www.dubaipropertycrash.com

While shepherds build their lofts by night

In a surprise move Sheikh Mohammed announced a renaming of the tower. It will now be known as the Burj Khalifa, after the president of the United Arab Emirates and emir of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahayan. Whether this move is a truly charitable and gracious act in honour of a neighbouring ruler, or whether Abu Dhabi in fact demanded this ultimate price in return for last month’s timely bailout of $10billion I guess we will never know. But if it is the latter then Dubai would have been in no place to argue. But what a price to pay!

Up to now the true height of the tower was kept secret – not that anyone in the world is in any rush right now to out-build them – and not that any reasonably skilled surveyor with good trigonometry skills couldn’t calculate it without too much bother. Unofficially the figure of 818 metres was being mentioned across the web. Today however the actual height has been released at 828m (2,716ft) which makes it 320m higher than its nearest rival, the Taipei 101.

So for those who have missed the stats….where have you been!! But seriously though here they are:

This truly is a monument to the ingenuity and optimism of human beings, though undoubtedly it also epitomizes the folly of extreme human pride and ego. Personally I think its pretty cool and who knows, if I had that much money perhaps I’d have wanted to build one too. Congrats to you Sheikh Mohammed on the achievement. A pity you had to give away the name.

Of course we can’t condone the use of virtual slave labour to get the job done – but hey aren’t all truly great monuments built on the back of slaves?! The Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, and now the Burj Khalifa.

Does this new kid on the block (or should that be new Block on the Block) herald a turn around in the fortunes of Dubai? Well after the 50% price dive of 2009 the omens remain poor for the time being. Remember that 90% of the population are expats and half of the whole work force is real-estate and construction based (according to Mr Saud Masud, an analyst at UBS Dubai.)

As outflows of these expats continue, he estimates a drop of 10% in Dubai’s population over the 2 years from start 2009 to end 2010. This will decrease the demand for housing, while over the same period new handovers of approx 40,000 new units will accentuate the over supply problem. The excess supply of housing could hit 30% by the end of 2010.

This does not bode well in the near term for any recovery in property values, although long term Dubai will no doubt survive as an important business hub in the Middle East, albeit one that’s had its wings clipped and some lessons in humility doled out by the spadeful.

On another note we came across an interesting subject about the Islamic view about building extravagantly on this website: http://islamqa.com/en/ref/101903

The author says:

“The Muslim should not make this world his main concern, and poverty is not what the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) feared for his followers, rather he feared that the world would open up to them and they would compete in worldly gain, for that could lead to their doom and destruction.”

It was narrated that ‘Amr ibn ‘Awf (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “By Allah, it is not poverty that I fear for you, rather what I fear for you is that worldly riches may be given to you as they were given to those who came before you, and you will compete for them with one another as they competed with one another, and you will be destroyed as they were destroyed.”
Narrated by al-Bukhaari (2988) and Muslim (2961).

He goes on to say:

“We know that there is no reward in building a house per se, otherwise the rich who build palaces for millions would occupy the highest degrees of Paradise! The dinar that a Muslim spends on building his house will not be reciprocated in the Hereafter. A man may be free of sin, and if he is rewarded it will be only for his intention in protecting his family and household from indignity, and sheltering them in a house that protects their dignity and honour. But there is no reward merely for building a house, and he may be exposed to sin and punishment if he is extravagant and his aim is to show off and boast.”

The author also quotes the following from the sayings of The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him):

It is proven in Saheeh Muslim in the hadeeth of ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab (may Allaah have mercy on him) that when Angel Jibreel (Gabriel) asked the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) about the signs of the Day of Judgment approaching he said : “When you see the barefoot, naked, destitute shepherds competing in the construction of lofty buildings.” Ibn Rajab said, commenting on this hadeeth: What is meant is that the lowest of the people will become their leaders, and their wealth will increase, until they compete in building tall buildings, and adorning them. Al-Nawawi mentioned the same meaning in Sharh Saheeh Muslim, where he discussed this hadeeth.