Empty promises
Commentary:
U.A.E.'s sky-high office vacancy rates and empty apartments By Raymond Beauchemin, MarketWatch
ABU DHABI (
MarketWatch) -- Eighteen months ago, I was standing by a window in the Marina Mall, looking out toward Lulu Island's sandy beaches. A new acquaintance was standing by my side. He said, "A year from now you won't recognize it."
Behind us, work was still going on in the enclosed space that would eventually house a bunny slope, maybe about a third the size of the ski hill at the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai.
Christian himself had been in Abu Dhabi less than a year at that point, working on a sewage-treatment plant. He pointed out road and housing construction behind the mall. "All of this is new from when I arrived."
He was right. Things do change fast here.
In the short time I've lived in Abu Dhabi, I've seen buildings come down and a lot more go up. The F1 Grand Prix race is to be run Nov. 1 on Yas Island. When I first arrived, the Abu Dhabi race was still a Montreal race. Six months ago, it seemed construction would never catch up, but it has. It surpassed expectations, I guess you could say. At the height of construction, more than 41,000 people worked on Yas Island, logging more than 184 million hours to finish the project. The local Guggenheim and Louvre are to open in 2013, and I have no doubt someone will throw enough labor at them to see that the museums are built on time. ...........(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/property-vacancy-rates-in-uae-running-sky-high-2009-11-03