UAE: Dubai

In late 2011 Dubai’s real estate sector began to show solid signs of recovery, led mostly by the residential segment, which has benefitted from increasing demand and rising prices. In the first quarter of 2012 the sector posted growth of around 4%, making it the best performing real estate market globally for that period, as per the Knight Frank...

Towards late November 2012, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE vice-president, and prime minister and ruler of Dubai, announced a new mixed-use development, Mohammed bin Rashid City (MBR), which upon completion looks set to be the biggest such complex in the world. The plans feature a series of retail spaces (collectively known as the “Mall...

Despite the ongoing repercussions from the 2008-09 economic downturn, as a whole Dubai’s real estate sector has seen increased activity in recent years. Since the recovery began in late 2010 and early 2011, many of the emirate’s largest projects, a substantial number of which were put on hold in the years following the downturn, have been restarted...

While for many, Dubai might be synonymous with shopping malls, the traditional retail format – the souk – is holding up surprisingly well, although the winds of change mean that it has had to adapt to one of the most dynamic retail scenes in the world. Traditionally, the souk, meaning “market” in Arabic, consists of shops arranged along...

Since 2008 Dubai’s tourism sector has once again become a major economic contributor, following a downturn in the global economic crisis. In 2011 the industry attracted more than 9.3m tourists – up about 10% from the previous year – and contributed some 31% of the emirate’s total GDP, according to data from the Department of Tourism and Commerce...

New visa regulations designed to allow foreign visitors undergoing medical treatment to stay for up to nine months are expected to reinforce Dubai’s appeal as a health tourism destination, and are part of a plan to build further on an already-developed industry.