whereas I should have given more time to the task. A lot of people have been really caught out since last October. I have far too much on my plate. That's my problem.
I own a large UK property but never ventured abroad on purchasing.
I have been saying repeatedly that the UK market was overpriced since 2002 and had several friendly arguments over it.
It was crazy what people were doing. The TV is full of get-rich-quick property programmes with dozens doing "buy-to-let" .instead of "Location! Location ! Location!" , they need a TV prog called "Repossession! Repossession! Repossession! " now !!!

The frightening thing about Dubai is the SHEER VOLUME of expensive property that will soon hit the market...........and the FACT that THOUSANDS of buyers have to be brought in from about 3000 miles away into a fairly alien culture !!

Most Brits would choose Spain , Italy, Greece or France FAR AHEAD OF DUBAI for a holiday home!
If you live in SOUTHERN EUROPE...on the Mediterranean, why would you choose an INFERIOR climate and restrictive Islamic lifestyle for you holidays? So buyers must come from NORTHERN Europe!
But the Mediterranean is closer and better for them too.
This came home to me when I walked the Bur Dubai side of Dubai Creek .
If that was Italy, France or Spain.........there would be a row of pleasant pavement cafes along the Creek where the parkland is located on that Bur Dubai side.
People would enjoy a beer or a pernod whilst sitting there enjoying the view and watching the world go by. In Dubai.....YOU CAN'T !!

So why would most Brits pay for an expensive 8 hour flight instead of cheap 2 or 3 hours?
There are some wonderful places on the Mediterranean and in the Canaries. The weather in the Canaries is about the best in the world.
Dubai has oppressive heat and humidity for months...........and who goes on holiday to go SHOPPING MAD?? You can't take too much back on a plane !!!

Even Egypt is better, street bars and you can enjoy sitting at/on the road, smoking your shisha, fighting with the traders, watching Russians...LOL

arniegang wrote:

uaekid wrote:I'm telling you guys, he is one of the ppl who couldn't make it and now taking it out on every thing around him.

to solve this recession you need cash, and the country has plenty of it, end of discussion. there is no need to be all stressed out about it, it is not helping. yes Dubai got fuc8d badly but AD will support it until it get backs on its knees that for sure, I mean they gave some sort of loans to industrial countries and bought a couple of banks in a couple of days so I'm sure they can handle Dubai reboots, but the thing with AD is that it is not a flashy or a show off.

And for the privet businesses being bankrupt, what's new, as they say, they come and go. Again I was reading one report about the recession from an expert say that 65% of the companies world wide are taking the wrong approach to face this crisis ! I don't know what he meant by that.

And for shk MOH being broke, who really cares, it is not like he is the one paying salaries out there.

Would everyone please look at the stock prices of the listed companies that form part of Dubai Inc, therein lies your answer.

Kid, you dont know me and you are unwise to speculate that i am one of the people who "couldn't make it".

In contrast i have made it and i made it well. I was one of the first in May 2002 that enbraced and shared the same vision of Dubai. I bought 4 properties, 2 on the Palm Jumeira (shoreline), 1 in Phase 2 Marina and a cheeky little purchase in JBR.

I sold off 3 in mid 2007 and sold my "home" in Al Majara (phase 2 marina) in October last year.

I wont go into figures but my investments in Dubai have served me well, very well.

I am a realist kid, i have been buying and selling property for some 25 years. I know when to buy and i know when to sell.

This has been discussed to death on here and i am dammed if i do and dammed if i dont. When i was saying buy buy buy the majority were sayin "ah yes but what if" and in 2007 on here i openly predicted the crash at the end of 2008/early2009 everyone then said "no one knows". Look at my post history and you will read the discussions. I even PM'd those i knew well and told them to not buy.

To me it was a crash waiting to happen. In the UK we have a established property market complete with its lows and highs. In my 25 years i have seen the 2 major crashes of 86 and 92. Experience is the key issue here, and Dubai was a new market with no past performance.

The Emirates growth was to rapid and it could never sustain the level of growth it experienced. you are now seeing the results.

The property market and tourism was always going to be the 2 key markets that would sustain Dubai's economy. Expats and labour come and go and the infrastructure in dubai could only ever cater for the mass influx of workers.

Dubai's economy was and is too dependant on this factor and like i said earlier you are now seeing the outcome. Dubai has always considered itself "exempt" from outside forces. It was wrong and unwise to base an economy this concept. It is now paying the price.

I am not being anti dubai far from it, i love the place and i've made buckets loads of cash from it. But at the end of the day people have to get real, and realise that in the short term ie the next 2 years Dubai is going to slide further downwards. Today is only the tip of the iceburg believe me, there is worse, far worse to come sadly.

As much as i and millions of others have the greatest respect for Shiek Mo and the great things he has done, it must be remembered that there are forces out there he has no control over, and sadly those forces will continue to push Dubai into a downward spiral in the short term because the government does not have the means to stop or control it.

stupid me I thought it is a global recession.

Again my realistic friend if you are as good as everyone think then you shouldn't involve the stock market prices to what is happening now, you should know that the stocks prices were not the real value of those companies not 5 years ago not now. beside this is a global recession and Dubai is not in isolation from the world it is in the heart of it so it is natural this is all happening not bcz of any reason inside the country.

Hey one of my family did 5 times the real estate business you did, it does not make him an expert and I'm for sure is not impressed by your business like others here, you are a tiny broker in the businesses in Dubai.

That said, I was going to discuss the issue further with you since everyone is looking up to you in DF but after you clamming that the UAE Government does not have the means to stop or control the downward spiral I realized I'm talking to the wrong person .

Arnie,
I see you lived on the front at Dubai Marina. I've been there but don't know the area intimately. Did you ever meet a guy from Wales called Nick who bought a nice villa or property near the entrance of Dubai Marina in 2006 or 2005? He is about 51 and has wavy brown hair with a touch of grey. He is about 5 feet 9 inches tall and quite fit-looking , reddish in the face due to the sun. Ever bump into him? He has a yacht there and several properties . I've been told he bought at the wrong time after selling a pub chain in Wales. He was a very astute guy. He started from nothing in his twenties and sold up whilst a Dubai resident to avoid tax.

everything went down since november 2008.. prices were going up and down unstable..

stupid me I thought it is a global recession.

Again my realistic friend if you are as good as everyone think then you shouldn't involve the stock market prices to what is happening now, you should know that the stocks prices were not the real value of those companies not 5 years ago not now. beside this is a global recession and Dubai is not in isolation from the world it is in the heart of it so it is natural this is all happening not bcz of any reason inside the country.

Hey one of my family did 5 times the real estate business you did, it does not make him an expert and I'm for sure is not impressed by your business like others here, you are a tiny broker in the businesses in Dubai.

That said, I was going to discuss the issue further with you since everyone is looking up to you in DF but after you clamming that the UAE Government does not have the means to stop or control the downward spiral I realized I'm talking to the wrong person .

Kid

If you re-read my article i clearly pointed out that there are forces at work beyond Dubai's control, and that is the global financial crisis.

With all respect to your family they have only been buying and selling property in Dubai post mid 2005, my reckoning makes that a whole 3 1/2 years. I dont consider myself an expert i never said i did. I did say i have been buying and selling property for a long time in Established markets.

I see no point in responding the share issue, you can look up on-line why the value of Emaar has almost tumbled to nothing and its share is almost worthless. All i will say is that yes i know the stocks were overvalued 5 years ago. So was the property market in Dubai my friend.

Fair play to your family member who made 5 times what i did. But for every one of us that made money in this time, there will be 000's more who now stand to loose money, a lot of money.

I can understand your reluctance to acknowledge Dubai's precarious financial position. If you want to believe that Dubai has the means to deal with this then that is your perogative. I am not going to take time to convince you otherwise, because theres nothing i can say that will make you see the tree's through the wood. We all have an opinion and i respect that you do not agree with mine.

Please ponder this though Kid. In the current recession please tell us by what means, the Dubai government has to stop the current crisis in the banking industry? How the government will stop the daily exodus of those that have lost their jobs ? How the government plans to encourage people to buy properties, that a/ no one can afford, b/ borrow the finance c/ restore confidence for people to buy property that is currently devaluing by the day and d/ what help the government will give to companies (other than dubai Inc) affected by the global crisis.

Kite

Totally agree with your post above mate.

The reason i never invested in European markets like Spain is that the property market runs a simialr parallel with the UK and the US really.

The euro was weaker back then but i and many others always considered the euro to be a serious contender to the Brit pound. I never invested in the states for the same reason really re the dollar/pound.

If i were to be honest i picked on dubai because i loved the country so it was a bit personal. I was fortunate to be on holiday on 15th May 2002, the day it was announced that that "freehold" would be granted.

In that week i visited Emaars sales office and was basically sold the dream. The deciding factor was how cheap the prices were 600k. In relative terms to the UK it was cheap on a really cheap scale. The same week i bought a 1 bed in JBR @ 395k Dhs and on my next trip in June i bought 2 shorelines for 695k Dhs.

The deal was a gift on all 3, 10% down now, 20% over the next 3 years and 70% on completion. I was like a kid in a sweet shop. Over the next 3 years the pound strengthened against the dollar so my property price were actually going down in Value.

The only difference i and others have with those that are in deep s.h.i.t is that some of us did not need to borrow. Those that have bought within the last 2.5 years that have had to finance with only a small deposit are now in negative equity. Yes they have been able to offset their purchase with rental income, but now even that is in jepody. Ultimately their assets are going to liabilities.

RobbyG wrote:

arniegang wrote:Robbie i have never lived in dubai. I had a 3 year residency permit until last september, but i chose not to live in Dubai.

My place on the marina was my holiday home. However my decision to sale was purely mathmatical. I sold for 2 million Dhs.

With the pound taking a battering by the dollar that 2 million bought me £400,000. I have it invested in Dubai at a fixed rate of 5% tax free. That gives me £20,000 a year interest. In turn this will buy me 9 holidays @ 10 days a time to stay @ nearly all of the 5* hotels on Jumeira Beach. No management charges, no DEWA bills, no grief - heaven.

Nice trade. Too bad the pound isn't supportive for your money to flow back to the UK. But a 5 percent return isn't all that bad either momentarily. Good for you.

What was your basic profession btw before becoming a self-made man?

brgds

Robbie

Quite the contray mate. The weak pound/strong dollar was my in my favour. In April i would have converted back from 7.9 Dhs to the £pound. In December i converted at 4.3 Dhs to the pound.

In effect i made an extra 35% just on the exchange rate.