Dubai’s Sand Castles

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.”

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Source: Time

Posted by Posted in: General Stuff No Comments » June 2009

Property Development Eyesore

Currently if you live in Perth you cant miss the amount of construction taking place in the city due to the booming economy. This is all on the back of the mining industry and has spawned development in the city on a massive scale. Living in the city is great and in my local area of East Perth the construction is mad. There are apartments going up all over the place on nearly every street and we even have a new fire station being built close by.

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Posted by Mark Griffin Posted in: Griffs View No Comments » June 2008