访谈录 2008-10-19&10-21 迪拜疯了

Welcome to our property launch, Middle East style, no signs of foreclosures here, instead, alien singers, and celebrity 1 endorsements 2.

"Well, I'm looking forward to trying it.”

This is a party held by the developer Select Group. It’s launching its latest project, the 1.5-billion-dollar Aquitanian development on Dubai's man-made world islands. An ambitious project as the credit crunch 3 threatens the property market in the rest of the world.

You know I would be bold enough to say I don’t think the credit crunch is gonna affect Dubai.

Even with all the glitz and glamour 4 there's no disguising the facts. The region’s main stock markets have lost half their value this year. The central banks in the Gulf 5 stepped in to assure investors 6 that there's plenty of liquidity 7 in the markets. And reports point to a 10 to 15% property price correction in the next year.

But that wasn’t the message conveyed at this year’s cityscape. The grand scale of the event was meant to scare off any market doubters.

For years there has been speculation 8 that the property bubble in the Gulf is going to burst. If that’s the case, it’s certainly not evident here.

From the announcement of a 95-billion-dollar city development to Dubai’s plans to break its own record and build the world’s next tallest tower, each company is outdoing the other, dishing out millions on the displays alone.

Companies spend up to seven or eight million dollars just on the design and (of their) at the build of their booth, and which is pretty unheard of, in an attempt to try to attract globally. But I think it captures again the essence of what’s happening here and the lengths of people are willing to go to, to attract that kind of investment right now.

Saraya Holdings believes that while it is a time to cautious, there are also plenty of opportunities.

We have concern, people are always emotional. You know, if you look at the stocks that have gone down in value, their profitability has not gone down. It is just an emotional say as a result of what’s going on in the rest of the world. What we see here is an opportunity for people to buy as well, you know. I would see that there are certain projects, you know, in the US or in Europe. Well, it’s an opportunity to buy them on, at, you know, steep discounts.

Egypt Sodic 9 is developing two major city centers outside Cairo. They say the financial structure of their deals means they are not under pressure from the lending crisis.

Mortgages only represent 2% of Egypt’s GDP, we are actually quite, a cash-rich company, we have very little debt. We are sitting on a lot of, actually cash receivables. So we are in a very healthy position to actually ride the storm if, if, you know, if it does expand to this region.

With job losses on Wall Street and Europe, hundreds are moving to the regions in search of work, but even with steady demand and prospects 10 of strong growth, this cash-rich region isn’t completely immune to the global credit crunch.