On Dubai’s manmade island of Palm Jumeirah, soaring laser beams signal the latest outsized construction project getting started. At 71 stories high and with 76 penthouses, Como Residences will be the archipelago’s highest structure — with the cheapest unit priced at 21 million dirhams ($5.7 million).
A short drive down the city’s main highway, Emirati tycoon Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor is starting work on a housing complex that’ll add more than 1,700 homes in a single development. It’s a trend on show just about everywhere in the emirate — builders revving their engines in what’s expected to be the strongest construction cycle since 2017.
Long known for sharp booms and busts, Dubai had one of its most dramatic downturns in 2008, when a debt fueled real estate crash left some of its biggest developers teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. The Arab Spring sweeping the Middle East revived the market in 2011 as capital from Arab nations sought safety in Dubai. But the tides quickly turned in 2014 as a collapse in oil prices sent the residential property market on a seven-year downturn.
This time round developers are hedging their bets more, demanding upfront payments covering most of the property even before construction begins. The cash coming in from wealthy investors around the world is giving the emirate’s real estate market a big cushion and reducing the need for debt — but it also leaves buyers holding more of the risk.
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