Property crash weighs on state

Dubai is showing signs of economic recovery but a dramatic domestic property crash and rising debt servicing needs will continue to weigh on the emirate for years to come, report Simeon Kerr and Robin Wigglesworth.

An oversupply of residential and, especially commercial, property is set to bedevil the real estate market, despite project cancellations and construction slowdowns.

"We are only a year into the real estate bubble bursting, and that will take three to five years to clear up," Georges Makhoul, Morgan Stanley's outgoing president for the Middle East and north Africa, told the Financial Times.