Meow

His words:

"Investors and owner-occupiers are worried about the regional situation and one of two things need to happen for transaction volumes to grow significantly: either people need to see that the path ahead in terms of oil prices, Yemen, ISIL and Iran are firmly under control, stabilised and predictable; or, rental yields need to grow to 'price in' the regional risk. Of course some investors are still buying and taking advantage of the lower prices. It’s likely that they will be the real beneficiaries of this slow down but that route isn't for everyone because most people value security above profit."

I was going to pull apart much of his arguments but I really can't be arsed. In my experience a significant proportion of buyers here are driven purely by greed and eagerly swallow the hype regarding property.

One of the main reasons a fall in property values won't be such an issue this/next time is due to the Central Bank lending limits although foolishly some people are taking out massive personal loans for deposits.

DXBtoDOH

There's no good inexpensive Chinese in Dubai. Why? Because of pork.

There's two decent Chinese restaurants in JLT, Homey and Star Lake. Definitely Chinese and not American Chinese or British Chinese or Indian Chinese. Lots of Chinese diners. But I have mixed feelings about the quality of the ingredients, especially the meat, used.

Real Chinese food based on what I've seen can be extremely....different. I've had some fantastic Chinese and HK is brilliant but I'd still take P F Changs over a lot of authentic Chinese any day.

Bahtatboy

I used to go to a few authentic Chinese restaurants in AD--few, if any, non-Chinese guests. Food was fantastic, and often extremely spicy. But I share your concerns about the ingredients, and probably the MSG. Worth risking occasionally, though.

Millhouse

The bit about rental yields growing in to reflect risk is actually quite right in my opinion. Rental yields here have been way to low for too long and did not reflect the risk in the region. A 6% yield on a UAE property isn't enough in my opinion. Of course, he has tried to spin this to say everything is OK.

Of course... the other way of agreeing about rental yields growing in is that the capital values should plummet 25%, and the rents drop 20%.

Millhouse

I refuse to eat Chin Chins too.

norsk

Chin Chins was our go to chinese takeaway until 2 years ago when we had a severely bad experience. We then changed to China Garden, but that also went downhill. The last few times we have ordered from Pei Wei which is owned by PF Changs, but seems less overpriced and awful.

Bahtatboy

Ahem.

miuser2

Not true, the China Sea in Deira is excellent and does not have a pork licence (more's the pity because if it did it would be outstanding.)

PF Changs serves muck though..

DXBtoDOH

Been there.

Half the menu is disgusting. Innards and chicken feet and tripe. I'll take PF Changs any day.

Weird smell inside the place. Never looks clean.

Zomato users gives it pretty poor reviews, averaging 2.8/5.

miuser2

Yes you're right it is a bit foreign alright.

Bahtatboy

It's not that Chinese eat bits of animals that you didn't know you could eat, it's that they eat bits of animals you didn't know animals had.

Actually that's a description of Korean cuisine, but it holds good for Chinese too.

Plus, Chinese only eat animals whose backs face the sun.

mikewot

A Korean restaurant also gives dog obedience lessons, they'll teach you how to walk (wok) your dog!

I'm here all week folks!

shiva

Far too sensible and far too much like an actual reflection of reality to happen here unfortunately

shiva

Sounds like a fairly real Chinese restaurant then

DXBtoDOH

Back on topic.

Went to that wankfest known as Cityscape today for a few hours.

Some impressive projects. The canal tops it all. Dubai Hills estate, a larger version of the Ranches by Emaar, is probably second most impressive.

One thing I noticed compared to the last time I went which was back in 08 is that there were far fewer consultancy firms represented. Almost all developers. And lots of Turkish ones.