A little more than 20 years ago, Dubai was an arid desert outpost on the shores of the Persian Gulf.
Today, world famous architecture rises high above the city’s streets, vast columns of cars roar along highways that reach out to its ever expanding suburbs while offices for some of the world’s largest firms populate the flash new business district downtown.
It has been a truly remarkable transformation in such a short space of time.
The next stage of Dubai’s development will see it host the World Expo in 2020, an event that has added a further dose of fuel to the booming construction sector that has made these changes possible.
Residential and commercial property prices are on the rise as a result — but so are fears of a property collapse like that of 2009 which resulted in Dubai being bailed out by neighboring Abu Dhabi.
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Dubai, the remarkable city that rose from the desert sands, is known for its “build it and they will come” philosophy.
It will hope, however, that it won’t have to add to the postscript of this charmingly optimistic phrase “but only if you can afford it.”
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