Realty check in Dubai

“Watch out!” I cried as a kitten walked uncertainly across a road in Dubai’s upscale Mirdiff suburb. My host didn’t seem too perturbed. “It’s one of the many pets that neighbours were forced to abandon when they left the country in a hurry,” he explained. Pets weren’t the only casualty of the sudden departures from Dubai. Bankers were hard put to find place for the cars they were calling back for non-payment of mortgage. But even they were lucky: Many thousands fleeing the country simply abandoned their cars at the airport because they hadn’t been able to keep up with the payments. Every couple of days, my nieces studying in an international school in Dubai would come back with tales of children who had to leave school overnight because their parents couldn’t afford to stay on in the country. Even six-year-olds in the park were familiar with the term “recession”.

What a comedown since autumn 2008, till when, according to some estimates, 20 per cent of the world’s construction cranes were deployed in Dubai. Ever since oil began to flow from the Umm Shaif offshore field in 1962, this tiny but immensely rich emirate had morphed into a world class metro. Until 2008, residential property in Dubai was on steroids, growing at an annual rate of 48 per cent, considered a safe investment for all of the world’s rich.