Investors and expats return to #Dubai’s housing market | Financial Times

Investors and expats return to Dubai’s housing market | Financial Times

Returning to Dubai in July, Calvin Lee Campbell, who works in events, found an industry — and a city — getting back on its feet. “Live events are happening again,” he says. “Our company is hiring, our team is growing, and there are loads of opportunities to pitch for work.” 

It is a far cry from last June, when he lost his job and had to return, in September, to his native South Africa. “Our whole pipeline got cancelled,” he says. “All RFPs [request for proposals] were cancelled or postponed: most of the events fell away completely.” 

The pandemic hit the economy hard in Dubai. Tourism accounts for about 11.5 per cent of Dubai’s GDP, compared with a Middle East average of 8.9 per cent, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. 

Overnight visitors to Dubai fell from 16.7m in 2019 to 5.5m in 2020, according to government figures. Widespread lay-offs saw a number of expats, who comprise 92 per cent of Dubai’s population, according to Standard & Poor’s, and on whose labour the country relies, return home. S&P estimates that Dubai’s population fell 8.4 per cent last year. (According to government data, the population grew by 1.6 per cent. The Dubai government did not respond to requests for comment by FT.)