captainflack

Not sure I'd choose south africa, the chance of getting shot in the face is probably almost as high as getting killed in a collision with an angry arab in a landcruiser on SZR. But plenty of other nice places you could buy a palace for a million dollars.

The real worry with buying in Dubai, aside from whether it's worth it, is whether the 'freehold' you have even really exists. They could cancel it tomorrow if they chose, that's the nature of absolute rule. Places with established legal systems, property regimes, laws, parliaments, etc. are far safer, if offering slightly less casino-style excitement.

Millhouse

He is south African

captainflack

Not wholly, but overwhelmingly dependent. It is no coincidence that the property bubbles and crashes corresponded very closely to the oil market.

I am not sure the UAE has made much good investment to diversify its economy. It strikes me as another Nauru. Lots of vanity investments, e.g. premiership football teams, F1, prestige car makers, and a general avoidance of less glamouress, but profitable businesses.

It has a good position as a hub for flights to india, china and the far east, and has invested heavily in planes and airports, but that relies on landing slots in the EU which I suspect will be maintained only while they continue to buy billions of dollars worth of airplanes. Once that income dries up, it'll be the EU airlines shouting loudest, and there will be economic and environmental arguments for cutting the UAE out of much of the European market in favour of direct flights to India, China and the far east. They don't have a lot of bargaining power once they stop buying EU planes.

They haven't invested well in their people either, 50 odd years of oil, and the locals still cannot run the engineering or construction themselves, just push worthless paper around desks pretending to be busy while hiring foreigners to do anything requiring a brain. It's not singapore or HK in that respect.

Millhouse

spot on - and let's not forget that many of the tourists here are from the region too. KSA has just declared a massive public sector pay-cut. Why come to expensive dubai when you can go to cheap Thailand for your whoring.

captainflack

I'm not sure that makes getting shot in the face any less problematic. I know a few SA guys, couple of them said it took them a few months here to not feel nervous getting out of their car in the car park and walking to the supermarket while unarmed.

I guess like many places it depends on where you are. My mrs is from brazil and we looked at some houses in Natal on the east coast there. The agents proudly pointed out the 10ft high walls and electric fences with some pride. That scared the hell out of us though, didn't really fancy the kids playing in a garden that feels like the exercise yard at Sing Sing.

Inselaffen

Surely one of the biggest earners for Dubai is Emirates. and that benefits from low oil prices

scrubbedexpat141

...and appears to be shedding staff....